Miami Beach!

This is just a mini blog on my trip to Miami. Hmmmm, my second 'mini' blog in succession. I really need a bigger adventure to write about sometime. Maybe soon...




Anyway, it was my first trip to Miami and I mainly came to visit my friend Catherine who used to live in NY but has been back living in France for the last few years. She was visiting Miami on vacation so what better reason to come than to join her for a little reunion. She has been here a bunch of times before so she was an instant tour guide.

Unfortunately this time of year is considered the off-season due to the threat of hurricanes. And true to form, I landed into torrential rain on Saturday afternoon thanks to the tail end of Hurricane Emily.

Thankfully the deluge had pretty much stopped by the time I got to the apartment Catherine was renting in Miami Beach. The beach was a few mins walk away and we had a swimming pool within the apartment complex that no one else used, which was great for us. Here are the highlights of the trip.




Saturday evening:
- Spent the evening at a beach front bar on Ocean Drive (a few doors down near where Gianni Versache was murdered outside his mansion). We caught up and people-watched over some delicious mojitos. We walked back towards the apartment along Collins Ave, checking out store windows. It was hysterical, even the mannequins have had boob jobs.

Sunday:
- We hit the beach in the morning, although it was overcast. Holy humidity though, I thought NY was bad. I was kind of glad the sun wasn't out, it would have been uncomfortably hot. Along the way to the beach we walked through the Art Deco neighborhood where the houses are really pretty and colorful. We went for several dips in the ocean, by far the warmest and saltiest seawater I've even been in.
- We had a lovely Brazilian lunch of salad and fish cakes while watching the daily downpour of rain flood the streets.
- It was still raining after lunch so we headed back to the apartment for an afternoon swim in the pool. Even though it was an outdoor unheated pool, I've been in baths that weren't as warm.
- Finished up the evening solving life's problems with wine and cheese at the apartment followed by ceviche and mojiotos in a lovely Peruvian tapas bar.



Monday:
- We awoke to sunshine so decided to rent bikes for the day. The plan was to cycle across the Venetian Causeway (which crosses over 6 islands) through downtown Miami to Coral Gables and Coconut Grove but we only made it across the bridge before the rain came in. We tried to keep going for another 40 mins but it was starting to get ridiculously wet and it wasn't going to improve for the day.
- We dropped off the bikes, cut our losses and went to the Mojito Bar at the Bayside Marketplace by the water. Quite touristy but Drew, the friendly barman, kept us entertained and we stayed for lunch.
- With few options because of the rain, we took a boat ride on the Island Queen cruise. A nice trip but overpriced for what it was. Most of the tour was spent around around Star Island where loads of celebrities (with more money than taste) live. Would have preferred more history about Miami.
- Back at Miami Beach the rain cleared up in the evening so we hit the beach for a sunset swim and a picnic. We think we even saw a dolphin swimming in the distance (looked like it from the swimming motion).

Most of the time I didn't feel like I was in America, Miami has such an international and Latin vibe to it which I loved. Sometimes it reminded me of my trip to Mexico. All in all a fun and easy trip from NY and there's plenty more for a return visit. Ciao for now. Here's a link to the photos.

The Grandest of Canyons

This is just a short entry detailing my fun 5 day trip to Arizona, the Grand Canyon State.



It was my first time seeing the Grand Canyon, shocking given I've lived in the US since 2000. Better late than never I suppose. This time my partner in crime was my good friend Darci. We flew out on Friday morning to Phoenix (gotta love air miles). On the flight I ended up sitting beside a wonderful older lady who was married 62 years. She and her husband (her favourite travel companion) were on their way for a week's camping in the desert near the canyon with family and friends. They must have been either in their 80's or very close to it. I hope I'm doing the same when I'm their age.

Darci and I rented a car and headed towards the town of Williams where we were due to stay for the next 2 nights. Williams used to be part of route 66 and there are signs everywhere letting you know it. We stayed at a fun B&B in town owned by John, called the Red Garter B&B. It was a bordello back in the day and housed 7 gals and a madam. It was such a cool place, and the owners were super friendly. John helped us figure out a great itinerary to make the most of National Parks Week where all the parks are fee-free! What a great week we picked to go hiking. After a Mexican/Irish dinner (yes a weird combo) I retired to the sound of a horse clip-clopping down the street, kind of old wild-west style.

On Saturday morning we got up early and headed for Walnut Canyon, Sunset Crater and Wupatki National Monument Parks. Each were stunning in their own way and we did a few short hikes in each park. Around 4pm in the afternoon we got to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. The crowds were plentiful but the light was amazing. I was definitely awed and it lived up to its name as the grandest of canyons.

After much photo-taking, it started to get chilly so we headed off back to Williams around sunset. That evening I met up with my next door neighbours from Dublin who I grew up beside. The parents were visiting their daughter and their son in law in LA and decided to take a road trip to see the Grand Canyon for a few days. They mentioned it to my mam last week and we discovered we were staying a block away from one another in Williams on Sat night. What a small world. It was great to see them and catch up over a drink in such a random place.



Sunday morning we got up early and headed with a picnic lunch back to the Grand Canyon. We decided to do a trail called the South Kaibab which leads down into the canyon. Again it was pretty crowded with the park being fee-free and it was Easter Sunday so kids were off school for a few days but it was still a stunning hike. On the way back up the wind really battered us and even pelted us with rain as we came up to the rim again. It didn't ruin the day at all though and it made the hot chocolate we treated ourselves to, even tastier.

