Final thoughts

It's been a few weeks since I've been back, been doing some stuff, got a job and had some time to think about the trip and what I've seen, and these are my main thoughts and reflections on it.

• Southern Africa countries are really beautiful, the landscapes are varied, extreme and wild, but it all adds to its flavor. It is really a stunning place.

• Is hard to say it, could even be chewed up for saying it, but as I've come to realize, Apartheid was nasty, disgusting and evil, not even the best words to describe it, but you get the idea, but still, South Africa's status as the best economy in Africa by far, is credited in big part to the economic policies of apartheid times. Note that I don't condone apartheid at all, I despise it. Just calling it as I see it.

• In many aspects Mexico and South Africa are similar, uneven wealth distribution, developing countries, biodiversity, natural resources, etc. However, South Africa's 1st world is much better and more developed than Mexico's. That being said, South Africa's 3rd world is much worse and more underdeveloped than Mexico's.

• South Africa has a reputation of a violent, insecure, nasty place, and while I agree that some areas )specially downtown Joburg) are very dodgy, and I met people who has been mugged, people overreacts. Most places are good enough and people can be extremely friendly, helpful and eager for conversation.

• This point comes at a bad time, since the country is in some bad racial problem right now, but my appreciation of it was that people in general is not really racist in SA. Is just that they were raised with preconceived ideas of the other race and they are only starting to realize what the others are like. There are conflicts of course, and some animosity towards each other, but is completely solvable with some good will and commitment from the parts. There is still hope.

• As good as the ANC was bringing down apartheid and uniting the country, right now is driving it down to the ground. Zuma is loosing it, and Malema is absolutely the worst thing that could happen to the country. He's gonna turn SA into a new Zimbabwe if given the chance and tools, which he is getting. A real shame.

• We all hear about African race wars and tribal conflicts, but is remarkable how most people in Africa, consider all Africans as their brothers and they see the whole continent as a single place with ties and responsibilities as a single entity.

• Namibia and Botswana are not very well known, but Namibia is one of the most beautiful and amazing places I've ever been.

• SA's soccer is really awful, the rugby though, is amazing. Super 14 is the most fun sport league in the world. Go Bokke!!

Thank you all for reading this and should you have questions, comments or anything at all to say, don't hesitate. Have a good one. I leave you with a few of the best pics I took.

Slapped by a fish

Right, so my last day in Port St. Johns I went to a childrens home where Brian, my american friend whos living here building the school, volunteers at. I bought a rugby ball and spent a few hours in the afternoon playing with them. Here I learn that Inyakile is the Xhosa name for the national bird of South Africa, so it became my new nickname, which I found extremely cool.

Anyways the next day I said goodbye to everyone working in the project and drove all the way to Cintsa, another town in the coast, about 4 hours away. On the way there I drove past Qunu, the village where Nelson Mandela was born and where he now lives. Also through Mthatha, a bigger town, very busy one, where he moved in as a kid and started working. It should be noted that this area, called the Transkei, is where most freedom fighters and major anti-apartheid activist hail from.

When I finally arrived in Cintsa, I went to my backpackers, called Buccaneers. Amazing place, is like a village, with dorms and rooms spaced out in bungalows and small houses over a hill overlooking a river, lake and cintsa beach in the Indian Ocean. Heres the view from my dorm.
This place is quite cool, a bunch of activities and quite a cool bar. The next 5 days I spent here chilling and swimming in the mornings, playing volleyball in the afternoon and going to the bar at night. Hung out with a German girl called Laura most of the time, since she.s staying there for a month, and some other very cool guys, an Italian, two English Brothers a Zimbabwean guy and a shitload of Dutch people hanging in the place. Occasionaly we would go to the market and get meat for braais.

Thursday I had my first and only surf lesson so far in my life and loved it. After a few tries I managed to get up on the board and later on in the day I rode waves for quite a while. Then, towrds the end of the day my knees were killing me and was quite tired, so I decided to have a couple of final tries and got one of the weirdest things happening to me. I was padling trying to ride a wave, when a fish jumped out of the water right in front of me and hit me right in the middle of the face. I had been hit with a fish before, just not BY a fish before. So after that I just decded to call it a day. Not a whole lot going on, days will be easy by the pool or beach and so, but still quite loved this place, even by not doing anything you have fun with the great staff and guests there. I would have definitely stayed longer if I hadnt ran out of time, so I decided to go to the Drakensberg for a few days.

