Cape Town to Cairo!

And we're off!


Today marks the start of my 16 week overland trip from Cape Town, South Africa to Cairo, Egypt! 16 weeks of traveling on a truck, pitching a tent, and camping every night. (!!!)


We loaded the truck and then set off from Cape Town at 8am this morning. First stop: Stellenbosch. I had been to Stellenbosch before, but I don't remember it being this amazingly beautiful!


We visited wineries in Franschhoek and Paarl and I ended up buying 9 bottles of wine. I couldn't say no! I spent $43 in total and they were very nice wines! (I wanted to send some home, but the wineries we visited either didn't ship to the U.S. or I was warned that shipments never made it...)

So here I go! We have a four hour drive in South Africa tomorrow and then we'll cross into Namibia where I think I'll end up celebrating my 25th birthday!

Ostrich Encounters

It was a long, long journey from Drakensberg to Oudtshoorn, but I made it! I had to take a two-hour shuttle from Drakensberg to Pietermaritzburg, a nine-hour Greyhound bus from Pietermaritzburg to Bloemfontein, and then another nine-hour Greyhound bus from Bloemfontein to Oudtshoorn. It was mostly okay except that last bus had a lot of old and gassy people on it. Not only did it smell, but the gentleman behind me had very long legs so it felt like his knees were poking into my back the entire time! (It was a fairly traumatic experience…) I Did meet a nice girl on the bus and I ended up staying with her at a hostel owned by her friend/father. (She told me he was her friend; He told me he was her father...) I was going to stay at a bigger/more commercial hostel, but I got my own room here, and at a dorm price (~$15)!
First day in Oudtshoorn was dedicated to the Cango Caves and an ostrich farm.


The caves were very cool and supposedly house the biggest stalagmite and stalactite formations in the world. I did the "adventure tour" which basically means you get to crawl/wriggle through some very tiny crevices. The ostrich farm afterwards was a lot of fun, and mostly because these birds are super scary.


Right before I rode one, they told us how an ostrich can kill you and slice you open from head to toe with its big toe! Mom, Theo, and Stacy seem to have enjoyed the video of me riding an ostrich so if you are interested: http://www.sendspace.com/file/06jxmq . This is a link where you can watch a video of me terrified and screaming my head off =) I got revenge that night and ate the ostrich’s brother for dinner: Ostrich kebabs and ostrich sausage. It was really good! Ostrich is just a nice, lean meat that does not taste game-y at all!

**The tour guide suggested that the lion might be gay because he hasn't made a move on the lioness in weeks :)

I also visited a wildlife ranch and ate some really amazing Uncle Barry’s ice cream in Oudtshoorn. But apart from the main touristy things to do, the town itself wasn’t terribly exciting. I would probably skip it in the future unless you have a burning desire to let an ostrich scare you.

Kimberley is Annoying

When I met the Archbishop Desmond Tutu four years ago, I introduced myself and the first thing he said to me was this: "Kimberley...that's where the diamonds are from." A couple years later, I found out Kimberley had a big hole and I became determined to visit this city. Kimberley, however, is annoyingly and even impossibly hard to get to depending on the day so I am skipping it! Hmpfh!

A Little Lesotho

We went up the Sani Pass, got stamps at the South African and Lesotho borders, and then drove to Black Mountain. Even though it was very cold and windy, we had lunch on top with a view of the mountains below us. While we were eating, two shepherds came up to the group and one of them, with a makeshift guitar, started playing and singing for us. He seemed so happy to be playing - I liked it very much. Some people shared their lunch with him but I had eaten mine already.


After Black Mountain, we visited a Basotho village. (The people of Lesotho are called Basotho (plural) and Mosotho (singular).


A Mosotho woman invited us into her hut and shared bread and homemade beer with us. To gain entry into a hut, you say "koo-koo" --kind of like you'd say "knock-knock"--because there are no doorbells or hard surfaces to knock on. There is no running water or electricity and wood is very expensive, so cow dung is used for heating.


She gave us some fresh-baked bread that was cooked in a pot over cow dung. Incidentally, the pot also had cow dung on top of it - to heat the top of the bread like coals would, I think. Thankfully the bread had no traces of cow dung and was actually really good. We tried her homemade beer; it was okay. It was the color of milk, grainy in consistency, and tasted a bit sour.

Next stop was the "highest pub in Africa" where I tried a Maluti - local beer made in Lesotho. It was hoppier than I would have liked and it made me wish I'd gotten gluwein instead. Apparently, the highest pub in Africa, at 3800+ meters, specializes in gluwein. How random =)


And that was my experience of Lesotho (pronounced Leh-soo-too in Southern Africa). After the pub, we got our exit/entry stamps again and then went back down the Sani Pass past/through those gorgeous mountains.