Sunday evening was spent in Sedona, the drive in was so colorful, I never knew Arizona could be so green. Some of it reminded me a little of New Zealand. Monday we hit Red Rock State Park and did a 6 mile trail loop surrounded by red rocks and green trees under a blue sky, a beautiful palatte. We headed to our hotel in Scottsdale on Monday evening (Old Town Scottsdale is a really nice town, great bars, restaurants and galleries which are worth a look) with the plan of spending Tuesday by the pool before our red eye flight back to NY. It was a super sunny chill-out day and a good way to end the trip.

I really want to head back to the Grand Canyon and see the North Rim now. I'd love to do a few days of hiking into the canyon and camping out. Definitely on my list of future trips. I tried to trim the number of photos as much as I could, tough with such beautiful subjects. Anyway, here they are! https://picasaweb.google.com/jcarpent75/GrandCanyon#

Jen
xo

Adventures in Mexico

I'm so excited to have a reason to update my travel blog. It had felt too long. This time it was to somewhere I'd never been to, Mexico, with Mike a very sweet soul of 'good value' from New Zealand and who some of you reading this blog will know.



We had no plan as such, other than we booked one way tickets to Cancun on Jan 2nd and figured we'd be away for most of January. Neither of us are really resort people, we just wanted to bus around the Yucatan peninsula and head off the beaten track a little. Mike has conversational Spanish which proved invaluable along the way, especially in places where we were the only gringos and people really don't speak English. If people speak slowly enough I can often grasp what they're saying and I feel I can speak 'pokito mas' now. My brother had also given me the Lonely Planet guide to the Yucatan (or the Lonely Bastard as Mike likes to call it, and what it will be referred to as in this blog) and this book was a pretty decent help to us along the way.

In the picture below you can see the route we took over 23 days in blue. I'll go through each place we stopped and just point out the highlights as is my usual style for this blog. Still it may be a longish one, we covered a lot of ground.



Jan 2nd: Cancun
First off, we managed to dodge the snow storms and left from Atlanta on Jan 2nd for Cancun. We didn't have any plans to stay here so just spent the evening in a hotel in Ciudad Cancun which is about 20 min drive from the beach resorts.

When we got to our hotel a 6 year old girl and her 8 year old brother checked us in. Odd but cute. The place we stayed was pretty decent. From the photos online it looked like it was a bit of a prison cell but it wasn't, it was just a simple, bare, clean room with a nice rooftop. We ended up staying there a few nights ago on our last evening, we even had the same room as before. I thought it had looked really done up since the last time. Mike just thinks my standards dropped a lot over the last 23 days - probably true.

Jan 3rd: Tulum
First thing next morning we headed to Tulum. We had no place to stay there so found a hotel along the main drag rather than the beach. We wanted to suss out the cabanas they had on the beach the next day before we decided whether to stay. The hotel we found was very odd, the windows faced into the hallways of the hotel rather than outside and it had a big religious alter in the lobby. I received my first ever bug bite in this hotel, blah!



Tulum was a little more crowded than we'd hoped for so we headed off down the side streets away from the bars and restaurants aimed at tourists and found much better food at places where the locals ate. The beaches in Tulum were stunning though, the nicest we'd come across during the whole trip. It was just a shame everyone else thought the same thing. We'd heard its a much quieter place after the holidays. So after consulting the Lonely Bastard we found a place called Punta Allen that appealed. Its only 50km or so south of Tulum but definitely off the beaten track. There's one collectivo (a small mini van that holds about 12 people) a day from Tulum and you have to travel the bumpiest road at 30km/hr for almost 2 hours to get there.

Jan 4th - 7th Punta Allen:
We found a place called Sirena's in Punta Allen the next morning after looking online, so we mailed her and decided to just go on the collectivo regardless of whether we heard back from her, we figured we'd find somewhere to stay.

There were 2 American girls on the collectivo as well as an older American guy. After our seriously bumpy ride we arrived at a laguna and waited for the boat to take us across to Punta Allen at sunset. This was more like it. Punta Allen is a tiny town of 400 people within the Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve. We made it to Sirena's and thankfully she had a house for us called Casa Grande to rent for the 2 days we'd asked for. We eventually stayed for 4.



- The electricity in the town is only on from 11am to 2pm and from 5pm to 11pm each day.
- The town has 5 restaurants and Sirena would find out each night which one was open.
- We didn't even have a key to our place, it was that kind of town.
- Sirena (Spanish for mermaid but real name Gail) was originally from California, a former adventurer who had been shipwrecked 3 times and now ran her little lodge for the last 18 years in Punta Allen. Quite a lady and full of stories, here's her website http://www.casasirena.com/ Definitely worth staying there.



Each day was spent lazing on the beach (not as nice as Tulum though), hanging out in hammocks and eating & drinking. We had the American girls over to our garden one evening for drinks in the hammocks. Mike even went fishing for a day (I get too seasick for that unfortunately). There's a lighthouse at the end of the beach. We were told if we scaled the wall we could climb to the top. We met up with the American girls for that mission, totally worth the view.

Jan 8th - 9th Mahahual:
We got the bumpy collectivo back to Tulum at 6am and hopped on a bus to Mahahual, further down the east coast. We'd heard it could be a different place if there was a cruise ship in town, which there was when we arrived. It was nuts, the town was full of drunk 20-somethings at 1pm, not appealing at all. Thankfully the cruise ship left around 4pm and it was a much quieter place and hassling vendors went home. We stayed a stone's throw from the beach and after some swim time we checked out a place called 100% Agave run by Fernando and supposedly home of the best margaritas. They definitely lived up to their reputation. We ended up talking to an English couple at the bar who were on their honeymoon and had dinner with them, lots of fun!



