This last part of the trip covers the countries of Switzerland and France during our Summer of '99 trip. The first part of the trip can be found in the Africa blog and the second part of this trip can be found in the Mediterranean blog.
Switzerland
This part of the trip will always be special to us as it was here that we got engaged!! Keith had decided that he wanted to end the trip in Kandersteg, where he spent two summers in '88 and '90 working at the Scout Center. Little did Shawna know that Keith was planning all along to propose here, assuming we survived the summer travels together! Well, apparently Shawna passed the test.
Swiss Chalet
We arrived in Zurich and took the train to Zug to visit Stefanie, a friend of mine from Georgetown, and her fiance Thomas. We stayed one night with them and had dinner out -- it was great to connect as Shawna had not seen her since we graduated. From here, we took the train to Kandersteg where we stayed in the International Scout Center (our own private room) for 5 nights. The village is very cute with traditional Swiss chalets, flower boxes, and cows with bells. While there, Keith ran into a few people he worked with -- Ron and Mike -- so we hung out with them a few times for dinner/drinks.
Oeschinensee Lake
We spent most of our time hiking and relaxing. We were both out of shape from a summer of gluttony so the hiking was quite hard! On our first day, we attempted a hike to Oeschinensee Lake, a beautiful glacier lake close to the village; however, it was rainy so once we arrived at the lake, we ate a bowl of soup at the hotel on the lake and hiked back to the Scout Center. The following day was the hardest -- a hike up to Blumlisalphutte. The hike started out beautiful but then it got very steep and started to get cloudy so it was difficult to see the views. Along the way, Keith kept saying 'isn't this beautiful' and Shawna responded with 'no, this sucks' -- she later found out that Keith had planned to propose at the top of this hike but given the poor visibility and Shawna's crabby mood, he decided to wait for another day.
Shawna somehow injured her toe on this hike so the next day we decided to take it easy. The day turned out to be gorgeous so we returned to Oeschinensee to have a picnic on the lake. We bought bread, cheese and wine and rented a boat on the lake. After a few glasses of wine, Keith got the nerve to finally ask Shawna to marry him. Shawna was so surprised that I kept asking him 'is this for real'? After I realized that this was not a joke and the real deal, she said yes!! Keith had bought a cubic zirconium ring as a placeholder until we got back to the States and could buy a ring together. We took a bunch of pictures on the lake to document this awesome moment and then headed to shore to celebrate with a dinner at the Doldenhorn, one of the nicest restaurants in the area - and celebrate we did with multiple courses, the dessert cart and a bottle of wine.
We Are Engaged!
On our last day, we relaxed, walked around town, read and watched a video from 1990 when Keith was tied to a flag pole as a prank. That evening, we had dinner at The Crystal, a local lodge/restaurant/bar that is close to the Scout Center.
France
We made a quick trip to Paris to visit Steve and Jan and the kids on our way back to the States. We stayed with them for two nights and hung out at their house and around the town they were living in at the time (which is about an hour outside of Paris). We shared our news of the engagement (the first people to know) and celebrated with them.
Keith and Shawna with Megan and Alistair
Back Home
When we returned home, we visited Keith's parents for a few days and then my parents before we went to NYC to start our new jobs at Deloitte. We shared the news of our engagement with both families -- everyone was happy and excited!
This second part of the trip covers the countries of Israel, Greece and Turkey during our Summer of '99 trip. The first part of the trip can be found in the Africa blog and the last part of this trip can be found in the Switzerland/France blog.
Israel
Shawna flew into Tel Aviv by herself from Egypt, arriving late at night. She was shocked to find that my camera did in fact show up at the airport; however, I found out the next day that it was broken and so the airline told me to bring it to a camera shop to get it fixed. The guy at the camera shop immediately knew what to do to fix it -- apparently this is a common occurrence! Shawna met up with Danelle, Tracy and Dave the following day at the Seaside Hostel (clean, cheap rooms) where we stayed for 3 nights. Tel Aviv is a beautiful, bustling city but does not have a lot of tourist attractions. We visited the Jewish Diaspora Museum, walked around Jaffa and the promenade and relaxed on the beach.
The four of us travelled via bus to Jerusalem where we stayed for 4 nights at the Hotel Noga, owned by a cute old man who used to be a tennis coach. Keith met us on the last day. While we were there, we celebrated Danelle's birthday (which is on July 4th) at the Strudel Wine and Internet Bar where there were several Americans celebrating Independence Day.
Dome of the Rock
Jerusalem is an amazing city -- full of rich, cultural attractions and beautiful as well! We toured all of the main sites and did a lot of walking in the process. Our first stop was the Holocaust Museum which is a well organized and documented museum - the memorials throughout definitely convey the gravity of what had occurred. We visited the Citadel which is an impressive fort in the heart of the city with an interesting museum. We walked along the ramparts from which there are great views of the city. We also walked around the American Quarter where we saw the St. James Cathedral and the Jewish Quarter where we saw the Four Sephardic Synagogues.
