Peace Corps Address

Joe's cell #
602-663-4353

Ashley's cell #
602-717-7071

Monday, April 5, 2010

Nhkata Bay to Capetown

Today I am in Capetown, South Africa, which lies at the southern most tip of the African continent. It is a beautiful city and has allowed Ashley and I to feel almost like we are in America, which we have not felt in almost two years. I think that Capetown is like San Francisco with an African twist, it has coffee shops, wine bars, beautiful ocean views, delicious food, street artists, live music and so much more. Tomorrow we have a flight that leaves for Accra, Ghana from which we will embark on an overland voyage back to our village (this could take anywhere from three days to a week). We are sad that our trip is over.For the last ten days we have been traveling South Africa and having an amazing time with our friends Kristen and Shelli who came from the states to safari with us. We rented a car and drove from the northern end of South Africa to Capetown at the southern tip. We saw elephants, giraffes, ate sushi, I drove on the left side of the road but on the right side of the car, we laughed a ton, took one million pictures, laughed more, ate ice cream bars everyday (Magnum bars), drank fountain soda, and ate at McDonald's more than once (please don't judge us).




The Cape penguins near Simons Town.

Ashley and I on a scenic drive near Capetown.


Capetown harbor at sunset.



Ashley staring down an eel at the aquarium in Capetown.

Getting ready to leave in the morning from Jeffreys Bay, a little town on the Indian Ocean that hosts the Billabong World Surfing championship each winter.




Kruger National Park was amazing. We saw herds of elephants, tons of giraffes, zebras, wildebeests, cape buffalo, a hyena and her babies, ostrich, tons of hippos, crazy looking birds, an alligator, tortoises, lions, monkeys and baboons...etc. I would say it was a successful safari. I would like to mention that there is nothing more exhausting than driving around for twelve hours a day looking at giant African mammals.

Some of the photos we took in Kruger:


That's beautiful.



We could not get this hippo out of the water.




We needed to stretch our legs from a long morning of safariing.



The first rule of driving through national parks that have man eating animals is don't get out of your car...Kristen and Shelli would not listen to reason. You can see a male elephant in the distance.


This is the appropriate place for an amy martin joke:


Why did the elephants cross the road? Eleph I know!


love the color.




A giraffe in the rain.





Baboon with baby, now that is cute.





Whart Hog.




Babies feeding.





Chameleon crossing the path.




King of the jungle.



In between our scuba diving coasrse at Nhkata Bay, Malawi and meeting up with Kristen and Shelli in Johannesburg, South Africa. Ashley and I spent 6 days traveling down through Mozambique where we had a chance to enjoy the beaches and even got in one dive in Tofu which has some wonderful warm water and beautiful ocean creatures to view.





The beach at Inhassoro, Mozambique. Our first time on the Indian Ocean.




Ashley beside our hut at Fatimas Nest in Tofu, Mozambique just after our first salt water dive.




Getting ready to scuba dive in Lake Malawi.


Buying chocolate ice milk on the boarder of Burkina Faso and Ghana.

Buying pineapples in Ouagadougou, Burkin Faso