Jan 10th - 12th Laguna Bacalar:
We hopped on another collectivo on Monday afternoon to Laguna Bacalar known for its amazing blue lagoon. The collectivo dropped us off on the highway, and with a vague idea of where we were going we hiked with our packs for 25 mins before reaching our new accommodation at Casita Carolina's. It turned out to be one of our favourite places to stay. There was a lovely American woman named Marsha who was taking care of the place for a few weeks. She currently lives in Merida in the north west of the Yucatan, where we visited later on. We stayed in the blue house and we shared a kitchen and living room area with another couple for 3 nights.



- Lots of hammock and reading time
- Mike cooked dinner 2 nights in a row
- We bought some horrible tequila
- We also bought cards and Mike taught me how to play 500. I sucked but slowly got better after a few frustrated temper tantrums
- We were walking home one evening from the supermarket to cook dinner when we saw an old VW van selling bread out of the back of it. We were their last customers of the day before they zoomed out of town. They even had a woman in the back with a big fly swat keeping the flies off the bread. Interesting job.
- We went swimming in a cenote, a 90 metre deep sinkhole. Such a refreshing swim and the water was perfect. Kind of trippy swimming in water that deep.

Jan 13th Chetumal:
We took another collectivo to Chetumal and stayed in a bright blue and red hotel called Hotel Ucum. We wandered the city a little and then went in search of a bar. The only bar the Lonely Bastard suggested wasn't open anymore so we hopped into a diner for beers, then found a place with live music. There was a woman who I initially thought was a man in drag, performing songs and comedy, in Spanish of course. Mike saw the poster outside advertising her, Miss Pussy. Rather amusing! We ordered some guacamole with our beers but they brought us tons of free food anyway that came with the beers. We didn't need dinner that night.



The next day the army were everywhere, for no apparent reason. They seem like more of a deterrent than anything else throughout the area. We hung out a cafe while we waited for our bus. The cafe we stopped at broadcasts a talkshow radio program every morning at a regular table, very cool (see above). Mike also found his favourite expresso in Mexico here, and believe me he tried a lot! :)

Jan 14th Zoh Laguna:
We wanted to check out some Mayan ruins so we headed to Xpujil. On the bus ride, passing the state line we passed through a military checkpoint, lots of big guns and serious looking soldiers. One of them got on and searched a few passenger's bags. We figured since we were the only gringos on the bus (as usual) we'd also be checked which we were. The guy asked where we were from as he checked our bags. He noticed Mike's cigarettes and said 'no marajuana?' to which Mike replied 'eh no, solo tobac'. The soldier just nodded and smiled like an approving father, very funny but of course we couldn't laugh in his face.

There's a small village just outside it called Zoh Laguna and we stayed at a place with cabanas owned by a 70 something year old man named Antonio. He was such a gracious host and cooked us dinner himself. It was like our grandfather cooking for us. We were the only ones for dinner. Then he sat down and talked to us in Spanish about the ruins which he made quite understandable and at least Mike could politely reply back as opposed to me just nodding.



- The cabana was pretty cool and even had a TV so we got to watch Bad Boys with Will Smith, a crazy Friday night!
- Antonio had tons of animals and we were awoken by roosters, birds (including parrots), turkeys, cows, goats. He even had 3 spider monkeys in a small cage which was very sad and the only black mark against old Antonio.

Jan 15th Xupjil ruins and Rio Bec Dreams:
We hired a taxi driver for the morning to take us to the Becan and Chicanna ruins. We had Becan to ourselves which was fantastic and there were certain ruins you could climb with the use of a rope. Chicanna had a few more people there but still pretty quiet although not as cool.



We stayed at a place the Lonely Bastard had highly recommended called Rio Bec Dreams, which we have since renamed Rio Bec Nightmares. Our 'jungalow', their version of a cabin in the jungle (although you can hear the highway so not really in the jungle) was so overpriced. As was the food, even though it was lukewarm and they didn't even serve Mexican food. And the owner was an obnoxious, overbearing English woman who felt like she was doing us a massive favor if we asked for a beer. Definitely the least favourite place we stayed.

Jan 16th 17th - Campeche:
After 2 quite long bus journeys, one of which featured an older Mexican lady loudly preaching god right beside Mike for a good 45 mins, we made it to Campeche, a cool cobbled-stoned city at the gulf of Mexico on the west coast of the Yucatan peninsula.



There was a fun bar we wanted to check out so we popped in not long before they closed (5.30pm since it was a Sunday). People were starting to leave so the young bartender felt freed up enough to find time to read a porn mag sitting under the bar across from us. He saw us looking, gave us a nod and a smile and went back to it. We found another open air place nearer the water and sat beside a table of locals. One of them was super friendly, a little tipsy and wanted to practice his English. He kept asking me if Mike was my wife, really funny guy.

We tried to rent bikes the next day but the seats were rubbish and it would have been a very uncomfortable ride so we went for a nice long walk instead through the market.
While having a coffee an American man came over and asked to borrow our Lonely Bastard. His son came over too, an adorable kid 4 year old named Ory who was all chat. He even drew me a picture for me to keep, very sweet little boy.



After siesta, we started off with sundowners on the roof of the hostel overlooking the main plaza. We went for a wander, found a cool dive bar that played lots of random 70's and 80's music on a jukebox, and then ate some great local food at a plaza away from the tourist drag. Campeche was a really nice town.

Jan 18th - 19th Merida:
Merida is most definitely a city. We arrived in the hot afternoon and it was super humid. We found a lovely hostel right on the plaza that served really good breakfasts.



