Zanzibar is a magical place

We are sitting in an internet cafe in Stonetown, the capital of Zanzibar, a tiny little dot of an island in the Indian Ocean. It's as beautiful as you think it is. Since we last updated you all we left Zambia after spending way too much time in expensive Livingstone, and drove to Malawi. The scenery is getting more and more beautiful as we drive further away from flat, arid Botswana. Malawi is pretty small, but they say over-populated and impoverished. Statistically somewhere between 30 and 35% of the population has HIV/AIDS, and more than half the population is under 15 years old. The population of children was very noticeable. We spent 4 days camping on the beaches of Lake Malawi which is this huge fresh water lake that sits between Malawi, Tanzania and Mozambique. When I say we camped on the beach, I mean we were right onthe sand, and if there was a tide our tent would have been swept away.The sand was coarse, but white, and the water was crystal clear, blue. There was a pretty decent surf. It was like the perfect beach: just as beautiful as being on the ocean, but with out the salt. One day, Michael and I rented a canoe and snorkle masks and we canoed out to this tiny, rocky island in the lake. The canoes weren't like our N. American canoes. They weren't very stable and we had to keep stopping to bale out water (we were using our snorkle masks). Some ofour friends capsized a couple of times, but that was OK, because there are no sharks in Lake Malawi. We snorkled around the island for a couple of hours. It was like swimming in a fish tank; it was crazy clear. And the fish were the brightest, most colorful fresh water fish I've ever seen! Neon blues and purples. Then we climbed on the island for a little bit. The rocks were black and hot on our feet. A giant fish eagle swooped down and came within a couple of feet from knocking Michael in the head. The view from the top of the island was ridiculous. There are mountains that just poor into the beach.The next day we went on a village walk just outside our campground. We went with a pretty big group. There was one main guide, Jon, and about a dozen and a half other "guides" who walked with us, ultimately trying to sell us stuff. We walked through the village and Jon showed us one of their water pumps and explained how they build their homes.

All the little kids came running out to us and I walked with 3 little ones. At one point I got distracted, giving them each a turn at being picked up, and when I looked up again my group was gone; I was left behind. It was OK though because my friend, Seone was left behind too and a "guide", Dan, stayed behind with us. Well, Dan ended up giving Seone and me our own personal tour and it was great. We met his pregnant sister, and we met a grandmother bringing her grandson back from the clinic with a sore on his leg. And Dan showed us how they grow cassava (one of their main staples) and he dug the root of one up for us so we could try it. It was great! (Dan was ultimately trying to sell us stuff too, so Michael and I bought a small painting from himfor like $4).The next day after that we went to another village, Chimtuba, and we bought this awesome teak carved chair of giraffs and a baobab tree for$15 and a coke. That was fun. And then we hung out on the beach withsome of the local boys and Michael showed them his sketch book and gave one of them his bracelet. They were really cool. At first they tried to sell us stuff, too, but when we showed them we had no money, they just hung out with us. I got the camera and they were all fighting with each other to get their picture taken. They loved to pose and then see the picture on the digital camera. So now we're in Zanzibar, Tanzania. Tanzania is more picturesque and more colorful than the other African countries we've seen so far. Well, maybe not more picturesque, just different. It's more Eastern influenced (squat toilets). Zanzibar is ridiculously beautiful. Wespent 2 days on the beach. The sand is like flour - soft and powdery.The water is like neon blue and warm. We tried to go snorkling oneday, but all of the sudden we found ourselves swimming in a swarm of jellyfish. We freaked out a bit and got out of there. We didn't really get stung, just little pin pricks, but it was crazy scarey. That night we went for a walk on the beach. We sat just looking at the stars, andt his Massai guy came and sat with us. His name was Yacob. He's from the Massai tribe on the main land and I guess owners of shops bring the tribal guys out to the island to help them sell stuff. Yacob was awesome. He didn't speak much English, but we taught him some more words, and he tried to teach us some Swahili. We hung out with him for like 2 hours.Yesterday we took a tour of the island. We went to the old slave market, and palace ruins, and an old Arab fort, and then we took a tour of a spice plantation. Zanzibar is the spice capital of theworld. For lunch they served us fresh fruit from the farm: oranges, passion fruit, custard melon, mango, mangostein, rambutan, bananas, pineapple, and teas: lemon grass, marsala, and ginger. It was great.Then they showed us how all the spices are grown, and this guy climbed up like a 30 foot coconut tree (I don't really know how tall it was -I'm really bad at estimating, but it was freakin' tall) and he dropped down a bunch of conocnuts, so we had coconut milk and meat for desert. Last night we had dinner at a vegetarian restaurant! and then walked around a night market. We've discovered that if we tell people that we're from America (b/c everyone asks) they want to sell you shit and they try to rip you off. So now we tell people we're from Dry Tortuga. No one knows where or what that is, so they just leave us alone, orthey just chat with us. It's good. Well, we go back to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania today and then to Arusha and then to the Ngorogoro Crater and then the Serengeti and then Nairobi and then Cairo. We are happy and having a wonderful time. We'll upload more pictures when we get some time, and I'll try to update our blog. I know, I've beenslacking.

Floatin' down the Zambezi!