Dragon Mountain

(Draken = Dragon; Berg = Mountain.) So I'm separating this post from Lesotho only because there are a bunch of pictures I wanted to post! I took a trip up the Sani Pass in Drakensberg which weaves through some amazing scenery: Rolling green hills, mountains, waterfalls, etc. The Sani Pass is the only way to get into Lesotho from Natal in South Africa. The roads are rough and often get washed out because of the rain/snow; a 4x4 is a must. If you pass the South African border in a regular vehicle, they will make you turn around. Interestingly enough, if you get to the Lesotho border, they'll let you pass in a regular vehicle (just so that they don't have to be responsible for you). (The South African and Lesotho borders have 8km of rough, un-paved no-mans land between them.)

I started the trip a bit grumpy because the Sani Lodge (where I was staying) basically sucked. It took me 30 minutes to buy milk and butter from their general store; I was in a 15-bed dorm that had lots of spiders and other creepy bugs; there was one bathroom/shower combo for the 15 of us; I had to switch rooms in the middle of my stay... the hits just kept on coming! We had two 4x4s going up the Sani Pass and we were an hour delayed the morning of the trip because one of the trucks had engine trouble. Even though I got to the truck early to stake out a seat by the window, I was asked to move to the other truck. I got stuck in the front between the driver and another person, and with the gear shift between my legs. We were going slow, the roads were rough, and we were stopping a lot = lots of shifting and discomfort. :/ We were also driving behind the other truck (with the windows open) and thus breathing in all the exhaust and fumes from both our cars.

(the 13 apostles)

But after a quick attitude check, I let the beauty of the Drakensberg mountains and the Sani Pass come over me. It was really quite breathtaking and amazing to see. I saw Southern Drakensberg and in the future, I would love to come back to see Central and Northern Drakensberg - apparently it gets even prettier!

(spot the 4x4 for some perspective...)

Durbs

Mom was asking me about having to take the "unsafe" option from Swaziland to Durban. This is what happened with that: So I was originally waiting in Swaziland for the shuttle that would take me from the Southern Cross Lodge to the next hostel in Durban because I was warned that otherwise, I could get dropped off on the street without any conception of wear to go or what to do next. That’s pretty much exactly what happened…. That morning, I took a taxi to Manzini (Swaziland), waited for a kombi to fill up with people wanting to go to Durban, obtained exit and entry stamps, and finally got dropped off on a random street in Durban. I was told it was the main bus terminal but it certainly didn’t look like it. There were people selling stuff on the street and lots of kombis stopping to pick up passengers; it wasn’t a normal “bus station” like I’m used to. I needed to make a phone call to arrange a pickup but, as I had been warned, there were no pay phones in sight. A woman on the kombi from Swaziland was concerned about me and helped me find a phone. Unexpectedly, some of the people selling stuff on the street had phones on their tables… not for sale like one might think at first glance, but actually there so that people can pay to make calls. How interesting!

I contacted Smith’s Cottage and was told to wait in front of the main entrance – someone would be by to pick me up in a white kombi in about ten minutes. Sounds good! The nice Swazi girl left and I stood there waiting. I was standing there with my big backpack looking at every white kombi, and definitely “sticking out like a sore thumb.” I was mostly okay, but some guys were obnoxious – one in particular kept asking for my phone number and wouldn’t go away even though I told him I didn’t have a phone! Half an hour later, I’m getting worried and a bit frustrated so I called the cottage again. The woman on the other end tells me that Keith came to pick me up and didn’t see me. She tells me to wait by the phone for Keith to call. We talk and I tell him exactly where I am. He then says to me, “You’re not at the main bus terminal. It’s not a safe area.” (Great, thanks!) A little more apprehensive now, I waited for Keith to find me. (He eventually did and everything was fine!)

Apart from the rough start (that I’ve sort of become accustomed to…), I really enjoyed my time in Durban. I planned, initially, to only stay a day to visit the U.S. consulate and eat some bunny chow; I ended up staying five days! (Bunny chow, btw, is pretty unique to Durban: It’s basically a big hunk of bread where the middle part is torn out and replaced with chicken, beef, fish, or lamb curry. It's good!)


