Oh, the Places We'll Go

Apparently, there is a tourist demand for packaged elephant crap.  Who buys this sh*t?!? 

Like all good things in life, safaris must come to an end.  After an extremely long day of travel that involved 17+ hours, 2 countries, 3 flights (stopover #2 of 10 in the JoBurg airport), 1 car rental and a 1 hour drive – in the pouring rain, at night, on the other side of the road – we made it to our hostel on South Africa’s coast in Durban.  It was New Year’s Eve and Ted and I were pumped to go out and party! Yeah? No.  We were asleep by 11:15pm.  In our defense, the hostel bar closed at 10:45, and the nearest bar was miles away – too far to wander in the un-walkable night streets of South Africa, and too much of a pain to wait for a cab.  We woke up at midnight to the sound of fireworks and dogs barking and wished each other a happy 2011!

The next day we hit the road driving west to check out the famous Garden Route with the goal of being in Cape Town on January 5^th to meet up with the Graces.  The Garden Route is a scenic coastal drive that has been compared to California’s Highway 1 – lots of lookouts, beautiful beaches, coastal National Parks, cute vacation towns and plenty of tourist attractions ranging from snake museums to butterfly gardens to bungee jumps.

Jeffrey's Bay, Garden Route

Tsitsikama National Park

Tsitsikama National Park

We had quite a lot of ground to cover so most of our sight-seeing was from the car.  However, we were able to stay 2 nights in the cute, little town of Knysna and overlap with Dave and Jesse, the American couple we met in South America (who are also doing an around the world trip).  They happened to be in South Africa coming from Cape Town and we were headed to Cape Town so we decided to meet up in the middle.  We had a blast eating seafood, exploring ocean-front cliffs, sitting on the beach, and hearing what they’d been up to since we’d last seen them.  We even brazed the freezing cold Atlantic Ocean one day just so that we could say we swam in it.  We’re hoping to pull off another meet-up in Asia – we’ll see if we can make that work.

Knysna Heads

Beach day, cold water, cold beer

Knysna

Mmmmm...Oysters!

After a whirlwind couple of days at Iguazu Falls we arrived back in Buenos Aires in time to explore one more neighborhood of the city and eat one more delicious steak dinner at our favorite parilla before heading to the airport for our overnight trans-continental flight to Africa.

Our flight from BA to Cape Town, on Malaysian Airlines, was a surprisingly short 7 hours. And Malaysian Airlines – top notch service and plane.

We had one quick afternoon and night in Cape Town before heading up north to Zambia and Botswana. After some much needed napping, we explored the lovely – though extremely touristy – V&A waterfront. We were treated to some Christmas-themed live music being performed in a band shell near the water and we enjoyed it while eating our first (of many) meals of fish and chips.

Holiday cheer at the Cape Town Waterfront

Santa, made from Coke crates at the waterfront

Cape Town Waterfront

The next day we headed back to the airport and flew via Johannesburg (stop #1 of 10 in this airport) up to Livingstone, Zambia (yes, named after David Livingstone the famous British explorer). Driving from the airport to our hostel was definitely a glimpse into the Africa you might imagine – mommas with babies tied around their backs, women carrying unbelievably large loads balanced effortlessly on their heads, men trying to sell you anything from sunglasses to cell phone SIM cards, barefoot children playing on the side of the road, vans exploding beyond the brim with passengers, and trash along the side of the road.

Zambian kids

Traditional village home

We arrived at our hostel and were welcomed into a little oasis. You would never guess from the street that this place would provide such clean, comfortable rooms and come with fabulous perks such as wireless internet and a fabulous swimming pool.

Great first hostel in Africa!

By the time we arrived, we were pooped. In the previous 7 days we had slept in 7 different places with 3 of those nights spent “sleeping” on public transportation (2 on a bus, 1 on a plane). We were happy to have arrived safe and sound and looked forward to seeing more of Zambia when we had our heads on straight.