Fascinating South Africa

“He who goes to bed with itchy butt, wakes up with stinky hand” – Zach telling one of our safari guides his version of a proverb. The safari guides had better ones…

Note: I have been receiving all your feedback about my blog through my parents or email, and I appreciate all the wonderful comments. Many of you said my entries were quite long, so I will try to make them a little shorter from now on. I just don’t want to leave out all the good details! Also, I am just about out of internet minutes, so please do not expect me to respond quickly to emails. Keep sending them though, because I will be going to internet cafes in port. Also don’t forget to email me any interesting things that are going on in the news, world, or US. I am so far removed from everything, and I don’t know what is going on anywhere. I would love to hear stories from home or wherever too. Thank you, and let us move on to South Africa…

I could move here, live here, die here, and be the happiest person alive. South Africa, and Cape Town to be more specific, has now taken the top spot as my favorite place I have ever visited. This country is absolutely amazing. Besides its beautiful scenery and awesome nightlife, the people who live here are the most easy going and nicest people I have encountered in my travels. The weather didn’t get much above 80 degrees, but it did get a little chilly at night. It beats Syracuse any day. That being said, here’s my story:

We arrived off the coast of Cape Town last Tuesday at about 6:15am. I had decided to get up and watch the sunrise with several other people. We watched the sunrise at about 6:25, and it was beautiful. The sun rose up from behind the mountains and peeked out from behind the most famous mountain; table mountain. It was very foggy outside, but it started to clear up, or so I thought. After the great sunrise, we headed in to have some breakfast. While eating breakfast, an announcement came over the loudspeaker. “This is an important announcement. Due to the heavy fog, the port of Cape Town is currently closed. We will notify you with any updates.” It doesn’t sound all that bad, right? Just hang out for a few hours on the ship while the fog clears, and then we pull in. Wrong. You have no idea how much the anticipation hurts when you look out at the city of Cape Town with a backdrop of African mountains, and can’t get off to see it. Well we waited around until about 11am until we were finally able to dock. The ship pulled into the port, and all the South Africans were waving to us as we docked. Immigration boarded, and we were told it would not take as long to clear the ship as it did in Brazil. Wrong again. We were not cleared until 1:30pm. Unfortunately, I could not go right out and explore. I only signed up for one trip through SAS for the 6 days we were there, and it was the first day at 2:00. Ryan was on it with me, and we went to go meet with the trip group. I had signed up to go visit a township. A township is basically the slums of South Africa. It is where the poorest people live.

We boarded the buses and first headed to a museum. I won’t get into the details about the museum because it was pretty boring. Lots of people liked it, but I’m not a museum person I guess. After that we visited the township. At the Langa township, we got off the buses and were led on a walking tour by the guide. I am going to try and put this experience into the best summary that I can, but let me tell you that this experience was so emotionally effective, I believe I view human life in a new way now. Sounds corny, I know, but just listen. We began walking around the township. Langa is very poor, but it is one of the less poor townships that exist in South Africa. We walked down the streets, which were full of trash, and people sitting or laying on the sidewalk. Accompanying all of this were many stray dogs that looked disheveled and hungry. Several of the people came and talked to us, excited to meet an American. They showed us the ‘African handshake’, and let us take pictures of them and their surroundings. The deeper we got into the township, the poorer and more populated it became. Everywhere we went, we were bombarded by children. I have found that no matter where you travel, children will always come up to you and want their picture taken. Cameras were like candy to these kids. They posed over and over so we could take pictures of them. Afterwards we would show them the picture on the camera and they would get excited and want to take more. The kids were absolutely adorable, and hundreds of them followed us wherever we went. Aside from their wonderful personalities, their fondness of Americans, and the language barrier, there were some disturbing things. Almost all of them were poorly dressed, barely wearing the proper amount of clothing. I only saw a few wearing a pair of shoes. This was especially an eye opener because most of them were showing off for us and doing back flips and cartwheels. The ground is all sand and dirt, and absolutely covered with broken glass. It was very sad to see these children playing in these conditions. We visited the inside of a home, if you can even call it that. These are the people’s homes, but if you saw this, you might not even consider it anything that comes close to a home. Everything was cement with a tin roof, and there was very little of anything inside. The beds were made of concrete, and there was one bed per family. The mother and father sleep in the bed, and the children sleep on the floor. Homes are rented per bed, and a family will pay approximately 20 Rand per month, which is about $3.00 US. As we walked around the township and interacted with the people, I was shocked at especially one thing. They were some of the happiest and nicest people I have ever met, and they live in a shithole. It really puts a perspective on things when you see someone living in the worst conditions imaginable, and they love life and where they live. Every person I talked to was so happy to be living where they were. They know that they are the lowest class, but they don’t care. They take life as it is, they love it, and they live it. This to me was a new and important aspect to my view on human life. The gap between not only the wealthy and poor in South Africa, but the way we live in the states compared to what they live here, is just too great to fathom. It is so impossible to comprehend the gap in the social status, that it leaves me with this new understanding. I don’t view these people as poor now. My definition of poor has changed. The people I view as poor are us as Americans. We are poor in a way because do not seem to have the luxury of loving life as much as these people do. They are so caring and generous in a way that makes you realize that life has nothing to do with wealth or social class, but with the way you make the best out of it.