- We checked out a great free musuem depicting the history of the Mayans in murals, some very powerful and haunting.
- We ate at the same restaurant 3 times (very unusual for us) but it was soooo good.
- We found another local dive bar and definitely got looks when we walked in but people seemed ok with it.
- We met up with Marsha, the American lady who was minding the place we stayed at in Bacalar and she had us over for drinks. From the front a lot of the buildings in Merida look really run down, like old warehouses. Behind the doors, as we saw at Marsha's, there are some palaces. She was renting a stunning space with her friend which included a massive kitchen, pool, outdoor bar and entertaining area.
- Marsha took us to the market the next day where both Marsha and Mike bought hammocks after some excellent bargaining on their part in Spanish with the owner.

Jan 20th - 21st Santa Elena:
We rented a car in Merida to check out some more ruins and drive around a bit instead of relying on the buses. The freedom of the car was nice. We stayed at a place owned called The Pickled Onion by a lovely English woman named Valarie. She rents out adobe-walled Mayan huts just outside the village of Santa Elena. Definitely another favorite place to stay. And she had a pool which was super refreshing.



We checked out a another set of ruins that evening called Kabah and left just minutes before a bus load of Japanese tourists arrived, phew!

FAV MEXICO MOMENT!!!
That night we'd heard there was a fireworks show in the village, less than 10 mins walk away. Valarie told us it was a festival of the bulls where a man would wear a bull headdress and shoot fireworks from it. At the main plaza there was a party bus that played music (you may have to see the photo to get it) and drove around the village. There were also a bunch of amusements for the kids. The the foot of the steps to the church we saw them setting up some fireworks so we decided to take a front row seat, just behind a bunch of teenagers. We noticed the rest of the village moving further up the steps and wondered if they knew something we didn't but figured we'd still like the front row seats. They set off a few of the fireworks in front of us which was cool (all homemade by the way). Then the bull headdress came out. The guy lit all the fireworks and then ran towards us. Everyone started laughing and screaming as the fireworks flew in every direction, now we knew why everyone else was further away. We nearly peed ourselves laughing so hard from fear and excitement. Mike even wound up with some sparks landing on his shorts. One of the wildest things I've been in the middle of. You really need to check out the video to even kind of get it. Here's the link to the video http://picasaweb.google.com/jcarpent75/Mexico#5566705667494087074

The evening finished up with a structure of 4 wheels spinning fireworks around a poster of Jesus. All the while a band played behind us. A most bizarre evening!

The next day we went to check out our last ruins at Uxmal which were really impressive. There were quite a few people there since they're pretty popular and after a couple of hours we were ruined-out. That afternoon we just drove around the countryside.

Jan 22nd - Jan 23rd Vallolid:
We wanted to check out some Cenotes on the way back to Merida before we dropped off the car but we had to drive through a bunch of small villages that are like one way mazes with no direction. Mike did an excellent job of keeping direction but it still took too long to get there so we had to skip the cenotes in order to drop the rental car back on time.

That afternoon we took a bus to Valldolid. Its another nice little town and after trying a few places, we managed to get into a hotel near the main plaza. We did a little bar hopping but had an early night. I think all the driving caught up with us.



The next day we found an even better place to stay and Mike shrewdly negotiated for a cheaper rate, his Spanish has definitely improved over the weeks! We tried to rent bikes the next afternoon but again the bikes were rubbish and the other places with supposedly decent bikes was closed. So we hung out at our new digs and had a siesta in the hammocks. Did I mention everywhere has hammocks?

That night we had another wander around town for a bite, it was pretty quiet though since it was Sunday.

We had the following (Monday) morning free so we hit the bike rental place early. The Lonely Bastard writes that the owner is a 'cantankerous old character'. That is an understatement. He's really rude and about 120, and was wearing just a small pair of white shorts in his garage.

He let us pick out our bikes and then Mike asked for a lock since we were cycling to some local cenotes and would be swimming. The lock didn't look that long so Mike mentioned it to him. This is how the conversation went.

Mike: Have you got a longer lock?
Old dude shouting in a heavy Mexican: Don't lose the key!
Mike: I won't but have you got a longer lock?
Old dude: Otherwise you pay everything!!
Mike (irritated): Claro but do you think it will fit both bikes?
Old dude: Everything!! Put it in your pocket. You pay everything!!
Mike: F%^k this, lets go.
Old dude as we're walking out with our bikes: Don't lose the key!!

It was about 20 mins to the Cenotes and the bikes sucked, we had to stand most of the way since the seats were too painful and the roads were bumpy. The cenote was really cool though. It was underground, artificially lit and full of limestone stalagmites. Again we were the only ones there, apart from the catfish and as we left, a big tour bus pulled up. Excellent timing by us again!



Jan 24th Cancun:
That afternoon we took our final to bus to Cancun. We checked in to the same hotel that we stayed at the first night and we went out for some last evening beers and food.

Jan 25th:
Tuesday morning we said some sad goodbyes. Mike has a guiding/driving gig in South America in just over a week so he's making his way down there now through Belize and I had to come back to the US to move out of my apartment in Atlanta. I'm heading up to New York next week for a few months to sort out some visa stuff which is a whole other story.

It was a fantastic trip and possibly my favourite adventure. It was great figuring it out as we went and the Mexican people were so friendly and welcoming, especially off the beaten track. We saw a lot in the few weeks but there's so much more to see, just even in the Yucatan peninsula. I really hope it won't be my last visit to Mexico. I've even been inspired to think about Spanish lessons for my next adventure.