Dave, Keith, Tracy, Danelle The Citadel
On Mt. Olives, we visited the Church of Ascension, the Church of Pater Noster (where the Lords prayer is written in over 60 languages on tile), the Church of Mary Magdalene (with beautiful gold onion shaped domes), and the Church of All Nations (where Jesus spent his last night before Judas turned him in). We walked along the Via Dolorosa through the 14 stations of the cross, the most impressive of which were the last 4 stations in the Church of Holy Sepulchre. It was in this church where Jesus was crucified and buried -- it is a rather dark church but beautifully decorated. We also saw David's Tomb on Mt. Zion and the Coenaculum which is where the Last Supper was held.
On the last day, which is when Keith joined us, we walked the ramparts of the Citadel so that he could see the views of the city. We then went to the Wailing Wall where the women are separated from the men and to the Dome of the Rock which is an impressive mosque that is beautifully decorated with stained glass windows -- it is here that Abraham was going to sacrifice his son. As you can imagine, attire was strict at these attractions so we had to wear long sleeves and long skirts/pants.
Wailing Wall
Keith Floating in the Dead Sea
The five of us took a bus to Ein Gedi at the northern end of the Dead Sea where we stayed one night at the Beit Sarah Hostel (one of the best deals on the trip). We hiked in the Ein Gedi Reserve to the Shulamit Falls and the Hidden Falls -- it was quite hot so it was refreshing to wade in the pools. We also floated in the Dead Sea -- while it was interesting to be this buoyant, the salt certainly burned your skin and the floating dead bugs did not make us want to stay too long. On the following day we hiked up the Masada (built by the Jews to protect themselves from the Romans) while Tracy, Dave and Danelle took the cable car (which in the heat of July was not a bad choice). After touring around the top, we said our goodbyes to Tracy and Dave who were leaving to go to Turkey.
We took a bus with Danelle to Tiberias, which is a cute town on the Sea of Galilee, where we stayed one night at the Maman Hostel and one night at Adina's Guesthouse. We had a horrible night's sleep at the Maman Hostel (hot and noisy with 6 other teens in our room) which is what prompted us to find another place. We rented bikes and rode around Galilee visiting sites along the way, including the Church of the Multiplication of Loaves and Fishes and the Church of the Mount of Beatitudes. From here, we took a day trip to Safed which has a cute artist quarter where we walked around and bought candles that we had shipped back to the States.
The three of us then took a bus to Akko which is a small port town on the Mediterranean and stayed at Pual's Hostel for one night. The owner swore that the room (which had no A/C) would get cool at night; however, it got so hot that we all ended up reading outside for most of the evening! We ventured through the old city, walking through the Khan-a-Shawarda (where the horses and carriages were housed) and the subterranean Crusader City. There was not much to see in this town (we saw all of the sights in about two hours) and since our room was a steam bath, we opted to plop ourselves down at an Italian restaurant and drank beer for the rest of the afternoon. Along our way back to Tel Aviv, we stopped in Caesarea, a stone city along the Mediterranean, and quickly toured the theater, hippodrome, church and market area. We spent one more day and night in Tel Aviv, mostly doing laundry and email before we headed out for Greece.
Greece
This part of the trip was way less cultural and had way more relaxation and partying. Danelle, Keith and Shawna flew into Athens on El Al Airlines. The check-in procedures were not as onerous as the one that Shawna had experienced flying to Israel; however, we did go through a round of questioning separately and then the security guards compared notes to make sure we were telling the truth. We met up with Mark and his friend Tina in the Platka, a cute cobble stoned district of Athens, for lunch and then we toured the Acropolis. The five of us then headed to the ferry, the Agapito Express, to Santorini which is about a 10-hour boat ride. We left around 10pm and arrived at 8am. With a few beers in us, we attempted to sleep on the boat but it was challenging doing so sitting upright, with lights on and with people talking around us. Two girls sitting in front of us who apparently were offended by the smell of my feet (I had been wearing the same Tevas the entire trip and even I was offended by the smell) sprayed my feet with perfume. It was hilarious!
Acropolis
We arrived in Santorini, a true paradise of the Greek isles, and stayed at the Hotel Matina in the town of Kasari for 4 nights. The hotel was a couple of steps up from our previous accommodations -- it had a slamming swimming pool. Fran met us there on the second day -- as soon as she arrived, she asked Keith if he had lost his wallet (which in fact he had - we noticed it missing when we were at Mt Sinai). She had seen a sign in an internet cafe in Israel indicating that someone had found his wallet but by the time she went to their hotel, the people had already left -- small world! We took the opportunity to relax by the pool most of the days there as we were quite tired from all of the sight seeing the previous several weeks. One day, we rented a couple of Jeeps and toured the island, stopping by the Red Sand Beach, Fira (the capital of the island) and Oia which is a cute town on the northern part of the island. We spent most of our time in Oia, walking around the shops and staying to watch the stunning sunset while dinning at Castro Restaurant.
Shawna, Danelle, Mark, Fran, Keith, Tina
From Santorini, we took the ferry to Paros which took about 4 hours and stayed at Marsina for two nights. We spent the afternoon walking around the town which was cute but no where nearly as nice as Santorini. We also took a day trip to Antiparos where we visited a cave and relaxed on the beach.