The Drakensberg are South Africas highest mountains, going over 3,000 meters high, and form the border with Lesotho, there are awesome hiking trail and outstanding views, so I had to check this place out. So me and Laura, who decided to join me and Brian (who we would pick up in Mthatha) for 3 nights there. Drove most of the next day, about 10 hours to get to our backpackers, Amphithatre. Very nice place, with nice views and cool dorms. Had a few beers and passed out after all the driving.

The next day we drove to the central berg, next to Cathedral Peak to do a small 4 hour hike into Rainbow Gorge, where we decended into a rainforest, which we werent expecting, but still quite cool. The Drakensber is supposedly where Tolkien got his inspiration for writing the Lord of the Rings, and when you are there you can kinda see why.That night we got back and braaid for the last time while talking to a bunch of germans. The next morning we had a major hike with a guide to the top the Sentinel Peak, the Amphitheatre and to see the Tugela Falls. The hike took about 5 hours, covering over 12 km and a climb of about 500m next to some cliffs and at times descendind with the help of some shaky chain ladders, fun stuff. The Amphitheatre is an 8 km curved wall, next to the Maluti range, which is the border with Lesotho and one of the most outstanding views I have ever seen.
Also, from the top of the Amphitheatre, the Tugela Falls drop into the valley. The Falls are the 2nd highest i the world, with a total drop of 947 meters. Since the river is only just born a few kilometers away, theres ot much water, but is still pretty impressive. I absolutely loved the place. Had lunch by the falls and dipped a bit in the river before hking down and going back to the hostel. Had my final dinner and a few beers with the guys doing the hike with us.

Next morning just chilled for a while at the hostel, watching some rugby and said goodbye to Brian and Laura, who would take a bus back to Cinsta and Port St. Johns, and I drove to Joburg, where I woul board my plane home. On the way back, we had to stop for fuel in Puerto Rico, where we would stay for 3 hours, and arrvied very late in Atlanta, after 20 hours. I had to ran and cut lines to make it just in the nick of time into my plane for Mexico. Finally, after 25 hours sitting on planes, plus 5 hours driving to the airport, finally landed in Mexico, where I discovered my bag was not in the plane. Nightmare day.

Anyways, now Im back in Puebla, trying to figure out what to do next. The trip was truly amazing, worth every cent spent on it and will never be forgotten. Saw some amazing places, met outstanding people and gave me a new perspective of the world. I appreciate all of you reading this blog, and ill be back in a few days for some final thoughts and reflections on it. Hope you enjoyed it.

So, after an 8 hour drive I made it to Durban, there I stayed at my mate Nick's house, who I met in Cape Town, on the outskirts of Durban, very nice area, very 1st worldly. So as for that night we just chilled and talked for a bit and met his parents. The next day we would drive into Durban, South Africa's 3rd largest city, and we headed into uShaka, some sort of mall/water park/aquarium thingy. We ended up going into the water park, small but quite fun, allthough we had to fight off hordes of school kids, and into the aquarium, which is very nicely set up as a sunken ship and has quite a number of sharks and other cool stuff.

That day I got my first encounter with Durbanite food, which is very much like Indian with a few things special to it. Had something called bunny chow, which turned out to be really tasty, filling and kinda spicy, so works pretty good for me. The next couple of days involved going downtown to a club for a beach party, visiting the world cup stadium, smoking shisha or hubbly or hooka pipe or whatever you call it and watching a lot of rugby on TV, not bad at all for me.

It also included a day in Pietermaritzburg to see some of his college friends and go out with them. Good times in Durban.

Then, after 4 days of some home life, I drove south, along the coast to the Wild Coast. This was one of the poorest areas of South Africa during the Appartheid, and now is growing in tourism, specially amongst backpackers. This area is dotted by small Xhosa villeages and houses and has some of the most stunning views I,ve seen in my life. Driving through the area is a bit tricky but so worth it.

So I arrived into Port Saint Johns. Is a small place with a very cozy feel to it, friendly people and awesome landscape. Here I met a friend of mine that I worked with in North Carolina last summer. For the last 4 days I've been helping build a school for Xhosa people up a cliff next to town. I quite like the fact that I can help with something like this. Some people in the hostal live there and work a volunteers in some projects like these. Most of them suffer from Pondo fever, which is coming to PSJ, falling in love with the place and staying for quite some time. I could've gotten it if it werent for the strong medicin that my expiring visa turned out to be.Other than that I've been doing a few walks around the place, hiking to the beaches, and just chilling at the place, I'm really getting to love South Africa, too bad I've been turned out on my job hunting. Still have around 10 days to travel, so Ill enjoy them and still look for a job. Should have one or two more updates coming, specially since tomorrows im starting a few surfing classes, lol, should be fun.