Hope you enjoyed, I know it was a long read. Here are the photos! http://picasaweb.google.com/jcarpent75/Mexico

Jen
xx

Namibian Roadtrip

So after Rob and I left Cara, we hopped on the 15 hour bus journey to Windhoek. Being a veteran of these bus journeys by now, I again got into my sleeping bag and slept just fine for most of the night with a spare seat beside me to stretch out. Poor Rob ended up sitting beside the window after a lady with a baby took the spare seat beside him. Window seats are not good for 15 hours when you're 6'5". We got to Windhoek at 7am and went for a nice big breakfast to cheer up Rob. Then we found a great place to rent vehicles that come with tents attached to the roof. They also supply all the camping equipment such as stoves, plates, cutlery, fridge etc. All we needed was food and we'd be self sufficient for the 8 days of camping and driving we'd planned.

We got lots of food and beers for the week and we were putting them into the car at the supermarket when disaster struck. Rob left his bag beside the car for 10 seconds while we were loading the car, and someone took it. They must have been lightening quick because we were there the whole time. He lost his phone, iPod, camera with 6000 photos on it (all from his trip around the world since early Feb, he had no backups), and most importantly his passport. Thankfully he still had his wallet on him

We had to call the police and they kindly took us to the tourist police station so we could file a report. Since there was no chance of him getting the bag back, it was purely for insurance purposes. Then we paid a visit to the British Embassy which was just around the corner so he could apply for a new passport.

Once that was all sorted we decided we wouldn't let the bastards ruin our trip anymore so we hit the road and made our way to the first campsite we wanted to check out, even though we'd get there in the dark.

Basically we spent the next 8 days looking at the map and figuring out where we'd like to go next. We drove over 2500km in total over the week. We first headed up towards Etosha Safari park where we spent 2 days checking out the wildlife. Then the west and south into Damaraland where both of us had spent time with EHRA as volunteers, before ending up in Swakopmund.

I won't bore you with the details of each day, I'll just point out the highlights.

- Our roof tent was super cool. It flattened down really nicely during the day and it took 2 mins to set up in the evening.
- Rob was obsessed by the fire. Every day he would light it and watch it intently, trying to find exactly the right wood to get it started and keep it going, funny to watch. Whatever floats your boat!
- Etosha was really cool. You can drive around the park yourself and spot the animals. I got to try out my new guiding skills and told Rob all about the animals and birds we saw. I'm surprised he didn't tell me to shut up even though I must have bored him to tears at some points. Thanks Rob! :)


- The views through the Grootberg pass were just stunning, no photos will ever do it justice. I'd definitely go back there and camp around there too. And to think it was something we just stumbled across.


- Often we'd determine what campsite we'd stay at that night depending on whether they had a tv or not so we could watch some world cup games. There was a really cool campsite with homemade cakes on offer but their neighbor 5km down the road had a tv. So long cakes, maybe next time!
- Our biggest arguments were about where to park the car each evening, usually fighting over 2 metres of a difference. Not bad I suppose.
- We found an internet cafe in Outjo, a town with a gas station and no visible shops but it was the fastes internet I've ever had in Africa, actually almost anywhere!

We ended up in Swakopmund and stayed a night with Dave, former EHRA coordinator and good friend, even though he'd just moved into his new apartment. We had a good boozy night out with him, Rachel and Joe and Doreen who had just arrived from NY the day before. Doreen was my drinking partner when I was in Namibia last year for a few months and I was so delighted to catch her before I left.

The following day we drove the car back to Windhoek to drop it off. About an hour into the journey (its one long road that goes through desert-like terrain for 4 hours), a car pulled up beside us and waved us down. We pulled over and saw that the roof tent was hanging off the hinges and about to fall off. Its super heavy and would have caused serious damage if it did fall. Thankfully the guys that waved us down were electricians and had tools to help us take it off completely and store it in the back. Close call! When we dropped the car off the rental people were very apologetic and said it was the make of the tent and it looked like wear and tear. We were just happy they didn't try to blame it on us.

I stayed one more night in Windhoek and said bye to Rob. I was on my way to Jo'burg to see a world cup game and then fly home to Ireland. On Wed morning I got up at 4.30 am to fly to Jo'burg. Tym, a fellow volunteer from Madagascar had a spare ticket to the Germany vs Ghana game. He met me at the airport and we made out way to Soccer City to watch the afternoon games. The stadium was the most modern stadium I've been to, and so clean. The atmosphere was the friendliest I've ever experienced at a sporting event. The whole evening was a blast and I wished I'd stuck around for more games. Thursday I spent my time at the hostel throwing out things not worth the flight back to Ireland that evening.

I was pretty happy that I used everything in my bag that I'd packed, the only thing I didn't use was my mosquito net and that's because in places where I'd need it, there was one provided. My boots were the best thing I brought, as well as my solar charger. That was well used in Madagascar with no electricity. It feels strange now to have more clothes to choose from than just those in my bag.

I thought I'd be really sad with my 4 month journey coming to an end but I actually felt good and relaxed and excited to see family on the flight home. Its a lot easier coming back to Ireland in June than in Dec. I still haven't been able to shed any light on what to do next with life. I'm going to chill with the folks for a little while here in Dublin, catch up with friends and hope that something comes to me. Either that or start playing the lottery!

I'm so happy to have met some wonderful people along the way, some I hope will be friends for a long time to come. It was also lovely to meet existing friends along the way, it was nice to be around people who you know and you don't have to start conversations with 'where are you from, where are you traveling to... etc' :)

So for now, I'm putting my bag away but I'm sure I'll be itching to dust it off in the future and hit the road again. Till then...thanks for reading!

Oh yeah, here are the photos!