I saw some things I will choose not to write about, as I am going to try and keep this blog as clean and enjoyable as possible. I would like you to know though, that some of the things I encountered were the real deal, and it will stay with me the rest of my life. As we were leaving the township, I wandered over to where some cooking was taking place over an open fire with some pots. The meat I observed was dirty and old. There were bugs on it and it was out in the hot sun. I noticed that one of the women was taking something large out of a pot and placing it with a number of other large items on a table. I went over to see, and I realized what she was cooking. One by one, she was removing full cooked sheep heads from a pot.

Like I said before, it is impossible for me to convey what I experienced through a blog entry on the internet. It really is something that needs to be experienced in order to fully understand it, but I hope I gave you as much of a perspective on it as I could.

I know I am not the only one who came away from this experience with a new view and understanding of things. We boarded the bus for our return to the ship. The ride home was very quiet, no one said a word.

When we arrived back at the ship, Ryan and I met up with Mark, Quinn, Leah, Jess, Caroline, and Morgan, and we all headed out to a restaurant. We ate on the waterfront just a little ways from the ship, and we decided to stay there for the rest of the night. There was a live band playing and they had great drinks. One of them was called, “Call Me a Taxi.” I don’t remember what was in it, but it was amazing. After our night, and Jess almost getting arrested by South African police (long story not worth telling, believe me), I headed back to the ship around midnight. It was pretty early, but I had to pack and leave for a safari at 4:45am, so I wanted to get a few hours of sleep in. Well of course I talked to a few people when I returned, so I didn’t get to sleep until about 2. I woke up at 4, packed my bag, and headed to meet my group outside the ship. We had organized a safari by ourselves, because the SAS one was not only full, but ridiculously expensive. All together, we ended up spending $1000 less by doing it ourselves than through SAS. We went to Cape Town airport where we caught our flight to Johannesburg. Once again, flying here is so different than in the U.S. They played music on the plane as we were getting on and off. I heard Ludacris, Coldplay, and other American artists. It was pretty funny. When we arrived in Johannesburg, we met a representative from the safari company. There were 22 of us, and we loaded into the vans and began the drive to Kruger National Park. Kruger is world famous for its animals and beauty. It is a big 5 park, which means you can see the 5 main animals of Africa. They are the lion, buffalo, elephant, leopard, and rhino. The drive to Kruger took 5 hours, but the scenery was unbelievable. Time for another sentimental section… While we were driving, I had slept most of the way due to my very long 2 hours of sleep the night before. I woke up about an hour before we got to Kruger. This was the second day we were in South Africa, and it still had not hit me yet that I was actually here. While I was watching the beautiful rolling, green, huge, abundant mountains go by, I turned on my iPod. I began listening to songs by Jimmy Buffett about traveling, and that is when it hit me. I was in South Africa. I literally almost cried, but I didn’t! I wish I could explain the beauty of the landscape, but you will just have to see my pictures. They don’t do it justice, but you can get an idea.