Pole Pole

All right, I have some more time now so I can explain what I've been up to this last days. After leaving Swakopmund, we headed north towards the Spitzkoppe. Some rock formations about 1700m high. Here we had our first bush camp, that is no electricity or water, just us and the mountain, bonfire between the rocks and so. That afternoon we tried to walk up as much as possible to watch the sunset from above and then made our way back for dinner.

Next morning we went to Cheetah Park, a small reserve, where they hold around 20 "wild" cheetahs and 3 tamed ones, these 3 live around the house and can be pet. Some nice pictures here, not sure if I really liked the whole pet cheetah thing, but still cool to see them so close and touch them. Then we went to see the wild ones and see how they are fed, and drove back in the middle of the rain. That night we celebrated at the bar the birthday of Andrew, one of the guys from the trip, had a very nice time there.

So next day we went to a campsite, very nice and apparently expensive place, had some nice lodges, pool, huge bar very nicely decorated. Just chilled for the rest of the day in the pool and getting some rest. The next morning we went into Etosha National Park, this is the 3rd largest park in the world, 22,000 km2. Thats pretty big. In there we saw loads of animals, mainly springboks, giraffes and wildebeast (gnus) but also a few hippos and a few lions quite close to our truck. Stopped for lunch at a camp place and swan for a while before doing some more game driving and the setting up camp and trying to spot some animals at the waterhole nearby. No luck. Only some jackals running around camp.

Now we had a couple of rough days, since one of the guys forgot his passport back in Swakopmund, and the tour leader could arrenge for another truck to pick it up and drop it off somewhere in the route, so we had to go to that place, instead of our original destination in the Angolan border. Pretty much the next 2 days we just drived a lot across northern Namibia. The higlight thoug was the campsite, they had a small game reserve in there, so we could see cheetahs and a leopard, and the headed to the bar where the owner gave away a lot of drinks, I think in the hope more trucks will stop at his place, which I would recomend.

So finally we arrived to Botswana, our third country on the tour. Botswana is a pretty stable country, which is exemplary in Africa, they have a stable democratic government for the last 40 years, while is true they have some serious AIDS issues. Nonetheless is worth visiting. After a night in a camp place near Maun, we drove 3 hours to the Okavango Delta. This is the largest inland delta in the world. Meaning the water does not reach the ocean, but empties in there. It is about 16,000 km2, and most of it is protected because of its wildlife. Once in there we took a makoro ride to our campsite. A makoro is a carved boat, very flat to deal with the shallow waters of the delta.

That night, we set up camp and took a little game walk, in which we spotted a few zebras and giraffes, before heading to bed. At around 2 AM we had a massive storm, blowing stuff all over camp, and then we learned that a lighting struck a camp not so far away from ours. In the morning we took a 4 hour walk in the bush, where we got about 20m from an elephant, impressive. Saw a bunch of other animals like hippos, impalas, giraffes and baboons, tracked some hyenas but couldnt get to them. In the afternoon I tried to drive a makoro, it looks so easy but is very tricke, failed misserably. Finaly we went to a hippo pool to look at the sunset before heading back to camp for dinner and a little singing a dancing show by the polers and guides. The next morning we took our last bush walk, really short one and not really lucky on it, but afterwards we went to the airport to take a small plane to fly over the delta. This gets you a whole new image of it and you can appreciate the sheer size of it (is larger than Jamaica) and the amount of wildlife in it.

Leaving the delta we traversed Botswana to go to Kasane and the Chobe National Park, which boasts the largest population of elephants in Africa. We took a boat in there to spot elephants and hippos from the river and got a massive storm that forced us to run half naked from the boat to the truck and run to get the tents and clothes safe and dry. Fun stuff. Next day we headed into Chobe Park for a game drive and camped in a very nice camp set up by the park, had an awesome dinner and a few beers before going to bed. Next morning went back to camp to pick those who didnt go into the park and headed into Zimbabwe.

Now, I wasnt supposed to be in Zimbabwe since I didnt have a visa, but in some places a little money goes a long way, so I bought my way in and arrived in Victoria Falls. Walked all the way to the Zambien border and saw a mate bungy jump from a bridge and then took the famous booze cruise, all you can drink for 3 hours in the Zambezi river, got a guy to play the guitar and all singing along, then took the party back to the hostel.