From Paros, we took the ferry to Mykonos (a cuter island than Paros) where we stayed at Despotiko for one night and Hotel Yiannaki (which is a few km outside of town) for two nights. We spent our first night there partying, celebrating Mark's birthday. We started the evening drinking margaritas and sangria at La Mexicana and then moved on to drinking beer at the Down Under Bar and the Scandinavian Bar. Needless to say, we all got pretty hammered. Keith and Shawna ended up in a huge argument; however, to this day, neither of us have any clue as to what the argument was about!
Oia
I guess we were feeling guilty that we had not done anything cultural in a while so Keith, Tina and Shawna went on a day trip to Delos, an island with ruins dating back to the 8th century BC which is the supposed site of the birth of Appollo and Artemis. We spent our last night having a yummy Italian meal and a few drinks at Diva Bar and the Scandinavian Bar; although, this time the night out was much more tame! We said our goodbyes to the rest of the gang and took the ferry back to Athens for one night before we headed out for Turkey.
Turkey
We arrived in Istanbul where we stayed for 3 nights at the Ambassador Hotel which was certainly the most 'upscale' hotel we stayed in on this trip -- we were able to bargain it from $100/night down to $40/night. We spent our afternoon wandering around and booked our trip for the rest of the stay in Turkey with Fez Tours, a hop-on hop-off bus that runs a circuitous route through all of the major attractions in the country. It's a cheap and perfect way to get around (at the time it only cost us $170 for the route which we did in about two weeks).
The city of Istanbul is absolutely beautiful, full of mosques, gardens and cute cobble stoned streets. What we lacked in culture in Greece, we certainly made up for it here. We visited the Blue Mosque, the Hagia Sophia (known to be the greatest church in Christianity) and the Suleymaniye Mosque (the largest in Turkey). We explored the markets of the Grand Bazaar which is where I bought a leather jacket and the Egyptian Market which catered more to the locals. We also went to the Topkaki Palace where we say antiquities such as Muhammed's cloak, pieces of his beard, Moses' staff and the hand of John the Baptist. The highlight was the 'turkish bath'. When you arrive, the men and women are separated and then they wash and scrub you down as if you had been working in a coal mine for the past 5 years. Laying on a marble slab in a round room (with all the other women around you - no privacy), you get an oil massage following by a rinse and then massage and rinse again. It was quite interesting but not very relaxing.
Hagia Sophia
We boarded the Fez bus to begin our tour of the rest of the country. We were definitely the older ones in the bunch - the bus was filled with young college aged backpackers who stayed in the $2/night hostels with no a/c while we opted for the $5 or $10/night hostel with private room and a/c. We never felt so rich in all of our travels!
Our first stop was the Gallipoli near Channakale (stayed here one night) where we took a 5 hour tour of the battlefields. It was interesting at first but then got old towards the end -- I think we learned more about this battle (which we had never heard of) than what we know about the Civil War. We then went on to Pergamum which is a really cool ruin with an aparthenon, an amphitheater and a long alleyway full of arches. We stayed the night in Kusadasi.
Pamukkale
We visited Pamukkale which has large calcium filled pools all along a hillside. It was not a picturesque as the postcards lead you to believe but was still interesting to see. At the top are the ruins of Hieropolis. Our next stop was the ruins of Aphrodisias which had a really cool theater and soccer stadium that was in good condition and included the remains (only a few pillars) of the temple of Aphrodite. We then say the ruins of Ephesus which is probably the mother of all ruins -- most of which are in great condition. The library, theater and bathrooms were most impressive. They estimated that about 150-200 thousand people lived here which seems like a lot considering the size.
On our way to Koycegiz, we stopped and had a refreshing dip by a waterfall. In Koycegiz, we took a boat cruise in the lake for the day. We say the Lycian Tombs carved into the hillside, swam, took a mud bath, went into the hot springs (the smelly kind) and relaxed on Turtle Beach.
On our way to Oludeniz, we stopped at a carpet factory where Keith and I bought a Turkish rug. After seeing about 50 of them lain before us, we decided to go with one of the first ones we saw. We definitely need to work on our negotiation skills b/c we didn't get any money off. We stopped at Sakkligent Gorge which is really cool -- here, we hiked through the gorge, wading through water and scrambling over boulders.
Ephesus
In Oludeniz (which is a beautiful beach town), we took a boat over to Butterfly Valley where the beach is quite beautiful but we only saw about 3 butterflies! It was here where I got to test my fear of heights by paragliding. We had to drive up a steep and narrow road to the top of the mountain - the guide said that most people end up paragliding b/c they do not want to drive down that road again! At the top, they hook you to the equipment and with a guide strapped on behind you, they tell you to run of a cliff and no matter what you do to not stop running. Needless to say that as I neared the edge, I stopped in my tracks so my guide had to literally pick me up and keep running. Once in the air (and after I unclenched my fists and opened my eyes), I truly enjoyed it. We soared over the beach and had beautiful views of the area.