My first (full) day in Durban was one of the best days ever! I got pages added to my passport with only minimal waiting. And, Keith waited with me so that he could take my passport back to the cottage for safekeeping. So nice! The rest of the day: I got a view of the city from the Royal Hotel… I tried an awesome bunny chow… I shopped at the market and bought a ring made from elephant hair… I walked a few kilometers on super soft sand along the beach… I visited the uShaka Marine World… I ate at a really amazing buffet with a stir-fry that tastes like Teppan(!)… I played blackjack and doubled and a halfed my money (!)… and then I watched the best movie I’ve seen in a long time, and for $3! (Judy! Aster! Everyone!! Go watch Water for Elephants!) I finished the day skype-ing with Mom and Theo <3 It really was a perfect day where it felt like everything was going my way =)


Keith took me diving the next day at Aliwal Shoal – supposedly one of the top dive spots in the world. I was a bit intimidated at first because everyone seemed like a pro, but once we were all in the water I was just fine. You take a zodiac from shore to the dive spot and we spent about 30 minutes navigating through the waves that were close to shore. Apparently, a lot of boats get tossed over in this area so you have to weave back and forth through the waves until you can actually speed up and get to the reef. I was gripping the ropes very tightly--a bit terrified actually--because ever since I got capsized three times on a sailboat, I have become very afraid of falling into the water. (Thanks Jojo!) Visibility wasn’t the best the day I dove, but we got to see two sea turtles, a dolphin, a huge potato bass, stingrays, and tons of fish (pineapple fish, angelfish, wrasse, etc…). You can do a dive where they chum the water so the sharks come… something I definitely want to do in the future =)


*Okay, I admit this was taken at the aquarium, but I swear this is exactly what it looked like!

Random: Food in Durban is awesome! I had Indian food five times! And, young guys weren’t as obnoxious as they were in Swaziland. I still got called out to, but no more than in Berkeley or Oakland. People were generally friendly and very nice. I think what really made it a great few days though was my stay at Smith’s Cottage. Stay there if you go to Durban! Keith and Pat are a couple in their sixties and they run the cottage. Their son, his wife, and their two kids live there as well. They made me feel like I was part of the family for the few days I was there. As an example, I had lunch one afternoon with Keith, Pat, and their granddaughter at the beach club they are members of. Parts of it felt like I was watching a British sitcom because the way they all interacted with each other was just so fun (and funny) to watch. =)They were very nice people who were really good to me and I was definitely a little sad to leave when Pat and Keith hugged me goodbye…

Next up: Drakensberg, the Sani Pass, and Lesotho!
Follow up: Finally have decent Internet and I've added a few pictures to the Swaziland post =)

Bananas

When leaving Swaziland, the kombi pulled up to a border stop so that everyone could get their Swazi exit stamps. From there, we walked past a gate, down a road, and into another building to get our South African entry stamps. Next, we went through another gate to wait by the side of the road for the kombi to clear customs. It was taking a while and so a woman said to me, “You had the big bag right? Maybe they want to search your bag.” So I walk back to the customs point and the guard says to me, “Are they your bananas?” I say no. He says “The owner of the bananas must claim them and eat them.” I go back to the group and tell a Swazi girl what the customs official tells me. She tells everyone else and then half the group starts walking back to the customs point. I join them. One woman claims a plastic bag with bananas in it. She and her partner start eating them. But there’s another offending bag of bananas in the van! Another woman comes up and claims them. The agricultural inspector says to her “You must not waste food; you must eat them.” She hands out bananas to some of the people standing around. We are not allowed to leave the customs point until the bananas are finished! lol I only wish I had a picture of the group of us standing around at customs, eating bananas.

This, btw, is a kombi and the Moses Mabhida stadium in Durban:

Sawubona, Kunjani?!

(Hello, How are you?) (in siSwathi, one of the official languages of the Swazi Kingdom).

So I have mixed feelings about Swaziland. At first, I was really happy to be there. I took this wonderful TransMagnific shuttle from Joburg to Mbabane (pronounced mm-bah-bah-nee), the capital of Swaziland, and from there, a taxi took me to the Southern Cross Lodge. The owners spent about an hour with me just telling me what there is to see and do in Swaziland. :)

I spent the first day getting used to “the real Africa.” First step: kombi ride to Manzini. A kombi is the most common way for locals to get around. It’s recognized as a collective taxi service and it stops and picks up people on the way. It’s basically a white shuttle van that stops frequently and gets as packed as possible with people going in the same general direction. Music ranging from gospel to ghetto rap blasting from the kombi is also a must. It is similar to a chicken bus and, in fact, on one of my kombi rides, a lady sat down and placed a bag next to her on the floor; there was a (live) chicken in the bag. That day, I got dropped off at the very hectic Manzini bus rank and made my way to an Internet café. I was in Manzini originally to visit the Manzini craft market and chose well in asking a young lady for directions. She ended up accompanying me to the market and helped me buy a necklace and traditional Swazi cloth. We spent the rest of the afternoon together at the mall and at KFC. This was a good day.

(Mantenga Cultural Village)


I was staying in the Ezulwini Valley, a center from which you can access many points of interest in the city. Ezulwini means Heaven so I was in the Valley of Heaven; it was a really beautiful area surrounded by lush, green hills and mountains.