Then I started my own adrenaline tour of Vic Falls, early in the morning I went water rafting in the Zambezi, supposedly one of the best rivers to do it. Given the amount of water some of the rapids were level 5, the biggest doable, level 6 are beyond limits. I did manage to fall into one of those and got swung around for a while in the river, scary but quite fun. The next day i did something called adrenaline, basically is two ziplines, which is alright but i,ve done a million times, but it also does a gorge swin, which is basically jumping of the cliff, kinda like bungie jumping, but instead of bouncing up and down for a while, you swing across the gorge over the river, 3rd best thing i,ve done in my life.

Afterward I finally went to see Victoria Falls, the single largest courtain of water in the world, a mile wide. The views are breathtaking, the water falls over 100m and raises a big cloud of mist that actually makes you think is raining, you end up completely soaked. Mosi-oa-tunya, the local name, means the smoke that thunders, and is quite accurate. Then walked back to the hostel to start saying goodbye to people from the group leaving.

I liked ZImbabwe, people is very friendly, but is also very annoying. Being such a poor country (inflation was over 1000%, they had ridiculous bank notes, like the 30 trillion one, they just changed to USD a year ago) you cant step out without being swarmed with people trying to sell you stuff or trade for something. Later that night we went for a drink to a very nice and posh hotel overlooking the forest. The next day, it was time to leave and turned out to be the worst day I had in a long time.

Is hard enough saying goodbye to everyone you've been spending all your time for the last 3 weeks, then my flight got delayed more than 4 hours, nothing to do in the airport. Then they lost my car reservation, couldnt print the new one and then I got a mail saying I had been charged twice over a withdrawal. Exhausted, hungry and mad, just got to the first hostal I found and went straight to bed.

Finally, we reach today, I dropped Lukas off at the airport and drove to Pretoria, the executive capital of SOuth Africa, found me a place to stay and drove around to see the sights, the Voortrekker monument, Church Square and the Union Buildings, the seat of the Government.
Tomorrow I shall be driving around 6 hours to the east coast in Durban.

Thats it for now, Hope it wasnt too long and you enjoyed it, I certanly did.

Take care y'all

Quick update

So after a few days in Namibia and Botwana I finally got internet acces, not too long though.Ill ritea proper entry later on, but just tolet people know im still aliveand actually managed to getme a Zimbabwe visa, so ill be crossing tomorrow to ee vicotira falls.When im back in outh Africa ill update properly.

Overlanding

Hey y'all, whats up? Been off the radar for a while now, since I started my overland tour. An overland tour is done in a big truck, with a bunch of other people, going around places and camping. The truck looks something like the one in the pic. There are 23 people in my tour, from all places and ages and basically every day we all have different duties to help with around camp.

Anyway, day 1 took us to the Cederberg area, a few hours north of Cape Town, this is part of the wine country, so we camped next to the vineyards, jumped into the pool and then had some wine tasting. The next day we pickep up camp and drove all the way to the South Africa-Namibia border, at the orange river. Here we could swim in the river and relax at the awesome bar they have in there. Some people would go canoing for a while, while most just relaxed and got to know each other. I have to say this group of people is amazing, so much fun, nice and easy to talk to, which is always great, specially when you are a solo traveler.

So after a night of beers and night swimming we crossed the border into Namibia. Namibia is one of the most sparselly populated countries in the world with around 2.5 people per square kilometer, Namibia actrually means Land of open spaces. And it shows. When driving through it, theres really nothing but a big barren land, pretty desertic, yet beautiful. Is a funny feeling when you drive across the country, and instead of seeing cows or sheep, you run across springboks, gemsboks, baboons and even giraffes and cheetas. Unbelievable, love this place.

So our fist stop in Namibia is the Fish River Canyon, this is the second largest Canyon in the world, so we had to check it out and do a little walk next to it to finally see the sunset from a vantage point by the canyon. Of course it called for individual and group photos and a few beers with such a nice landscape. The next day we drove quite a bit to get into Sesriem, in the Namib Desert. Here we had a nice pool and just chilled for the rest of the day. Is worth noting that up to here, the campsites have been amazing, hot showers, bars, pools, clean bathrooms, really amazing. We expect them to get worse starting now when we venture into the more remote areas of the country.

Well, Sesriem is in the Namib Desert and is the perfect place to explore it, with the highest dunes in the world and the Sossusvlei. We started the day early by going up Dune 45, which is 120 meters high to watch the sunrise, very exhausting to get up, but worth it, in the way back we took a 2 hour walk to go into the Vlei, this is an area where water once stood, so trees grew up but later died. THis once dried up 69,000 years ago, but the dead trees remain, is one of the weirdest things I,ve seen in my life, but one of the most amazing as you can see in the pics.