When we reached Kruger, we were met by our safari guides. There were about 10 of them. We loaded into 4X4 Land Rovers, and drove to our campsite. On the way we saw many impala, which our guides said we will be sick of after a while because they are all over the park. Impala are a deer like animal if you don’t know. We reached the campsite, and I was heavily impressed. The company, Siyabona Africa, was so professional. They had the nicest camping gear I have ever seen, and there was a huge table under a tent with a white table cloth, candles, wine glasses, and neatly folded napkins. They mixed elegance with ruggedness, and it was so cool. We then departed for a game drive that lasted about 2 hours. On the drive I saw elephants, rhinos, buffalo, more impalas, and my favorite animal, the giraffe. We then came back and boarded a different jeep and took a night drive. It was awesome. We saw 3 lions, and they were just laying in the road. We watched them for a while, and they eventually got up, walked right past our vehicles, and walked down the dirt road. We followed them for about 10 minutes, and then they went up into the bushes. It was amazing being that close to a lion in the wild. I could have stuck my hand out and pet one of them, that’s how close I was. Of course, I valued not only my hand, but my life, so I opted not to do that. We came back to the campsite, and ate an amazing dinner. They had chefs there who cooked all the food, and it felt like we where in a restaurant. After dinner, all the guides and staff, about 30 of them, sang African songs and danced for us around the fire. I truly felt like I was experiencing Africa, and it was awesome. We stayed up until about 1am talking and having fun, and then we went to sleep in our tents.

We were woken up at 5am to go on a morning drive. This was the best drive of the 3 days. My van saw a leopard that day, and it was amazing. It wandered around our vehicle for about 2 or 3 minutes, then took off into the brush. Our guide said it was very rare to see one, and he hadn’t seen one since November. Sometimes people go six months without seeing one. So me and everyone in my vehicle were proud to say that we were the only ones who had seen the big 5. It was pretty cool, everyone was jealous of our leopard story. We came back, ate breakfast then lunch, and took an afternoon drive. We saw all the usual animals again, and I took tons of pictures of the giraffes because I love them. They are the most unique animal, and I find them so cool. We then stopped at the store after our drive, and I picked up a cool Kruger Park polo shirt, a wood carved giraffe, and a shot glass, all for about 300 Rand, or $50 US. After that we hung around the camp for the night. We tried to find bush babies, a small furry animal, in the trees with one of the guides, but had no luck. We went to bed late, around 2, and then woke up at 5am again. We took another 3 hour morning drive, and once again saw all the cool animals we had seen before. We got back, ate breakfast, then the vans picked us back up and headed back to Johannesburg airport. We had a while before our flight, so we watched a rugby game in a bar with some crazy South Africans, and did some shopping in the stores. Apparently, the athletic manufacturer for a lot of rugby gear is a company named Gilbert. So, I bought a rugby ball that says Gilbert in big letters. After our waiting, we got on our 9pm flight, and headed back to Cape Town. Remember when I wrote about the airlines in Brazil that sat the random person in the jump seat in the cockpit? Well they did it again! The flight was overbooked, and they sat a girl in the jump seat in the cockpit. The cockpit door was open the whole time and she chatted with the pilots. You would never see that in the U.S.! My friend Greg couldn’t believe it, and I told him it’s not the first time it has happened. We arrived back in Cape Town around 11, took a cab back to the ship, and I once again got caught up chatting with people until early in the morning.