In the days I spent there, I was able to visit the Mantenga cultural village and waterfall, the Swazi candles store (famous for its candle exports), Gone Rural (a shop that makes hand-woven products whose proceeds benefit the 700 women working on these crafts and also some charities of their choosing), House on Fire (a discotec known for its architecture), the Cuddle Puddle Hot Springs, and other not-so-noteworthy places. I liked that Swaziland was safe and that I could even go for a run (before dark of course) if I wanted to. (I did run one of the evenings.)

(Swazi Candles)

That was the good, now for the bad: Swaziland was very irritating. Getting to and from Swaziland has become difficult (via public transportation) because as of April 1, the backpacker hop-on-hop-off Baz Bus stopped service into Swaziland. It was difficult to find a way into Swaziland and even more difficult to find a way out. 1st Zulu Safaris was trying to replace the Baz Bus and was supposed to take me from the lodge to another hostel in Durban, South Africa. This was the “safe” option I mentioned in my last post. They are super inconvenient and only run once a week which is why I was stuck waiting for it. I found out part way through my stay though that they would not be running the week I wanted to go because there weren’t enough people signed up. So, I had to take the “less safe” option that I had been talked out of in the first place!

Swaziland is also irritating because I just generally felt stuck. The closest place was 3km away but most places were further than that. Minimum walking anywhere was 1km and then your choices are waiting by the side of the road (for a kombi)--and getting harassed by people you don’t want to talk to--or walking. Normally I don’t mind walking, even if it is 3 miles to get to the next place, but it was raining every day I was there. The roads were wet and there was little-to-no designated walking spaces for pedestrians. So I was getting splashed by cars and basically walking in a road where people were driving 120km/hr past me. I hated it! I would never walk on the side of the freeway in the states so why the hell was I doing it here?! I got so grumpy on Day 3 that I was just fed up with Swaziland. Annoyed about the transport situation… annoyed about having no Internet at the lodge…annoyed about having to walk everywhere… annoyed that every time I stopped for more than one minute, some guy would start talking to me. Ugh! I left as soon as I got confirmation that the “safe” transport wasn’t coming.

(Anyway, I arrived in Durban and it was wonderful! Love that city! I will post about it in a few days. Currently in Southern Drakensburg (just got in a few minutes ago) and going into Lesotho via the Sani Pass.) I meant what I said in the beginning of the post though, Hello, How are you?! Hope everyone is doing well back home and enjoying Easter weekend. Big, big hug to Joanne - I will get started on the cookies :)

Joburg

15 Observations/Mini-Stories:

- MoAfrika lodge is awesome! If you visit Joburg, definitely stay there... great tours, great people, great beds, great food, and great big glasses of wine!

- Food is cheap! You can get some really amazing meals for under $10. I had a big portion of fish and chips from the mall for $4!

- Traveling by yourself, however, is not cheap! If another person had not signed up to go, I would not have been able to do a tour to Pretoria because of the cost. It was basically twice as much on my own!

- Gauteng Radio station YFM 99.2 does this really cool 2-minute "Who's Who" spread that gives you the good and bad about certain people. I got some really cool information about Jacob Zuma.

- Pretoria is the official capital; it is well-kept and quite lovely. However, Johannesburg is considered by many to be the actual capital; it's where the wealth of the country is concentrated, but also a city that has trash everywhere and so Not a city you want to hang out in.

- Speaking of wealth, I haven't seen so many audis and beamers since I moved out of Silicon Valley...

- I was scared of every bathroom I went into. (see below)

- I felt safer in Soweto than I did in Johannesburg city. Supposedly, people don't commit crimes in their own town for fear of "township justice," and instead commit the crimes in neighboring Johannesburg, which is part of what makes it so unsafe.

- Typical township food is shebeen, basically a barbecue with typical accompaniments. We got to try it at Mdu's (our guide's) favorite neighborhood spot in Soweto and had really delicious chicken and boerewors (beef sausage) with pap and chakalaka. Yum! Thankfully, we didn't have to choke down any Bantu Beer - traditional African beer that is the color of coffee with cream. Yuck! (I had had it in Khayelitsha, a township in Cape Town... it's so bad that it would make Bud Light taste amazing even to beer snobs :))

- Apartheid is over, but racism still exists... so too do divisions between black, white, and coloured. Soweto, for example, consists of a majority of black townships, three coloured townships, one indian township, and no white residents.

- I asked Mdu how Asian people were classified in the White-Coloured-Black spectrum: He considered them as Black during Apartheid (and maybe even now...).

- Now, it is fashionable to engage in interracial dating in South Africa.

- In downtown Joburg, I played "spot the white person" because there are just no white people walking around the streets! Our guide said it was something like 1 white in 100 blacks. White people may have to work in the city, but they live in the suburbs outside of it.