Hectic, isnt it?

Afterwards we drove to Solitaire, our camp for the night. Here we got engaged in a pretty international footy game with some locals, all was going awesome until tragedy struck, while chasing a ball I hit a glass bottle and completely destroyed my right foot, big toe finger nail, took some healing to it, pains a bit, but in the end is all right, just been limping a bit for a couple of days, which hasnt prevented me of having fun as you'll find out.

Son on Friday night we re-spotted civilization as we arrived into Swakopmund, nessted betwwen the Atlantic Ocean and the Namib desert, so you have sand dunes dying into the sea. Swakopmund is an adventure town, lots of outdoor stuff to do, specially the "Big 3": Skydiving, Quadbiking and Sandboarding. And so it happens that I, being the adrenaline junkie I am, decided to do all three.

Friday was Skydiving day, 3,300 meters jump (thats 10,000 feet) over the Namib desert from a teeny tiny plane. It has got to be the best thing I've ever done, cant describe the feeling of falling at 220km/hr, turning around, a must do for anyone. Also had the best adrenaline rush afterwards, literaly not ebing able to walk, but had to run and jump around everywhere. Saturday was Quadbikinbg for a couple of hours in the desert. Pretty fun stuff, going up and down dunes, doing rollercoasters and even a couple of jumps. Unfortunately one of our mates fell over and broke his collarbone. He'll be allright, a bit bummed though. And finally today I did sanboarding, basically snowboarding on sand. Tried a couplke of jumps, couldnt land them but pretty fun, specially when we did it lying down on a board and going downhill. I reached 67 km/hr and a mouthfull and trouserfull of sand.

An added thing to Namibia is the food. I've had a bunch of game, thats just delicious. I tried a Springbok to die for, some ostrich, kudu and am aiming for crocodile. Anyway, it might be a long time until you hear from me again, since the next 2 weeks will be spent in the absolute wilderness of Northern Namibia and Botswana, going to places like Etosha Park (the 3rd largest national park in the world), the Okavango Delta ( The largest inland delta of the world) and Chobe Park (The highest concentration of elephants in the world). Will try to keep an updete but will be tough, but will definitely love it.

And now with the random stat of the day I say goodbye to y'all. Skynny dip count for the trip: 5

Kapstaad 2

Right, so now Im back from dinner, burned my tongue with a hot pizza, but was worth it. So back to business.

After a couple of days in Cape Town I decided to rent a car for a day and go to the famous Cape Wine region. This are located around Stellenbosch, the second european settlement in South Africa. Stellenbosch is also a school town, the university has around 20,000 students and most people here speak Afrikaans. The town itself is quite nice, lots of trees, small streets, dutch architecture. But the real nice are the scenaries around. The town and the vineyards are located in the Cape range, so you have huge mountains surrounding the place. There are lots of samlls towns and wineries around and the weather is very clear and nice, if a bit too hot for me.

The catch on this was the fact that south africans drive on the left side of the road and the steering wheel is on the right side of the car, so I had to do some adjusting to that. But I made it back alive! At night I took some guys from the hostel for a drive up Signal Hill, a small hill next to the city and then came back and had some beers.

Next morning me and the guys (Sarah from Ireland, Nick from South Africa and Charlie from England) went to the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, a commercial point next to the ocean where the boats leave and with a bunch of stores and places to eat. At night we headed to Camps Bay with some more people, a more upmarket part of town, with lots of cafes and bars, next to the beach to watch a game a just hang around. It ended with a quick midnight ocean jump.


Finally today just went back to the waterfront for lunch and then i boarded a bot to go to Robben Island. This is the place where Mandela and many other political prisoners, including namibians, were held during appartheid. The island is about 11 kilometers from land and holds different prisions. It was here that the goverment decided to put the political prisoners so they would be isolated and wouldnt politize the common prisoners. The tour is conducted by former prisoners, whho relates their own stories and takes you ninto the cells, bathrooms and diferent areas of the museum. The museum was actually created by petition from the ex-prisoners so people could learn about it and that wont happen again. On the boat you get to see a lot of wildlife, since the cape is where the cold Benguela current and the hot Indian current meets, it has very varied wildlife, which I saw today in the form of seals, penguins and even whales!

SO for the next few day ill lose contact with the world since I star my 3 week camping tour across South Africa, Namibia and Botswana. WIll try to find a internet somewhere to post updates.