Paragliding
Our next stop was Olympos where we say the Chaemera Flames which was cool but not worth the side trip to this place. B/c the area is so remote, there were not many sleeping options so we stayed at the Kadir's Treehouse with the rest of the Fez gang -- and yes, it's rooms built into the trees. It was a noisy, sweaty night! We then went on to Egirdir where we stayed one night (not much to see/do here) and along the way, we stopped to see the Termessos Ruins which included a hike up to the fire tower which had beautiful views of the valley.
Chaemera Flames
Eclipse
Our final stop in Turkey was Cappadocia where we stayed 4 nights -- I highly recommend this place as there is so much to see and do. We saw the Open Air Museum which has old churches with frescoes carved into the rock. We took a bus to Turhad (a town about 4.5 hours away) to see the total eclipse! We had met a Belgium guy a few days earlier who had told us about this -- he was leading a group from Belgium to see it and he apparently had seen many others in other countries. So, there we were, among the tourists and local people (it was funny to see the local women in their full dresses and scarves with 3D glasses on), in a village that we never heard of, experiencing this rather cool event. During the eclipse, the sky went dark for about 2 minutes (you could even see some of the planets) and then slowly got light again. While it was out of our way, it was certainly worth the trip to see this.
Cappadocia
We spent one day touring the Ilhara Valley and the underground city (which has eight floors of rooms and passageways). The highlight of the trip was a hot air ballon ride over the area which was truly amazing. We flew through the fairy chimneys, staying relatively close to the ground so that you could see everything up close.
Hot Air Balloon Over Cappadocia
We spent our last night in Ankara before we had to fly out to Switzerland.
To celebrate our graduation from Duke, after two long, hard years of studying (well, not really), we decided to travel for 3 months over the Summer of '99 before we started our jobs at Deloitte in NYC in the Fall of '99. After a few weeks of research and planning, we decided to spend the summer in South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Egypt, Israel, Greece, Turkey and Switzerland. Throughout the trip, we met up with friends from Fuqua (Tracy, Dave, Danelle, Mark, and Fran) and Keith's friend, Russ, who joined us for certain portions of the trip.
We packed all of our items into each a backpack and with a budget of approximately $100/day, we backpacked around these countries, staying in youth hostels along the way. We had an amazing time, got great tans and gained several pounds after 3 months of eating and drinking.
This portion of the blog covers the Africa part of the trip (which is the first part of the trip) including the countries of South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Egypt. The second part of the trip can be found in the Mediterranean blog and the last part of this trip can be found in the Switzerland/France blog.
Amsterdam
Amsterdam
OK, so this is not really Africa but we had a layover in Amsterdam for several hours and decided see a bit of the city. We met with Dave, John, and Julie (who were there for a portion of their trips) for a brief tour of the city.
We visited the Rijks Museum which is a famous art museum and Anne Frank's house. And, of course, it would not be a trip to Amsterdam without a brief walk through the Red Light District. We were quite amused by the fact that you could buy 'brownies' (the kind that make you happy) in almost every coffee shop! After a quick bite to eat (we did not eat the brownies), we said our goodbyes and left for the airport to fly to Cape Town.
South Africa
We arrived in Cape Town and met with Dave and Tracy who traveled with us throughout Southern Africa, Egypt and Israel. During our first afternoon there, we went to a food festival at the Castle of Good Hope where we had some cheap, but yummy food and wine for lunch. We also walked along the waterfront, stopped for an email fix at an internet cafe and then had dinner at Papa Luke's Cantina, a Mexican restaurant.
The following day, we did a tour of the townships with Grass Route Tours where we saw thousands of people living in 'lean-to sheds'. It was quite a humbling experience to see this much poverty. We stopped at one of the community schools where the children sang for us and we met Gordon, who made and sold flowers from aluminum cans. He shared a story with us that he had a vision from God that told him to make these cans. Interestingly, we met someone else a few blocks away who had the same vision and who was making and selling the same aluminum flowers!! Later that day, we drove to the Cape of Good Hope where we say beautiful ocean scenery.
Dave, Tracy, Shawna and Keith Cape of Good Hope
The boys decided that they wanted to swim with sharks. Tracy and Shawna opted out of this, so we went our separate ways. Keith and Dave headed to Gansbaai where they boarded a boat to 'Shark Alley'. They spent a few hours diving in metal cages (which looked like they were made of chicken wire) while sharks swam around them, trying to get into the cages. The guys who ran the boat threw chum into the water to attract the sharks. Because the water was choppy, Keith ended up blowing chunks through his regulator which of course drew the sharks in closer!
Shark Diving
While the men were trying to prove their manliness with this insane activity, the girls decided to take in some culture and took a ferry to Robben Island where Mandela was imprisoned. We toured the grounds which included the prison, a leper colony and a military site from WWII. Our tour guide had been in prison there for 5 years so we got to hear stories from an insider. Later that evening, we all met at the hostel, shared our stories from the day, and had dinner at Cafe Bardeli, where we ate tapas.