- A house in the expensive area of Soweto starts at 650,000 Rand (<$100,000). A house in the middle class area--of formerly government housing--sells starting around 140,000 Rand. Houses are available in the rich area, and very difficult to obtain in the middle-class area. Mdu rents a room in the middle-class area for 500 Rand a month.

- The Apartheid Museum randomly designates each entrant as "white" or "non-white" and makes people go through separate entrances based on their designation. The museum is very moving and definitely a must-visit in Joburg.

So I had a very nice and relaxing time in Joburg and am happy to report that I spent the last four days there without incident. Still, Johannesburg scares me, like really really scares me. I think I've been scared of it since I first came to South Africa in 2007, when I had heard from multiple people that you are almost guaranteed to get robbed or attacked there. I can't shake the disquietude I feel associated with the city and researching Joburg before i got there definitely made it worse. When you look at the Wikitravel page for Johannesburg, it tells you that South Africa is the rape capital of the world. Talking to people, you hear horrible stories about women getting attacked at knife point in restrooms or how women are not required to stop at traffic lights at night because of the likelihood of getting attacked.

I really hate it. I hate it when people scare you about a place to the point where all you think about is the ways in which you are vulnerable. I hate being reminded of the fact that I am especially vulnerable as a woman traveling by herself! I can't shake some of the fear that's just been building up - its with me even now in Swaziland, supposedly a very safe country. So I am being careful, of course. You will be happy to know that, though I hate how unsettled I feel or this wary-of-everything mentality, the fearmongering has made me choose safer/more luxury (and therefore more expensive) accommodation and transportation. As such, I am "stuck" in Swaziland for more days than I had originally planned because the "safe" option from here to Durban is via a once-weekly minibus.

Apart from that little rant, I am actually really looking forward to experiencing some of the Swazi way of life! The protests in Manzini have ended, so no worries there, and maybe the extra time in Swaziland means more chances to spot the King or one of his 13 wives.... So Crazy!

Hello from Africa!

I have arrived safely in Johannesburg and have spent a few lovely days at the Mo Afrika Lodge. I feel safe at the lodge and I've had a chance to rest and recover a bit from a crazy last week in South America. I've visited the nations capital - Pretoria is beautiful (!), been freaked out by bathrooms based on scare-stories, played spot-the-white-person in downtown Johannesburg, ate an amazing Shebeen lunch in Soweto, and felt really moved by some of the things I saw at the Apartheid Museum. I leave Johannesburg tomorrow for Mbabane, Swaziland... I plan to pop into Africa's only remaining monarch for a day or two and then head to Durban. Good times! :)

Adios America!

Last official stop in South America: Buenos Aires. I hadn't heard the best things and wasn't expecting much, but I actually loved this city - or at the very least, I loved the day and a half I spent there :) I checked into Milhouse Avenue, a designated party hostel, and had a lot of fun with--unexpectedly--two Brazilian girls. Went to bed at 5am and woke up four hours later to do everything I could possibly do: Palermo-Plaza Italia-Plaza Serrano-Zoological Garden-Botanical Gardens-Japanese Gardens-Plaza San Martin-MALBA-Museo de Belles Artes-Plaza Francia-Recoleta Cemetery-Peatonal Florida-Peatonal Lavalle-Teatro Colon-Obelisk and then somet. I had about five minutes to rest and then I was off to the River Plate-Banfield game. LOVE the way the fans are singing and chanting the entire game! River won after a goal relatively late in the game and I admit, my fist punched the air in victory. Back to the hostel for another night out with the Brazilian girls.


Woke up early the next day to see the Plaza del Mayo, Casa Rosada, Puerto Madero, and the Ecological Reserve. Next, I picked up my stuff at the hostel and bused to the famous La Cabrera restaurant. I didn't have a reservation and the lady was going to make me wait for 45 minutes to see if a space opened up off the WAITING LIST... but then I think I seemed pathetic enough with my backpack and hunger that she seated me right away. I wanted a good steak for my last meal in Argentina, I got it! I think it was 500 grams of filet mignon with a ton of garnishes: assorted breads, creamed spinach, mashed potatoes, yams, apple sauce, olive spread, mashed vegetables, onions in gravy sauce, caprese salad, hearts of palm, pickled cream, and garden salad. Oh, I also enjoyed it with a bottle of wine to myself. Really amazing meal! (Thanks Ben, for the recommendation!)


I went straight to the airport after lunch, checked into my flight, then I was off to Africa! Buenos Aires is big, bustling, and beautiful and I would be happy to come back and explore more of the city some day.