That night I had made plans with some people to visit Cape Point, the southernmost point in not only South Africa, but the continent of Africa as well. We got up at 9am, and Mallory, Heath, and Michelle wanted to visit the stupid museum that I had been to the first day. They said they heard from everyone that it was great, so I bit my tongue and visited it for the second time. After the exhilarating museum, we grabbed a driver and got a price of 650 Rand to take us to cape point. Split up between the 4 of us, it was 150 Rand each. That is about $25 US per person. It was an hour drive there, and an hour drive back. It was an awesome price. Our driver’s name was Angus, and he was a great cab driver/tour guide. He first took us to a section of Cape Point, in Simons Town, next to Boulder’s Beach where you can see penguins. I had been talking about this all week, saying that I wanted to go there, and I was dying to visit the penguins that I heard about. We got there, and there were tons of penguins hanging around the rocks and the ocean. There were no fences, or glass enclosures, we just hung right out with the penguins. It was the coolest thing ever. If you got too close, they would waddle away or start opening their beak to tell you, “Back off or I am going to bite you”, but we were able to get up to within 2 feet of them. Here is a picture of me and the penguins:



The water at Boulder’s beach was gorgeous. I had never seen the color of the water like it before, but some of my friends thought it reminded them of Mediterranean waters. After hanging out with the penguins, taking tons of pictures, and enjoying the gorgeous views of the ocean, we headed back to the taxi and Angus. On the way back to the taxi, we saw a sign that read, “Please look under your vehicle for penguins”. So, we made sure Angus checked, and then we were on our way.

Our next stop was Cape Point, the southern most tip of Africa. We hiked to the top of a small mountain, where the tip was. It was actually a little difficult hike. There is a tram that runs to the top, but there is no fun in that. After our slightly tiring hike, we reached the tip, which was very high. There was a lighthouse and a sign. The sign was marked with arrows indicating the directions of certain cities. It had cities like, New York, Paris, and Amsterdam on it. It then told how far away they were, and they were very far. We spent some time on the tip, and then we hiked back and grabbed some ice cream at the entrance. I almost forgot to tell you about the baboons! Probably the one thing we heard most was, “do not feed the baboons, they can be aggressive”. I did not understand the seriousness of this until I was hanging around outside the entrance. I saw tons of baboons, and they are really evil! They are also very big too, about the size of a golden retriever. There was a couple sitting on a ledge, and there were some bushes behind them. Baboons are notorious for stealing food out of people’s hands and laps, and I saw this coming. The baboon was creeping through the bushes behind the lady eating her sandwich. She did not realize it was behind her, and I saw the baboon begin to reach for the sandwich. I began to yell to them to get up and out of the way, there was a baboon right behind them. Unfortunately they did not speak English, so they gave me a bunch of weird looks. I was motioning frantically with my hand and yelling for them to move as I saw the baboon’s hand behind the woman get closer to the sandwich. After they looked at me weirdly some more, one of the members of their family noticed it, and got them out of the way just in time. The baboon lunged for the sandwich but missed. It was very amusing. It was even more amusing when I was in another area, and there was an adorable kid about 6 or 7 years old who was sitting on a ledge. His parents had just bought a sandwich for him, and he set it down on the ledge. Bad idea! A baboon literally jumped up out of nowhere onto the ledge and snatched the sandwich away. The look on the kids face was priceless. The baboon, to my amazement, opened the plastic package faster than I would have been able to, and downed the sandwich in less than 2 seconds. Me and Heath were wide eyed in amazement. The kid wandered up to his parents with the empty sandwich package, and tried to tell them what happened. They weren’t speaking English, but I could tell it was a funny conversation.

So after our crazy baboon experience, Angus drove us back to the waterfront. We then grabbed some dinner at a seafood restaurant. I had a fish called kingclip, and it was delicious. There was a live band below us in the square, and we listened to them while we ate. We then headed back to the ship. I met up with some more people on the ship and we then went to a bar and had a few drinks. After that we grabbed a cab and went down to Long Street, which is where all the bars and clubs were. We hopped around for a while, and Heath and I took off a little early, around 1:30am, because I was exhausted. As I was leaving, the power went out all over Cape Town. It was insane. Before I left I made some plans with people to hike Table Mountain in the morning.