Table Mountain
For our last day in Cape Town, we had planned to go to Table Mountain. However, when we woke up, it was raining so we opted to drive to the Stellenbosch wine region instead. We went wine tasting at a few wineries (including Uitkyk and Sonnsig) - some were good, some not so good. We were amazed at how cheap the wine was! At the Spier Winery, we visited the cheetah preservation where we went into one of the cages and pet one of the cheetahs named Inca. We had an amazing lunch at 96 Winery Road and then went cheese tasting. Back in Cape Town, we all did some laundry and had a light dinner at Cafe Bardeli. We capped the evening with some drumming at the Drum Cafe -- it was a lot of fun but our hands hurt after a while!
Shawna, Keith, Tracy, Dave Spier Winery
Botswana
We flew to Maun to meet with our guide, Jannie, from Thebe River Safaris, who was taking us on a 15-day safari throughout Botswana. Keith was a bit nervous as we had paid for the safari in advance from the US (only $100/day per person which we thought was a great deal) and he had visions that we would show up with no one to greet us. We walked through the crowd and finally found our guide, dressed in the typical khaki attire. We later found out that the guides say that female tourists who have a crush on the guides have 'khaki fever'. He took us to the company's campsite in Maun where we spent one night before we left for one of the parks. We also met, Kilos, who joined us on the safari as the cook and keeper of the campsites. Throughout the safari, we slept in tents and ate at each of the campsites, often having meat (pork, steak or chicken) with vegetables (potatoes, corn, and/or squash). The food was surprisingly good! We also drove in a 4WD truck with bench seating that had a canopy top and was open on the sides for easy viewing of the animals.
Jannie (Our Guide), Shawna, Tracy, Dave and Keith
We began our safari with a drive to Nxai Pan National Park, known for its salt pans. Along the drive there, we saw wildlife including steinbok, springbok, jackal, ostrich, red-eyed bul bul (which is a type of bird) and pale chanting goshawk (which is another type of bird). Our guide had to tell us to slow down on the picture taking (at this point, we probably had taken about 50 pictures) as we would see plenty of wildlife over the next 14 days. We arrived at our campsite where we planned to spend two nights. Later that day, we went for a sunset drive where we saw guinea fowl, impala, giraffe and the famous cori bastard (only famous because we like saying the name).
The next day was an amazing day as we witnessed a kill! We started the morning early (6am) with a drive to the water hole where we say 4 lionesses and 1 lion on the prowl. Apparently, the lionesses do all of the work while the lion watches. There were many springbok tentatively trying to drink but they did not drink for long since the lions where there. The lions made several failed attempts to kill a springbok until finally they met with success. It was amazing to watch the process, as they slowly slinked toward the water hole, stopping each time a springbok turned it's head. One of the lions crept up on one of the springboks and just as the springbok tried to run away, another lion that was hiding behind a rock, pounced on it and began to suffocate it while the other lions started their feast. It did not take them long to eat the poor animal. Right after this, three elephants showed up so we watched them spray themselves with water.
Elephants
During our last morning at the Pan, we returned to the water hole to see if we can catch more action. We watched as two of the lions attempted to take down a giraffe. Giraffes are very vulnerable when they are drinking as they have to spread their legs in order to get their mouth to the water! Well, this giraffe lived to see another day -- the lions ran for it but the giraffe outran them. On our drive back to Maun, we stopped to see the famous Baine's Baobob Trees -- these trees are huge and look like they are stuck upside down in the ground.
The next morning, we drove to the Okavonga Delta where we would spend two nights. In town, we picked up George who was supposed to be our boat guide (called head polers) in the Delta but when we arrived at the village in the Delta, we found out that the rules had changed -- the town kept a list of polers who could be hired and they assigned them in the order that they appeared on the list. So, we dumped George (not sure how he got back home) and picked up Foster and Kaiser. We got into 2 makoro boats that had straw at the bottom to cushion our seats (which after a few hours did not feel too much like a cushion) and floated off down the canals of the Delta. We poled for about 3.5 hours along narrow passageways, seeing a hippo (in the water), many elephants along the banks and other wildlife, including otters, iguana, giraffe and birds. After we arrived at our campsite, we went for a short walk where we saw baboons and more elephants.
The next day, we had a few close encounters! After a three hour walk in the morning, we went for a makoro ride in the afternoon and stopped at one point for another walk. Our guide saw vultures flying around so decided that we should go check it out. We walked over a ridge where we came across 9 lionesses feasting on a buffalo -- we were only 12 meters away from them! Our first instinct was to run but our guide (who thankfully was carrying a gun) told us to stop and slowly walk backwards -- apparently, you should never turn your back to a lion! The lions did not seem to be too bothered by us -- they took one look at us and returned to their feast! The saying is true - a bird in the hand is worth more than two in the bush! On the boat ride back to the camp, we got a little too close for comfort to an elephant who was none too pleased with our presence -- the elephant stomped his feat and roared at us. We waited until it walked away and then we continued along our merry way. We capped off this part of the trip with a flight over the Delta -- it was quite cool to see all of the animals from the air and to see how extensive the canal system is.