So on this trip, I am officially done with South America. It's really hard for me to pick and choose favorites because there was good and bad about every country. Chile is definitely at the top of the list though... the prettiest night sky I've ever seen was in San Pedro de Atacama and the food was really fantastic! LOVED the enormous (and delicious) steaks I had in Argentina... LOVED the salt flats and cheap books in Bollivia... I could go on and on. I feel so lucky to have had these last three amazing months, and without major incident. Stats are updated down below to give you an idea of my bug and boozing habits. Enjoy!

Underappreciated Uruguay

Love Uruguay! I think it is underappreciated generally as a destination and certainly underappreciated by me in terms of time spent... I kind of powered through seven "cities" in five days, and really enjoyed them all :)

Punta del Diablo: Very rough start, but that seems to be the trend for me in South America... I was tired and exhausted because I hadn't slept in a bed for two days and from--because of layovers--traveling through five cities (Campo Grande, Goiania, Brasilia, Sao Paolo, and Montevideo) to get to Punta del Diablo. Got dropped off at 5:30am equipped with an address and very rudimentary directions: Keep the beach on your right and continue until you see stairs. OK. But it was pitch black, there were no street signs, and no building numbers! It was also the off-season and a very sleepy/laid-back town so there was no one around to ask for help. So, I'm tired, lost, and admittedly, kind of freaked out. To top it all off, there were more stray dogs than I've ever seen in my life! They weren't the cute kind either. So after about an hour, I see a Diablo Tranquilo and the only way someone who works at the hostel knows I'm there is because about 15 dogs start barking really menacingly at me. I try not to cry as I talk to this guy and get directions to my hostel because as it turns out, there are TWO Diablo Tranquilos in town and I was of course staying at the other one. I wander in search of my hostel for another half hour and en route, I met a guy who'd also been lost for an hour looking for the Diablo Tranquilo. I had just been to his hostel, directed him there, and we parted ways. Lucky him. I, however, had received more bad directions and could not for the life of me find my hostel. I go back to the first hostel and the dogs come at me again. I just couldn't take it at that point... walking around for forever with my heavy pack, exhausted, frustrated, unhappy, and then those fucking dogs!! The guy walked me part way to the hostel and I finally found it, but not before some new dogs decided to harass me. I showed up at reception in tears and took a while to calm down. Very rough start.

(But Punta del Diablo is beautiful! The hostel was on the beach where you could lay on hammocks overlooking the water - this was very nice. It was the off season so the beaches were empty and there weren't many people around. The downside is that a lot of businesses are closed in the off season, but its a vacation spot that is well worth returning to.)

Cabo Polonio: A town with no electricity or running water, but actually a really wonderful place! You can only access the city on a 4x4 because it is enclosed by sand dunes and you do so after making no less than two bus transfers, but it's well worth the effort. Once in, you have your choices of beaches, North and South. I spent hours in the sun relaxing and walking in the sand dunes. The entire day, I also had the company of a very sweet dog who would chase away other dogs who came near me and wait patiently while I took photos.

Punta del Este: Resort town where rich Argentineans like to vacation. It's a pretty expensive vacation spot for Uruguayan standards, but some of the beaches are quite pretty. I went to see the two "symbols" of Punta del Este - the hand in the sand and casapueblo - they were okay. What I'll remember Punta del Este for is its beautiful sunset and the ramen/mac 'n cheese dinner I had :) (Thanks mom!) There were also mosquitoes, apparently, but they were not the least bit interested in me! Fantastic! It was just two of us in a 10-person dorm and this poor Brazilian lady got harassed all night. I stayed up late videochatting with Theo and I'd hear her rustle the sheets and yell Brazilian curse words at the mosquitoes every now and then lol


Atlantida: I think the prettiest beach I saw in Uruguay was in Atlantida, but I was really only in town for what my friend said was the best parilla he's been to: Don Vito. I ordered the parilla-for-one and it was MASSIVE. I ate less than half of it and was still stuffed after eating leftovers the next night. I got to try some interesting meats that I would never otherwise order which is always cool, but in doing so, I tried the worst thing I've ever eaten: Rinon. (tilde over the first n). I think it's liver, but it's prepared in such a way that it smells and kind of looks like cow poo. The smell was so strong that I had to push the "poo" to the far end of the table. Gross!



Montevideo: Really liked this city! I went for a run through some of the very pretty parks in the city and got to the beach in time to watch sunset over the water. Great start! I got to try the famous Uruguayan chivito in Montevideo and it was really fantastic! Might be the biggest, most artery clogging sandwich I've ever had, but so worth it! I liked the buildings and plazas and the parks and the people.... I just had a great time in Uruguay's capital - I think I could see myself living there.


Colonia del Sacramento: A little bit overrated I think. The historical significance of this place was a bit lost on me and as far as old cities go, I feel like I've seen cuter cobblestone streets in Estonia and Latvia. Maybe it's because unlike the other cities, there was neither a pretty beach nor beauitful, impressive buildings so it was kind of just an okay place for me that had been too hyped up.