Jen
xx

Livingstone and The Caprivi

Hello from Dublin! My 4 months journey finally came to an end at the weekend. And the last 3 and a half weeks were just as fun as the rest of the time has been. Actually so much went on that I'm splitting it into 2 entries, one for Livingstone & northern Namibia (the Caprivi Strip) and the other one for Namibia. Last time I wrote I was in Swakopmund in Namibia. From there I got a bus up to Livingstone in Zambia. It was a 24 hour bus journey and surprisingly it wasn't too horrible. I packed myself some food, listened to some audio books, got into my sleeping bag and managed to sleep for about 8 hours. I only woke around 7am when we were nearing the Caprivi strip. We had a herd of elephants crossing the road in front of us, much more exciting than the cows or sheep that cross the road here in Ireland!

I was staying at a hostel called Fawlty Towers in Livingstone and getting off the bus was mayhem. All the locals are right up in your face offering taxis, accommodation and food. I collected my bag as calmly as possible, told them all I needed a walk after 24 hours on a hot bus and wandered through the town till I found Fawlty Towers which was a really cool chilled hostel.

My friends Rob from the UK and Cara from Canada were meeting me there the next day. It was really fun to see them. Rob has been traveling also for the last few months and Cara moved to Botswana last year to manage a safari camp, leaving her lawyer life behind. While in Livingstone we did a booze cruise down the Zambezi river at sunset, lots of fun and we saw some hippos. The next day we went to visit Victoria Falls.

There's a bridge you can cross right beside the falls and most people who cross it wear ponchos over their clothes because you get absolutely soaked. Rob suggested we go poncho-less, it'd be more of a laugh. It certainly was. If we jumped into the falls we couldn't have gotten any wetter. The bridge was really slippy so Cara and I took off our flip flops so we wouldn't slip. Of course that didn't stop me and I fell right at the beginning of the bridge. I ended up with a lovely bloody elbow, a bruise on my backside and a pain in my side from laughing so much.

Cara only had a couple more days before heading back to Botswana to work and Rob and I had 2 weeks so we decided to head back to Namibia.

There was another bus from Livingstone to Katima in Namibia, just across the Zambian border. I knew some people who owned a Safari Lodge on the Zambezi so after a few quick emails to secure our accommodation for a couple of nights we were off. This was a different type of bus than the 24 hour one I'd taken. It was much more of a local bus, which included people having live chickens in plastic bags are part of their carry on luggage. We made a few stops along the way during the 4 hour journey. At one place, through the window, they would sell you a whole fried fish with the heads still on (similar to the ones I had in Madagascar). Cara and Rob both looked relived I didn't have enough Zambian money to buy one.

We had to be across the Zambian and Namibian borders by 6 and of course the bus was running late. We made it to the Zambian border at 12 minutes to 6. By the time they processed our passports and we found a taxi to take us the 2 min drive to the Namibian border, it was 3 minutes to 6. We were about to put our bags in the taxi and encourage the taxi drive to haul ass to the border but he had huge crates of fish in the back of the car! We quickly moved them to another car and tried not to think about how bad our bags would smell as we threw the bags in and sped off. We were the last people at the Namibian border, the workers were putting on their coats and starting to shut down their computers but luckily they let us through. Exciting but nerve wrecking stuff! Not sure what we would have done if they'd been closed.

Our taxi took us past the border once we'd been processed and onto the the Caprivi Houseboats Safari lodge. I could live at this lodge. Such a chilled place right on the Zambezi. Francois (my friend Johannes' brother) and Chantal his wife run the place which consists of about 5 thatched bungalows with an ensuite outdoor bathroom. The 3 of us piled into bungalow. Chantal made us a lovely dinner and we slept so well, listening to the sounds of the water hitting the river banks.



We hung out there for 2 days, reading, watching some world cup games (including Eng vs US) and Francois organized a private boat trip for us down the Zambezi again at sunset. Such a peaceful beautiful area.

Finally after the 2 days, Cara had to go back to Botswana. Luckily Francois knew someone who could drive Cara most of the way home. Rob and I decided to get the long bus journey (15 hours) back to Windhoek the capital of Namibia and rent a car so we could drive around the country for 8 days and camp.

Anyway, here are the photos I took in Livingstone and the Caprivi. Cara and Rob had much better photos but Cara managed to delete her photos accidentally and Rob had his bag stolen. More about that drama in the next entry!

Jen
x

A month in the life of a field guide

Hello all. I'm writing this update from Swakopmund in Namibia where I spent 3 months last year working with EHRA and its really lovely to be back! Its been great to chill out for a few days at Rachel and Joe's after an exhausting but really fun month training to be a field guide in South Africa.

The course I was doing basically trains you to become a safari field guide. The area we trained and lived in is part of Kruger National Park which is about 5 hours drive from Jo'burg. There were 9 of us on the course but only 4 of us chose to do the exam at the end. I was the only native English speaker, we had Danish, Dutch, Italian, French, German and Korean so quite a mixture. We all had really cool tents and we didn't have to share which was a luxury, as were the flushing toilets and outdoor showers, a nice change from Madagascar. Each day we'd start with either a bush walk at 6.30 with 2 of our instructors carrying rifles since we were walking in areas with lions, or we'd have class at 8am. We almost walked into some lions one day but one of the vehicles saw them first around the corner from us and picked us up. Phew!

The subjects we covered ranged from geology, astronomy, trees, reptiles to birds, animals and insects. We learned to recognize birds by call and sight, the medicinal uses of trees and what different types of grass mean in certain areas. I'm a bit of a bird geek now and since the course ended I've gotten my bird book out to look up birds I see around!