I woke up at 8am, got some breakfast then met my friends at 9. We set out for Table Mountain, and began our hike. The clouds rolled over the mountain and down onto us, and it became chilly at some points, but the view was awesome. About a quarter of the way up, we realized that we had taken the hardest hiking trail on the mountain. It was literally a vertical climb. Since we were so tired after our quarter of the way hike, we decided to head back down and take the cable car up. When we reached the bottom, we found that the power had not been restored to this section yet, and the cable cars were not running. Therefore, we did not get to see the top of Table Mountain, so we decided to head to the local street markets. We grabbed a cab, and the driver sang Neil Sedaka songs to us as he drove us to the huge Sunday street market. We shopped around for a few hours. It was really awesome. It was all these people that were selling stuff they had made. There were cool masks, paintings, figurines, and everything. I bought a small drum. I’m not sure if I mentioned it but I am collecting a drum in each country. The only port I did not get one in was Puerto Rico. So after the market, we walked a long ways back to the ship and ate some lunch on board. After lunch I headed out with my roommate Matt, Tony, Alex, Mallory, and Megan. We went and walked around the mall at the waterfront. Everything is just as expensive or more than in the U.S. An iPod costs about $480 U.S. here, as opposed to $300 back home. Ryan’s broke so he bought a new one here. The only thing I have found to have been cheaper than the states is food, drinks, and anything you barter for in the street markets. Anyways, after that we went to a Mexican restaurant. It was early, so we didn’t order any food. This restaurant is famous because if you want, for 90 Rand ($15 US), you can get a fishbowl full of a mixed drink (Margarita, etc). These aren’t the size of a fishbowl though; it is the size of a large mixing bowl. It is huge. I did not order one, so the other guys all shared one. Between the 5 of them, it took them about an hour to finish it. So after the incredible fishbowl experience, I came back to the ship and met up with some people who were getting back from safaris that left on Friday. I found out that one of the safaris missed their plane, so they weren’t going to get back until late. I didn’t know anyone on that one though. On the other safari where a lot of my friends were, a lot of them got sick on the last night from the food. My friend Mark, the one who I grew up with, was put in quarantine in his room on the ship when they got back. He had severe TD and vomiting. My friend’s Ryan and Quinn came back alright though, and we went to dinner along with Jess and Leah. We went to Ocean Basket again, the seafood place, and had great seafood. We then went back to the ship, hung out for a while watching Anchorman, and then passed out around midnight.

I woke up at 9am to Ryan banging on my door. It was the day I had been nervous about the entire week. Skydiving. We had booked skydiving the first day we were there, and we booked it for the last day in port. I had heard some stories all week from people who had been going. Some of them good, some of them a little scary, but they all said that they had the best time. I will admit it, for the adrenaline junkie I am, I was nervous. Ryan was a little nervous I could tell, but he didn’t show it much. Quinn was a wreck. We kind of joked around the whole time, and made videos on our digital cameras of our last wills. It was pretty funny. I left all my Jimmy Buffett memorabilia to my friends and family to divide amongst themselves. I thought it was sweet. Anyways, Quinn was freaking out but she was very brave, and I will get there in a second. So Ryan woke me up, then me, him, Quinn, Jess, Leah, Grant, and Tammy all went to the markets. This was a different street market, and it was still pretty cool. Ryan bought a ton of stuff, as he always does, including a 5 foot mask. I don’t know how he is going to get it back to Pittsburgh, but whatever. I bought a mask of a giraffe, and some souvenirs for people. Oh yeah, we have all become excellent price negotiators on the streets. I have always gotten the people at the markets down to almost half their original price they say. I am pretty good at it. Ryan is better, he always makes up stories about how he only has X amount of dollars on him, and he will now have to walk back to the ship because he doesn’t have any more money. They always fall for it and go down to his price. It may take like 15 minutes, but it works out good. We then made our way back to the ship to drop off our stuff then go skydiving.