Lion
We spent another night in Maun, got more supplies and then drove to Moremi where we spent 5 nights at various campsites in the park - at Third Bridge, Xakanaxa, and North Gate. In this park, we say kudu, impala, zebra, elephant, giraffe, red lechwe, wildebeest, warthog, hyena, baboon, lion, hippo, crocodile, waterbuck, cheetah and many types of birds (including slender and banded mongoose, white spoonbill, lilac breasted rola, secretary bird and red-billed quelia). On several instances, we saw lions feasting on an animal. We say a film crew for ESPN with someone who looked exactly like Jay Peterman from Seinfeld - we later found out that he was not who we thought but rather a soap opera star who played the evil twin on Loving. We also learned why the tales of warthogs stick up while running -- to avoid dust from getting in their eyes, warthogs squint their eyes while running and since their skin is so tight, it forces the tail to pull up (nothing like a little bit of bush humor)! And, along the way, we experienced a few 'natural' scenes - humping hippos, farting elephants, a zebra with an erection and hippos pooping (which oddly sounds like a bird flapping its wings).
The close encounters with animals continued in this park as well. On two occasions we returned to the campsite to find Kilos hiding (once in the tent and another time in the trailer that we pulled behind the truck that stored all of the supplies) -- lions had come to the campsite to check out the food situation! Almost every evening, we had 'visitors' including lions and elephants who walked through our campsite. And one evening, Tracy and Shawna swore that there were animals in the bushes (we could see red eyes staring back) -- turns out it was a campfire from another campsite!
After Maremi, we drove to Savuti where we spent one night. We saw all of the usual suspects but was also treated with a sighting of roen antelope (which is endangered) and a leopard who was resting next to a kill. We woke up early to find hyenas attempting to steal our food containers (large metal boxes that they were trying to drag away into the woods). Thankfully, our guide caught them and we got our food back. That morning, we climbed Bushman's Painting Rock where we watched the sunrise and saw 300 year old paintings in the rocks.
Cheetah
We then went on to Chobe where we spent two nights, one of which was Shawna's birthday. We stopped along the way to buy birthday cake and champagne to share later that evening. Turns out the birthday cake was hard as a rock so we threw it away only to find a band of monkeys enjoying it the next morning - it was so cute to see their faces covered in icing. We also feasted on the best lamb stew which I swore she would try to replicate but has not done so to this day. Aside from all of the usual animals, we saw buffalo (which made 4 of the big 5 animals on the trip) and sable antelope.
We ended the trip at the Thebe campsite in Kasane where we spent 1 night and met all of Jannie's family. It was here where we celebrated Keith's birthday, feasting on a yummy meal prepared by Jannie's sister and drinking the local beer and doing a few springbok shots (made of Creme de Menthe and Bailey's).
Zimbabwe
Jannie drove us to Victoria Falls where we stayed three nights at the Inyathi Valley Lodge and had planned a few days of adventure. After we said our goodbyes to him, we walked around the falls, getting drenched and also walked around the local market. We spent the next day rafting the Zambezi River with Shearwater Rafting Company (Shawna did not get much sleep the night before, worrying about drowning in the river or worse getting eaten by a crocodile). It was an exhilarating rafting trip, one that we will never forget! We walked down a steep gorge to our put in point which was before rapid #11. When we got to rapid #13 (named the Narrows), we had to get out of our boats and walk around the rapid as it was too dangerous to raft. We later came upon rapid #16 (aptly named the Terminator II) where our boat flipped. We all went flying out with Keith, Dave and Shawna holding on to the rope on the side of the boat while we floated through the rapids. Tracy and our guide were not holding on to the boat so they floated down on their own. Once we got to calmer waters, Keith and Dave got on top of our boat and flipped it. We then got in and rowed over to another boat which had picked up Tracy and our guide. We made it the rest of the way with no more flipping. We later celebrated this day of adrenaline at the Spur Steakhouse in town.
The next day we went micro lighting over the falls. If you have never seen what a microlight looks like, picture a lawn mower with wings!! While Shawna was biting my nails given my fear of heights, she totally enjoyed it. We each took our turn flying over the falls, as the pilot banked the plane several times so we could look straight down over the falls. We met up with Tracy and Dave and walked over to the Zambia side of the falls to see the views from there - quite beautiful. We grabbed lunch at the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge (really nice lodge) and then went on a relaxing 2.5 hour cruise on the Zambezi River. We later celebrated our last night in Zimbabwe with a meat lovers meal at the Pride Rock Carnivore Restaurant where we had our first ostrich, kudu and impala among other grilled meats.
Micro Lighting Over the Falls
Egypt
Our next adventure was to Egypt where we spent 15 days. Danelle and Russ joined us (including Tracy and Dave) for portions of this leg of the trip. Once we arrived in Cairo, Keith, Russ and Shawna went straight to Luxor while Tracy, Dave and Danelle stayed in Cairo for a few days. In Luxor, we stayed at the Windsor Hotel - we upgraded to a place that had air conditioning (which was much needed) for $30/night! After walking around town, we took a felucca sunset boat ride with Yassar, who proclaimed himself to be the King of the Nile! We were only on the boat for an hour so needless to say we didn't get very far. We later dined on some yummy Egyptian food at the Ali Baba Rooftop Restaurant.