The goal at the end of the course was to sit a written exam and then have a 3 hour practical assessment. For the practical we had to drive the land rover around a section of the park for 3 hours with an assessor and some students as guests, and we would conduct a safari drive. They could ask us questions on anything we saw and we had to learn how to approach lions and elephants in the vehicle. It seemed overwhelming at first but I'm proud to say we all passed the drive with flying colors! We find out about the written part in a few weeks.
UPDATE: WE ALL PASSED THE WRITTEN PIECE TOO!

Some of the highlights of the trip were:
- Our instructor Brandon, one of the coolest people you could meet. He knows everything about the bush and had tons of great stories of when he was a game capture ranger.
- One day we were out on a drive and I spotted a lion walking through the brush around 200m away. It looked like it was stalking something so we drove in that direction. Within seconds we saw a kudu fly out of the bushes into the road, closely followed by a lion which took the kudu down. Its incredibly rare to see a lion kill in the wild and it happened metres from our vehicle! One of the girls managed to point her camera in the right direction so once I get a copy of the photos I'll post them. We watched the lionesses and a cub chow down for hours on the kudu. We were so close we could smell the stomach contents - ugh.


- There was a big rock with a flat top in the park and one night we all slept out on it. Since the lions also like to sleep there, we had to take turns patrolling the area all night with a flashlight and keep the fire going. On my watch we could hear the lions roaring in the distance.
- We got to go into Kruger proper for 3 day trips. We saw the big 5 (lion, leopard, rhino, buffalo, elephant) one day before 9am in the morning, we got there at 6am. So great to see all the animals roaming free. After seeing them in that kind of environment its very tough to think about them living in zoos.
- Every second night we'd go on a night drive with spotlights. There was a leopard living in the area and he was impossible to spot so we'd go on leopard-searching drives. We finally saw him in the last week, crafty bugger!
- We also had a day trip to God's Window and Blyde River Canyon which was so beautiful, really stunning scenery and a nice change from the bush we were living in
- Every night we'd go to sleep listening to hippos, lions, elephants all around us. There was an electric fence around the camp but the animals roam all around it each night, kind of strange to be brushing your teeth with a massive bull elephant on the other side of the fence looking at you.

All in all a really great month but exhausting since when we weren't in class or out on field trips, we were studying. I found it a little too much information to take in in 4 weeks but I certainly learned a ton which was the goal. I wish I'd done this course before Madagascar, I would have paid a lot more attention to the trees and birds around me. A good excuse to go back I suppose!



I'm staying in Namibia until Monday when I get a bus up to Victoria Falls, a 24 hour bus journey - fun! :( There I'm meeting Rob and Cara, 2 previous EHRA volunteers and we're not quite sure what we're going to do for my last 2 weeks. Maybe Zimbabwe, Botswana, northern Namibia or Zambia. Tough decisions :)

Anyway, here are the photos of the trip. I wish I'd had my good camera with me, other people got some really amazing shots of the animals but we're hoping to share so I'll post them when I my hands on them.

Hope everyone is well and see you all in Dublin in 3 weeks!

Jen
xo

I fell in love in Madagascar...

I fell in love in Madagascar with a boy named Jamal. He's about 7 years old and has the biggest toothy smile, full of mischief who squealed with laughter when I waved or high fived him. He's also a mean dancer! Needless to say the people will be the thing that sticks with me most on this trip.

Here's some background on the trip and why I chose it. Basically when I booked it in February I was looking for something completely different from my previous African experiences. Well I certainly got what I wished for and all in a great way. Let me backtrack a little though.

After leaving NZ, I went to Sydney to visit some Irish friends and chilled at their house for a couple of days which was lovely and much needed. Then after a couple of nights at a hostel in Jo'burg (I'm actually back at the same hostel writing this) I headed to Madagascar. I was flying to Tana (the short name for Antananarivo, the capital) for a night before heading to Fort Dauphin in the south east of the island the next day. I got a window seat as the plane was pretty empty so I could see the island coming into view during the 3 hour flight. Its very green and hilly with lots of red dirt roads. I whizzed through the visa and passport control and found the hotel guy picking me up. It was Easter Monday so everyone was out on the streets partying, kind of a crazy atmosphere. They all seemed oblivious to our car on the narrow streets where barely 2 cars could pass by.



The hotel was lovely, serene and clean but no one spoke English so I had to rely on my high school/secondary school French - yikes! But I managed to get by and order food, a taxi for the next day etc.

I woke up pretty early the next day, still a little jet lagged so did yoga on my balcony before having a shower and lunch. Then made my way to the airport to meet my fellow volunteers and fly an hour south to Fort Dauphin.

For those of you who don't know, I was volunteering with a group called Azafady (which means 'please' or 'excuse me' in Malagasy) They're a charity committed to eradicate poverty, suffering and environmental damage in Madagascar. When you volunteer you can do some conservation projects or construction projects, both on a long term or short term basis. Long term = 10 weeks, short term = 2-3 weeks. I was doing construction for 3 weeks and our project was to build a school. Carol, Laura (both from the UK) and Tim from Canada were my fellow short volunteers. Jim our project coordinator met us at the airport. He's from Brisbane, Australia and was a volunteer last year. He loved it so much he came back to work for them. Jim took us to our camp for the night to meet the 10 long term volunteers we're be building with. They'd only just arrived a few days before us. There were 8 guys and 2 girls, mostly from the UK except for 2 French guys and they were all 23 and under which apparently is unusual! So quite the age gap. They were all really nice though, and I don't think I would have been brave enough to do this at their age.