Carmelo: Cute little town on the water that I only stopped in because I wanted to take the ferry from there to Tigre, Argentina. But, it was peaceful and pretty and the people were very nice! I went into a shop with 100 Uruguayan pesos (~$4) and told the lady I wanted to spend 98 of them - she was very helpful and gave me a massive tray of food to take with me.

So, I definitely didn't have enough time in Uruguay, but I saw and did a lot and really enjoyed it. It was so wonderful to be speaking Spanish again... to be understood (!) and to get to argue if something wasn't right. I didn't get asked if I was Japanese once! On the contrary, they thought I was Argentinean or something and it was so nice to hear that every time I said "No, Estados Unidos," I would get a "hablas muy bien espanol!" (translation: you speak spanish very well!) Absolutely my favorite compliment while traveling. :) In general, I just really liked Uruguay and would seriously recommend it to anyone!

Bye Bye Brazil!

Brazil, it's been fun, but I'm so ready to move on. Showed up at the airport in Campo Grande and bought a ticket to Uruguay. (That was cool! I've never done that before!)

I was lucky to get to see a lot of Brazil so what follows is a quick recap:

Rio de Janeiro: For me, it's eh. Maybe I had high expectations of Rio but I just wasn't impressed, even after seeing it during carnaval. It's dirty and gritty and the "must-sees" like Sugarloaf and the Christo are expensive and really not that amazing. There are a lot of rundown buildings and trash....and maybe I didn't kno where to go, but the food wasn't so great either. I did love the friends I made in Rio (Lolo, Aldael, Diego, Tulio, etc...) but I'm definitely in no rush to get back to the city. Feeling lucky about meeting a great group of people... Feeling bitter about the numerous times I felt screwed over...

Salvador: There's something about Bahia that I just love! It's carnaval beats the pants off of Rio's carnaval, but the city is also just alive and beautiful in so many ways. The sunset I watched over the Porto do Barra in 2007 is still one of the best I've seen in Brazil and it absolutely makes sense why the Bahians applaud their sunset each day. The street food, too, is amazing! Best meat and cheese sticks ever! And thanks, Greg, for making it an awesome visit! Feeling lucky about the nice people who helped me during Carnaval and getting to spend time with Greg... Wish I hadn't had that rough start, but it definitely made for a good story (I hope) =)

Recife: I have no real feel for Recife because I ate and beached... but if those are things you are interested in, it's great! Are they the best beaches I've ever seen? No... The water is warm (and therefore not refreshing when its super hot outside) and the shark-attack potential at Boa Viagem is scary! But, for about $6 you can sit under an umbrella on a comfy chair and enjoy a big Brazilian beer. Not bad at all.

Belem: Definitely worth visiting if you care about trying new foods. You can get some amazing stuff for so cheap too! For 6 Reais ($4) I got an enormous piece of fried fish and then a second plate full of accompaniments: rice, beans, noodles, and vegetables at the Ver-o-Peso market. They also gave you free, cold, and I'm assuming purified water. Awesome! The friends I made here I also love and can't think of a better way to spend my Thursday night than sitting with them outside of a gas station, on plastic tables and chairs, sharing beers. I'm still not sure how dangerous the city is, but Belem also has some beautiful spots where you can see some really amazing wildlife. Also feeling very lucky about meeting people (Nathalia, Bruno, Franca) who, though they didn't know me, were so good to me when I was there.

Marajo: Loved Marajo! It was the first Brazilian city I visited on this trip that I just loved. The people were super friendly from the hostel owner to my Salvaterra mototaxista. Mototaxi is definitely my preferred method of travel. Maybe it's because I read someone's blog about visiting Marajo, but I had "Home on the Range" stuck in my head the whole time. "Oh give me a home, where the buffalos roam...." (In Marajo, there are more buffalos than people!) They taste good too! It tastes like mom's empal except with (buffalo) cheese on top.

Ilha Grande: Got crabs? Ilha Grande does! At night, they come up from the beach and are just everywhere. I got a few pictures of a crab who kept trying to do his sneaky sideways crawl into a restaurant. The host wasn't having any of it and kept kicking him out. =) Other than that though, I'm a little underwhelmed with Ilha Grande. Though I absolutely loved snorkeling with Theo and loved exploring beaches via high-powered speedboat, it was expensive, the food was boo, the people were just okay, and there were little buggies everywhere. One night, I got seven mosquito bites - 4 on my face - and while half asleep, I started conspiring as to how to get them to start biting Theo and stop biting me! I might be a bad girlfriend lol

Angra dos Reis: Only saw this town for about 10 minutes because the ferry from Ilha Grande docked here and from there it was straight to the bus station. But, from what I saw, it's a really pretty beach town that I'd love to come back to to explore.