After dropping off our things, we realized we were running really late. It was 12:45 and we had to meet the vans outside the aquarium at 1. We high tailed it to the aquarium, and made it just in time. We crammed the vans with people because most of the people who made reservations to go the day before got cancelled because of the weather. It was about a half an hour drive there, and the whole time we were talking and making jokes about how we were living our last few minutes of life before we die. It didn’t help when we had to sign our lives away on the waiver. It was pretty funny, and Quinn was getting mad at us. We finally reached the airfield, and we had to drive down this dirt road in the middle of nowhere until we reached a wooden sign that was handwritten that said, “airfield”. It was so sketchy and hilarious. Once there, we paid our money (1200 Rand, $200 US) and got harnessed up. For some reason I wasn’t nervous anymore. I watched the first few people before me get into the plane, and then come down about 15 minutes later and land. I got really excited to go. When it was our turn, I met my guide, Hugo, and we walked to the plane along with Ryan and his guide. We jump tandem obviously, with the guide who has the chute strapped to the back of me. We climbed into the plane, which barely fit 4 people. It was seriously the size of us. Ryan and I had to sit between our guides legs it was so small. It was a Cessna 182 if you know what that is. The planes were just coming down, picking people up, and taking right off again. There were so many of us it was just a rolling operation, it went so fast. The engines didn’t even shut off, the plane would take off, let the people jump, then come down and pick the next group up and go again. So we got in the plane, or should I say shoebox on wheels, and it took us about 10 minutes to reach 9,000 feet. The views were unbelievable. It was clear, and I could see Table Mountain, the ocean, and the beautiful landscape of South Africa. On the way up we got a crash course in what we were supposed to do. All I was instructed to do was when the door opened; Ryan and his guide would go first. Then after that, we would move over to the door (which was about 3 inches from me since the plane was so small), and I would put my left leg on the step outside. I would then put my right leg out. I would then grab my harness with both hands and we would fall out. I next had to keep my legs back, and my instructor would tap me to put my arms out. It would be a 35 second free fall, then he would pull the chute and it would be a 5 minute glide to the ground. When we were to reach the ground, I would pull my legs up and Hugo would land us.

So when we reached the 9,000 feet, they swung the door open. I put on my goggles, and I watched Ryan put his left foot out, and I looked away to turn my camera on. When I looked back, he and his guide were already gone and I saw him shoot past the window. We then moved over to the door. My left foot went out, then my right. I grabbed onto my harness with both my hands, and my camera recording video. Hugo then leaned a little forward and WOOOSH! We were gone. It happened so fast. I was in the middle of the sky. It was the most intense thing I have ever experienced. There was nothing around me but the sky, and I was falling in it. I was having the greatest time of my life. I put my arms out and it felt like I was flying. I forgot about everything and anything. I had no worries. I just enjoyed the fall. Besides the loud noise of the wind and me yelling, “WOOHOO!” the whole time, it was so peaceful. There is no way to describe it. If any of you get the chance to do this, please do it. Here is a shot of me during the free fall from my video:



After 35 seconds, Hugo yelled that he was opening the chute, and there was a big jerk. The chute flew open, and it was all of a sudden so quiet and we were gliding. Hugo and I talked the whole time, and he let me steer left and right. It was so cool, when you pull the chute left or right, you pick up speed and can spin. Hugo was really cool, and he told me that if we were birds, this is what it would feel like to be one. It must be awesome to be a bird; fly around and poop on people below all day. Sounds like a life I would be interested in living. I saw Ryan below me, and he glided down then landed on the green marker in the field outside the hangar. We then came in for our landing. Hugo told me that since there was no wind, we might fall once we hit the ground, but no big deal. As we got closer, Hugo told me that someone was waving to me from the airstrip. I looked over and it was Quinn and Jess, and I waved back to them. They were just about to get into their plane. It came time to land and I lifted my legs up, and we came in and he touched the ground. As Hugo touched and I put my legs down, our chute caught a little bit of wind and we toppled over on top of each other. It was pretty funny. We laughed, we got up, and I shook his hand, thanked him, and told him I had an AWESOME time. Ryan got my embarrassing landing on video on his camera, and my video of the whole dive on my camera is pretty cool too. After the amazing rush, we had a beer and watched our friends glide in after us. Quinn ended up loving it, which I knew she would. We all then got back into the vans and headed back to the ship. We got back on, changed clothes, and then headed to the Mexican place again. We ate a good dinner, then did some last minute shopping at the grocery store (mostly for candy), and headed back to the ship. It was the last day in port. We got back on the ship around 8pm, and on ship time (time we had to be on the ship before we leave) was 9pm. We pulled out of port a little late, around 1am. That is it for South Africa.