The next day, we spent most of the day at the Valley of the Kings where we almost got arrested - Russ and Keith tried to pass off tickets to get in one person for free and the guards were not too happy. Thankfully, they did not cart us away to jail! While there, we saw Nefertiti's Tomb, 3 tombs at the Valley of the Queens (which we not as impressive), and the tombs of Tuthmosis III, Ramses VI and Septah which were amazing -- we couldn't believe how well preserved they were. We also visited Hathseputt (which was the mother of all temples) and Ramesseum (which was mostly in ruins). It was so flipping hot (aka Africa hot) that we had to cool down at what has got to be the coldest McDonalds on the face of the planet. Later that evening, we went to the sound and light show at the Karnak Temple (yes, it was a cheesy as it sounds). The temple is amazing but the show was over the top with melodramatic narration about the lives of some of the kings who had lived there. We made the best of it, sipping Egyptian wine and munching on wheat thins and cheese whiz (classy, right?). On the way back to the hotel, we caught a ride with Mohammed (a unique name for Egypt!) on his buggy -- well, we got a flat so Mohammed just taped the tire together and kept going -- a mechanics work at its best! Later that night, Dave, Tracy and Danelle met up with us at the hotel.
Hathseputt
We returned to the Karnak Temple during the day which was much more impressive than our previous evening's experience. We also visited the Luxor Museum and then took a motor boat over to Banana Island which is a banana plantation. We had the pleasure of meeting Mr Lovely (the captain of the island) whom we watched smoke hashish from a huge bong.
Keith, Russ and Shawna left the gang to fly to Sharm-el-Sheikh, a resort town on the Red Sea, where we spent the next few days diving with the Red Sea Dive College. There were not any 'budget' accommodations in this town so we ended up at the Sanifir in Na'ama Bay. Keith and Russ went out on dives together, while I completed the open water course -- I got certified even though I never quite perfected the buoyancy thing!
After two days of diving, we rented a car and drove to the town of Dhaba (a cute, beach town) and then on to St. Catherine's Monastery where we stayed one night. We got up super early the next day (2am) to start our hike up Mt. Sinai in order to arrive at the summit in time for sunrise. After about 2 hours of hiking, we made it to the top and found a relaxing spot on a rock. As the sun rose, we realized that there were hundreds of people around us so it was not quite a romantic sunrise! We returned to Na'ama Bay for a few more days of diving where Tracy, Dave and Danelle met up with us. We took the advance course to go on deep dives; however, I never made it as my ears were not cooperating below 8 meters -- after seeing a doctor at one of the hotels, it turns out that I had a sinus infection which was blocking one of my ears! Keith completed the advanced course, doing drift dives, deep water drives, wreck dives and even a couple of night dives. While Tracy, Dave and Keith dove, Danelle and Shawna relaxed on the beach for a couple of days and went snorkeling.
We left the gang behind again and took a bus to Alexandria on a quest to see the famous light house there. We arrived to find that not only was the light house no longer there, but the town is nothing to write home about. We walked around the Fort and saw Pompey's Pillar, and the catacombs (which were quite interesting). We did have one funny experience -- we decided to see Blade with Wesley Snipes in the movie theater for $1/person. The Egyptians in the crowd talked through the whole movie (since it had subtitles in Egyptian, I guess they didn't need the sound) and there was construction going on outside of the theater so we never really heard much of the dialog (not that there was much dialog to hear given that it's an action film).
We returned to Cairo for one night and thankfully only one night. The hotel (and we use that word loosely) was disgusting. The halls were dark and dirty and the room was even worse. We toured the city for a day and a half, seeing Muhammed Ali's Mosque at the Citadel, Ibn Tulun Mosque (one of the biggest in the world), and the Cairo Museum where we saw King Tut's exhibit. We also spent about a half a day at the Pyramids in Giza where we saw the Sphinz and climbed into one of the pyramids. The passageway was quite narrow and Keith got claustrophobic (big time), knocking people over as he climbed back out. Of course, it would not be a trip to Cairo without a camel ride (including a turban on the head) and a visit to a carpet factory -- so we obliged. We were skeptical about how many of the carpets were truly made by hand at the carpet factory as they had thousands for sale -- they would have had to start in the era when the pyramids were being built to get that many carpets made!
Pyramids of Giza
At the airport in Cairo we went separate ways. Keith had to fly back to the States to attend Deborah and Damian's wedding while Shawna flew to Israel to meet up with Tracy, Dave and Danelle. Keith met up with the gang in Israel a week later. Shawna did not have the best experience at the Cairo airport, as they grilled her with many questions (apparently a single girl traveling alone is suspicious), went through all of her personal items (including reading my journal) and took away my camera, telling her that I could collect it at the airport in Israel -- she really thought I would never see the camera again. The security also escorted her to the gate where I was searched again. With this much security, it's a wonder that terrorists still get away with what they do!