Florianopolis: Love this place! The beaches are so beautiful and yet so different from one another. The food is great here too! And, the people are also incredibly nice! Right when we arrived, one guy tried to help us find a good, cheap place to rent a car. That didn't end up working out and we had to walk quite a ways back to the bus station, but another guy helped us carry our bags. It seemed like for him, it was ridiculous that we carry so much stuff if he, with available hands, could help. People were just really nice about everything, especially when helping us with our stick-shift disaster. Definitely want to come back andspend more time here.. and also Tucano House Hostel.. maybe not so awesome for location, but really awesome for everything else!

Foz do Iguacu: I think for being such a touristy attraction, the infrastructure is beyond terrible, but then again you may or may not have already read my rant about that :) I didn't end up seeing the Brazilian side, but everyone I heard from said that the Argentinean side is better! I really did enjoy the falls themselves, and in particular, the most amazing rainbows and butterflies ever! Inferior circuit on the Argentinean side is awesome, btw!

Sao Paolo: Surprisingly, love this city! Probably my favorite city in Brazil or at least tied with Florianopolis. Paulistas I had met while traveling didn't impress me, but I liked everyone I met in the city itself. Food was amazing and prices weren't bad either! You can do a lot of cool stuff for free in this city and there's not all this pressure to spend a lot of money like there is in Rio. It's not a city that has dedicated tourist stops, but I really liked that.

(New Stuff)


Bonito: AMAZING! Well, to be specific, the Recanto Ecologio Rio da Prata is amazing! After about a 40 minute hike, I got to the olho d'agua where a group of us started the most amazing snorkeling experience ever. The waters are crystal clear and they try to keep it that way by, for example, not letting people wear sunscreen or deet before going in. There were fish everywhere and when we'd stop long enough, the little ones would bite our lips and knees. (Kind of cool, but it also kind of creeped me out). I haven't done any Hawaii snorkeling or anything, and Bonito is definitely more off the beaten path than other touristy destinations, but I think it is so So worth seeing!



Pantanal: Great trip! The pantanal is incredibly beautiful, especially at sunset.


I did a three day, two night stay with the Lontra Pantanal Hotel and it was fantastic! After arriving, we started the day by going out piranha fishing! I didn't catch any piranhas but I got a pacu and a piraputanga. (No idea what the English equivalents are...) I loved this trip and and at one point, laughed so hard I cried. I've never fished before and there's this way you sling your pole so that the line flies nicely into the water... mine would do this pathetic little drop into the water and one of the times, it struck me as being just so funny. The guide told me I had to be quiet because otherwise, the piranhas won't come. This of course made me laugh harder. Then I started thinking about a story Theo told me about going fishing with his dad and dropping his pole in the water and I was a laughing mess for a good five minutes. :) After about three hours of fishing, we jumped in the river to swim with the piranhas and then ate the ones we caught for dinner. Awesome!


So, the pantanal is famous for wildlife and though I didn't see any jaguars or anacondas, I saw capybaras, otters, foxes, deer, black pigs, and a lot of birds. We were lucky during one of our boat safaris because there were about 10-15 tucans just sitting in a tree, giving us opportunities for photography. (Ha, I like that rhyme.) The tucans posed for us to each take about fifty pictures of them. During a night safari, although the hundreds of flies in our faces tried to obscure the view, we saw caimans (crocodiles) and if you'd pass the light over the water, you'd see pairs of red eyes staring at you :) We found a caiman jaw - our guide carved the teeth out and made me a really cool necklace. It was amazing actually, as his raw materials were a tooth and some leaves. I currently wear this really amazing creation on my ankle :)

The pantanal is a litle bit rough though, and you definitely have to have tolerance for bugs everywhere. The bugs would fly into our food and drinks at dinner and before going into our room for the night, you had to run to get the mosquitoes off you. There were also blood stains on the walls from where people got revenge on mosquitoes. I also had 100% deet and sunscreen on me 24/7 so my skin felt awful for the few days I was there. That said, definitely want to come back some day - maybe in the dry season when everything isn't flooded :)

So that was Brazil for me... I got to do and see a ton, contribute significantly to the Brazilian economy, and manage without major incident in a place where I encountered the biggest language barrier ever. According to my travel map (see below), I've been to 20% of the world and really, it's never been so hard as it was in Brazil! But, the highs were really high to match those low lows and the little victories were especially sweet. I'll be back someday, but for now, I'm quite happy to leave behind Portuguese, the expensive prices, and everyone and their mother asking me if I'm Japanese! Good last memory of Brazil though... two boys from Fortaleza gave me some money (like 40 cents lol)so that I could send one last postcard!