We all swapped a few intro stories and went to bed. Next day we packed up the bus and headed to our new home for the next 3 weeks, a village about 20km away called 'Mahialambo' which means 'skinny pig' in Malagasy. The roads are so bad it took us almost 2 hours to drive it. Its a village spread out over a few km with 700 people who all live in grass huts. Most of them are around 10ft x 8ft and can hold a whole family of 8 people or so.


The kids all helped us unload the truck and set up our camp at the edge of the village, about 2 mins walk from where we'd build the school. The number of kids was staggering and I recently read that half the population of Madagascar is under 14. Apparently each family has so many kids because on average 2 will die before the age of 5, a couple might go to college, some will marry and whoever is left will have to take care of the parents. They don't have it easy but it doesn't show in their faces.

The next 3 weeks had pretty much the same routine so I'll just summarise and point out the best bits.

- Wake every morning for breakfast at 6.15am. It consists of rice, banana bread, a dough ball and a banana. Same every day for 3 weeks. Lunch is also rice and vegetables and dinner is rice and beans. We got meat twice a week, either fish, chicken or zebu (a kind of cow). So rice for every meal for 21 days, weirdly I've missed it since I left.

- After breakfast we'd head to the work site. The first week was spent building benches and making posts for the frame of the school. There is no electricity so everything is done by hand. I had some wicked blisters but I can saw and hammer with the best of them now. Jim or 'the Australian brute force' as I liked to call him was a great teacher. There was a local construction crew who were invaluable in helping.

- We had a siesta every day from 11am till 2pm. This was spent fighting for 2 of the hammocks after lunch or trying to find shade somewhere. The flies are everywhere and constantly land on you and try to eat your open wounds. Really nasty. I never got used to that. Some days we'd have a Malagasy lesson before lunch so we could try to converse with the locals, especially the kids such as 'what is your name and age' etc. Very helpful to make new small friends.

- We'd finish up the day around 4.30pm. Normally on these projects there's a well where we'd fill buckets and have a bucket shower. Luckily for us there was a river nearby so we'd swim and soap up in there. We'd bring beers and Jim and a few of the other volunteers would play guitar. The locals were fascinated by this, all the washing and stuff we used to wash. We had an audience every day. I've never had so many people watch me shave my legs before. Actually we were stared at for anything we did which was funny but the river was the highlight of the day.

- In the evenings we'd sit around under a tarp or under the stars on a clear night, satellite spotting and playing cards before retiring to our tents.


- We worked 6 days a week and had Sundays off so each Saturday night we'd pay for a few litres of gasoline to get the generator going so we could play some local music and have a dance with the locals. The adults mainly watched us drink beers and dance with their kids. Some of the young girls could put Beyonce to shame! And us volunteer girls constantly had a stream of young boys between the ages of 5 and 14 fighting one another for a dance. One or 2 would get cheeky and try to put his hands around my waist until I firmly grabbed his hands back into him. Very funny.

- On the Sundays off we went for a hike one day, the views were stunning. We could see 5km to the ocean from the hill we climbed. Another day we found a basketball court on a private piece of land so we asked if we could use it. Great fun playing and definitely the strangest place I've played. Another Sunday we went to church which was a 3-4 hour service. We sneaked out after 3 hours. There was a couple of baptisms, some confirmations and an auction. It all happens at church! And lots of singing too.

At the end of the 3 weeks, the school was pretty much done. On Tuesday Tim, Carol and I left (Laura had left a week earlier, she was only there for 2 weeks). The rest of the long term volunteers were staying out a few days more. On the way back to town the 3 of us were brought to a lemur reserve. I couldn't go to Madagascar and not see one. We saw lots white, a few brown and loads of ring tailed ones which climbed all over me when I was feeding them bananas. Of course my camera died the day before so I'm waiting on those photos. Actually I didn't take a whole lot in general but plan on stealing Carol's excellent photos in a few weeks. I didn't even get a photo of the finished school! I think my battery died as quickly as it did because the kids love getting their photo taken and then seeing it again afterward.

On Tuesday night in town the 3 of us and Jim went for dinner at really cool restaurant owned by Brett who helped found Azafady. He's also an Aussie. It was so nice to have a cold beer, wine and food that wasn't rice. It was hard not to go overboard and indulge too much. On Wednesday we hung by the beach, watched the surfers and got ready to leave. I had a minor 30 hour delay flying back to Jo'burg. Apparently Air Madagascar like to pick and choose when they fly, regardless of schedule but it got me an extra night in town.

Overall it was tough going at times, especially being so remote without a phone or email for so long. We had some rainy days and its never fun when everything is soggy going to bed. And there were definitely some days I was sick of rice and beans but I wouldn't have changed a single thing. The long termers are heading back out to the bush on Monday for another 3 weeks to help build a teacher's house and I'm kinda jealous. I'll have to make it back there again sometime. Sadly they don't get many tourists at all due to the unstable political situation, the lack of infrastructure and how expensive it is to get there. Its a pity because they're such lovely people and have a stunning country. The poverty was tough to see sometimes though.



My next adventure starts on Monday for another 4 weeks out in the bush. I'm doing a field guide course in South Africa and hope to learn lots about living outdoors, animals, plants, insects, stars etc. Its supposed to be pretty intensive. Last month was all physical and using brute force with shitty hammers and nails. This next month is all brain power - yikes!

For those who mailed me, thank you so much. I've read them all and if I have time before Monday I'll reply. I'll try post some photos later today as well. They'll be here.

Take care and Veloma as we say in Malagasy (means goodbye) :)

Jen
xo