It has only been a few weeks, but it feels like it has been months. Long plane flight into Cape Town. All my luggage made it, which was a total bonus. The hostel was really nice. Signed up to go great white shark cage diving the next morning, as they said the weather was going to be getting bad and they may not be going back out for several days. Headed to Gansbaai to meet up with the boat. It was pretty amazing! I didn't get as much cage time as I wanted since the weather started getting too bad to stay out, but even sitting on the boat deck and watching them come up and chomp around is pretty good. I didn't get many pictures, but hope to have a few good ones.
Back to Cape Town, I checked out the District Six museum and Robben Island to see Nelson Mandela's cell. Also went to Stellenbosch Gardens, the World of Birds where I made me a few little squirrel monkey friends in their monkey jungle and went on an impromptu Township tour. Cape Town is pretty, but I really actually hated it. It is sterile and touristy and something about it doesn't feel right (above the obvious racial issues and massive disparity of wealth).
So I took off and headed to Durban. It is a relatively cool city. Lots of yummy Indian food to be had. There is this thing called Bunny Chow, which is a hollowed out loaf of bread full of curry and it is delicious! I had heard there were whale sharks swimming around between Durban and Mapatu, Mozambique. But the weather sucked, so I didn't get to do any diving. I did get to go to the aquarium, which was pretty nice. Also met a very nice man in the hostel who helped me out and gave me the contact info for him and his wife, should anything happen along the way. They live in Johannesburg, so I would just have to fly back there. They also invited me on their Christmas holiday in Mossel Bay with the family, in case I get lonely. Good to have a back up plan. Oh, the only bad thing that happened in Durban was the first night, I had no hotel and got talked into going to this bed and breakfast. Turned out to just be this woman's house and I was the only guest. Although she was really, really sweet, it was way far from the city, the price was not what was agreed upon, and she left me stuck in her house with no phone to call a cab or anything for several hours when she went to pray. At least a colorful lizard hung out with me in her backyard while I waited. Left Durban and bussed into Johannesburg. I instantly liked the city. I know it is dangerous, but it had the gritty feel like cities are SUPPOSE to have. People hawking stuff on the streets, noise and buzz. It may have also helped my opinion that my hostel had a bar WITH A JACUZZI IN IT. Oh, and a bar that had adult beverages with a hot tub AND a pool table....awesome! And even better, I got to watch South Africa win their playoff game to get into the Rugby Championship game. Man, people went nuts and was privy to one of the largest street parties I have EVER seen!
Yesterday, I caught the bus to Botswana through Gaborone. The bus ride was very beautiful... flat land spotted with trees and occasional mountains. Saw several rainbows and then at night, you could see strikes of lightening, a bagazillion miles away. Last night kind of sucked, as it was another late bus. By the time we all walked across the border, I found myself without a hotel. Oh, and no money since they use Pulas and I forgot to change my Rands at the border. Strange taxi driver who took me to some sketch ATM, which didn't work with the card I had in my pocket. My credit card was buried in my bag and I didn't want to pull it out. He kept insisting that it should work and wanted me to "give him the card to try for me". Uh, whole bag of NO. I just told him that if the cab ride was 30 pulas, I would give him 60 rand instead to just get me to a hotel. He agreed and took me to some random place that wasn't on my list, so I insisted he take me to one on my list. After about 40 minutes of all of this, I get to where I want to be and check in. When we go to get my backpack out of the taxi, we realize he has locked his keys (and my bag) in the car. So we then get to hang out and wait another half hour for his brother to bring the spare keys. Oh, good times. TIA (This Is Africa).After all this, I have finally realized that not having a cell phone is a real issue here. It means I can't call ahead to book hostels and arrange transport and stuff. So I just picked up a phone. If any one is itching to chat, my new number is 00-267-74-39-4510. You should probably check in to calling cards for cheap rates to Botswana numbers. I think that number works in each country and I just buy new SIM cards or something. But I really have no idea how it works.
Anyway, the plan is to head from here to Maun and try to get in on a mokoro boat tour of the Okavango Delta. May pop into Namibia to see Sossusvlei since I heard it will be a full moon, if I can figure out how to do it without hitching (If I knew how to drive, this trip would be WAY less stressful...except the driving on the wrong side of the street and carjacking thing). Going to try to find a way through the Chobe National Park to get to Vic Falls on the Zambian side. But tours are expensive, so we will see. Although I just went and talked to the Zambian embassy and they are trying to get me to give them $100 for a visa when I was told it should be no more than $40. She kept claiming it was good for five years, and I kept trying to tell her that that really does nothing for me for about 4 years and 50-odd months.
Anyhoo, I am still alive and well (although sometimes frustrated or irritated... Gee, what's new?!!). Hope you are well.
Love,
Betsy
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