FYI - I am not putting up every one of my pictures on Webshots like I did for Brazil. I will select the best ones I have taken and put them up, but I can not load 200 or 300 pictures anymore, it just kills my internet minutes. So I will still be adding a ton of cool pictures, just not as much as before. Also, let me apologize, because I said in the beginning that this was going to be a short entry, and I just looked back and realized it is the longest one I have written. So, sorry it is long again, but it is hard to fit 6 days of South Africa into a short summary without leaving out all the good stuff.

So in conclusion, South Africa was incredible. I really don’t have any more words to describe it.

Some random things about South Africa:
-You are not in line anywhere; you are in “queue”.
-Shopping carts are called trolleys.
-They drive on the left side of the road here, and it is KM/hr instead of MPH.
-The nicest people in the world live here.
-South Africa is my favorite place I have ever visited.
-Food and candy is very different than in the U.S. A lot of the companies are the same, like Nestle, Kellogs, etc, but the stuff they make is very different.
-Lemonade is not lemonade; it is made by Schwepps and tastes like Sprite
-Diet coke does not exist, it is called Coca-Cola Lite.
-There are 11 languages in South Africa including English, and most people speak 8 of them.
-The terms “I give you good price”, “Special price just for you my friend”, and “Special price for you my first customer”, will always be a reminder of the street markets.
-South Africa is famous for its wine and coffee
-All the tugboats are named after wine
-Seals hung out on the docks next to our ship. They are very lazy.
-6 South African Rand is equal to $1 US.
-I have seen things here that have changed my outlook on various aspects of life and the world itself.
-I am in love with South Africa.
-I WILL BE BACK!

Some shoutouts:
Katie – I hope you feel better after your skiing injury. Maybe I can sign your cast if it is still on you when I get home. Take care of Louie for me.

Monka – Take care of Louis for me. Haha, just kidding. I will be coming down to Florida this summer for some Jimmy Buffett concerts. It will most likely be in May, I will let you know when I find out the concert dates.

Louis – The painters in these countries are so talented. You would love viewing the paintings in the markets of Brazil and South Africa. If I find one that reminds me of your paintings, I will be sure to pick it up for you.

Mom, Dad, and Katie – I talked to you on the phone a few days ago, but I hope you are enjoying your vacation in Texas. Take lots of pictures for me.

Liz – Villanova called, they said you were short 1 point on your SAT’s to meet their standards, and they won’t let you in. Just kidding, good luck, and you should have gone to Texas.

Erik Z. – Your right. Awesome.

Everyone at UNH – Hope the semester is going well. Someone send me an email and let me know who your Spring concert bands are. Miss all of you, but I will see you soon. Tivo Dog for me :-)

Syracuse – I don’t miss your cold, and get your basketball act together.

Roberta – You know I miss you so much my love! Our times at the diner, our movie nights, and our Cheeseburger in Paradise trip were the best times ever. I hope this semester is going OK for you. I will see you in May, can’t wait!

Jared – I have met some SUNY people on this trip, no one from Cobleskill though. They are all named Rowena for some reason, and they are all from concourse A… Hope your semester is going well too. Get on that SU basketball stuff for me and fix it. Matisyahu is performing in California 2 days after I get in, and my roommate is going. I am thinking about it but probably not. When I get back we are building our plane, like one we can fly.

Eric – Be ready to scuba dive this summer. We will leave Delux and Jess on the beach. Ha. Good luck in your class dude.

BuffettNewsers – I miss our discussion board, but I will be posting again soon and tailgating with all of you this Spring and Fall. I wish you all well over the next 3 months. See you in the parking lot. Fins Up!

Chris – Hold down the fort at Target for me. I am missing our Wegmans outings. Stay safe buddy, see you in a few months.

I was going to write more shoutouts, but I have to go to up to the pool deck with some people to get a smoothie. I miss you all, I am still having the time of my life here, and I will talk to you later. Mauritius in 6 days.

P.S. – I still can’t believe I jumped out of a plane.

P.P.S - Now you many finally stop reading.