Obligatory Camel Ride
Continue on to our Mediterranean blog for more information about this trip.
Over the Christmas holidays while at Duke, we wanted to do a bit of an adventurous trip with Kim and Tom, and since Shawna had decided she liked hiking (other than the blisters) while in Montana the previous summer, we decided to go big. We opted for a 6 day hike in Torres del Paine National Park in Chile. Keith's sister Margaret and Kim's sister Kerry also joined us for this adventure.
The route there took us through Santiago for a quick connection. We jumped on a 737 to fly to Punta Arenas on the "milk route" since the plane stopped a couple of times on the way there. It was on this part of the trip that the group started reading the details of the hike in Lonely Planet's Trekking in the Patagonian Andes - a few of the group had not quite understood what they had signed up for! Once we arrived in Puenta Arenas, we then had to get a five-hour bus to Puerto Natales - a long way door to door!
Puerto Natales
We stayed one night in Puerto Natales where there is not much to see -- it is more of a landing stop to get to the park. We went out to dinner and were excited with one place that had a plethora of beer options on the menu. Come to find out, they really only had one beer which was the local beer. We discovered this after we attempted to order about 4 different beers - after being told they did not have that kind, we finally asked what they did had and were left with only the local beer to select.
The following day, we wanted to leave our luggage at the hotel in Puerto Nateles, but oddly a combined 20+ years of high school Spanish left us struggling for the word for "luggage" - which after several minutes we figured out was "equipage"! We then took the bus to Torres del Paine National Park, where we stayed at the Hosteria Las Torres for one night.
Hike to Paine Massif
Before setting out on our trek, we did a day hike from the Hosteria to Torres del Paine Lookout. This is a long day trip - about five hours round trip. The views of the Paine Massif are spectacular, rising out of the plain from just above sea level to ~3000 meters. It was a bit of a cloudy and windy day so not the best weather for a hike, but stunning none the less.
The first challenge!
One of the camp sites
The following day we set out for our six day trek. We had to carry everything for our six days: tents, sleeping bags, food, and cooking equipment. There was much debate (and continues to be so) about how much each of us carried - the boys seem to think that they carried 70+ pounds and that number increases each time the story is told! Our overnights were at Puesto Seron, Refugio Lago Dickson, Campamento Los Perros, Campamento Paso, and Refugio Grey camp sites, with our trek concluding at Lago Pehoe where we took the ferry to the road and the bus back to the Hosteria. The trek was gorgeous, with incredible, diverse scenery -- from green forests, to rocky mountains to glaciers. It was also the hardest thing we had all done - the days were all 8-10+ hours of hiking, so we ended up at every camp ready for sleep!
A few highlights from the hike:
For the most part, the hike was well sign-posted; however, one day, we did get lost which probably added another 2 hours to our hike.
Our food consisted of trail mix, oatmeal, granola bars and pasta. One night, we had mashed potatoes and veggie burgers (from dehydrated packaging) - this did not make some of our stomachs feel to good the next day so we gave the rest of it away to some poor, unsuspecting hiker.
We found ourselves having to cross a steep ravine which was fine until we had to climb up the other side. We had to rock climb up about 15-20 foot with our backpacks on. At one point, Tom threw down a rope to Shawna to hang on - she thought it was a shoe string and thought him crazy to think she would rely on it. Come to find out it was a super strength rock climbing rope!
One evening, we did not quite make it to our campsite so we had to camp on the side of a hill, fighting tiny flies all night.
One morning, we woke up and it was snowing outside so we opted to sleep in to wait for the weather to pass before we ventured out for the day.
We had to hike over a pass that was packed with snow which took quite a bit of time, zig-zagging across to make sure we didn't slip. Kim, Tom and Kerry were not prepared for this with their clothing (they opted to ignore Keith's packing list) so we had to tape trash bags around their legs to protect them from getting wet from the snow. We were so proud when we made it to the top but the hard part did not end. We then had to hike down (or more like slide down) a steep hillside that was quite muddy - so we slid from tree to tree like tarzan as we managed to get down the hill.
We only had one shower during the hike and it was probably the coldest shower we have ever taken since the water was coming from the glacier - we never thought our heads could hurt so much!
The above sounds like it was miserable and at times, it was! But it was also amazing - the scenery was stunning and it was quite a feat for us to finish this hike. And of course, we have these stories and memories to laugh at for a long time.
After the trek, we headed back to Puenta Arenas and got a flight to Buenas Aires where we spent three days living a more sophisticated life! We toured around the city seeing the Plaza del Mayo (including the Catedral Metropolitan and the Casa Rosada) and the Teatro Colon. We also walked around the barrios of La Boca (quite colorful houses) and Recoleta (where we went to the Cementario de la Recoleta where many famous Argentinians are buried).
Margaret relaxing!
From Buenas Aires, we flew back to Santiago, arriving at 10pm and since we departed at noon the next day, we did not really see the city at all.