Well we made it to Zambia on Tuesday and this is the first day we made it into town. We are staying at a camp ground about 2 km from town,but a $10 cab ride. Everything here is super expensive! The internet at the campground costs $6 an hour! By far the most expensive we've seen so far. They suggested not walking to town, b/c elephants roam around and you could get trampled. Well, after spending 3 days at the campground with nothing to do, we decided to risk it. Seven of us took the hour walk to the shops, and here we are. We didn't see so much as a bird, let alone an elephant! I think they just told us not to, to cover their own asses. Anyway, we are still having an incredible time! Since I last wrote (was that Monday?) we took a ferry across the Zambezi River to enter Zambia from Botswana. That was really neat, but we weren't allowed to take any pictures b/c it was a border crossing. Once in Zambia we drove to Victoria Falls and spent a couple hours walking around, taking pictures. It's the dry season right now, so the falls aren't at their biggest, but they are still spectacular! I would venture to say more spectacular than even Niagra Falls. Unfortunately, the best viewsare from the Zimbabwean side, so needless to say we won't be getting to see those. It's actually safe in Zimbabwe at the falls, but it would cost like $150 to get a Zimbabwe visa that we'd only need for a couple hours. Oh well. On Wednesday we went white water rafting down the Zambezi River, starting just below the falls. It was probably the most fun I've ever had!!! Definitely the highlight of the trip so far. There were 7 of us from our group that went. We had to climb down the side of the gorge to get in the rafts at a point they call the Boiling Point. Our guide's name was Baby Face! He was great. After giving us some pointers and having us jump in the water to practice getting back in the raft (the water was actually quite comfortable), we spent 2 hours floating along the rapids. We went through 9 rapids, and walked around 1. There were 3 class 5 rapids which are the highest grade you can do commercially (the one we walked around was a class 6!). It was scary, but so much fun!!! Our raft capsized once on one of the class 5 rapids, but I never fell out (the raft actually fell over me), and everyone stayed with the raft. And on another class 5 our raft literally went verticle and we surfed a wave for a few seconds before crashing down again. We all thought for sure we were going to flip, but we didn't. But our guide was catipulted out of the raft when we landed, so all of the sudden we were floating down the river backwards with no directions! But before we knew it, a guide from a boat that had 2 guides was jumping into our raft and directing us along. So we were all OK (and we picked Baby Face up just a bit further down the river). It was seriously an awesome day! I wish we could do it again! Yesterday we just hung out at our campsite (did laundry), hung around the pool. Livingstone is really very expensive, so we won't be doing too much. We are here until Sunday when we drive into Malawi.

The Kalahari and The Okavongo Delta

We're in Botswana now - Kasane, Botswana. It's hot and dry here... it feels like the freakin' Kalahari! Wait, it is! We woke up before dawn this morning to go on a game drive in Chobe NP. It was wonderful. We had a great guide who took us out an hour longer than planned because he kept trying to get us to see lions and leopards (which we kept missing - oh well). But we saw tons of hippos and crocs and and elephants (Chobe is known for their elephant population - they have over 40,000 in just 18,000 sq. km) and we saw sable antelope (probably the prettiest antelope) and baboons with their little babies and black-faced impala. It was a good drive. This afternoon we are going on a riverboat game drive for 3 hours and we're told that's supposed to be even better. Since we last had access to the internet we spent a night in Maun, Botswana and then we headed into the Okavongo Delta - the highlight onthis trip so far. We drove into the delta and then got into these traditional canoes called mokoros. There were 2 people and a poler who drives and steers in each mokoro. Our poler's name was Oates. He was the best! He stopped at his village on our way to the island we were going to be camping on, and invited us in to meet his family. It was wonderful. Everyone in his village grew up there and they are all polers. Oates learned when his father made him his own mokoro when he was only 6. Then he took us to a small island where we set up camp, and that afternoon he took us to a place he said was safe from hippos and crocs (ok?) so we could go swimming (we swam in the OkavongoDelta!!!) and then he let Michael try poling the mokoro, so we zigged and zagged our way in and out of the reeds back to our island. That night they took us on a game walk, and while we were still on the mokoros we were charged by a huge bull elephant. All the polers were really scared so they all scattered and hid us in the reeds. That night all the polers sang and danced for us around the camp fire. The next day we went for a game walk again in the morning, and then the polers took us back to the mokoro station. On the way back, a hippo came up out of the water and knocked the mokoro next to us, almost tipping it over. No one fell out and no one was hurt, but they say we were all crazy lucky b/c that hippo could have done some serious damage and killed us all!

Enkosini on a quad

Enkosini, originally uploaded by chase the rising sun.

From the Savanna of South Africa!

Sorry it's been a while since our last update, but we were hustling & bustling in Paris for a week, and since leaving the City of Lights wehave been far far away from any cell signals and internet connections (we had to drive an hour just to get this connection, which could bedropped at any moment). Pretty much, we've been living in Paradise! Our days here at Enkosini (the volunteer project we are currentlyworking on) have so far consisted of fire scouting (it's the dryseason), ripping out miles of barbed-wire fencing (thank goodness forthat tetanus vac.; the wounds on our arms bear the story of our labor), digging holes, playing with adorable, baby vervet monkeys, and hiking for miles upon miles through the mountains, with the rangers keenly on the look out for poachers. For Michael's birthday on Friday (thank you for all the emails!), we celebrated by visiting an untouched, unspoiled waterfall of indescribable beauty. That evening Lauren and one of the other volunteers (there are only 2 others) even attempted to make him a birthday cake - using the sparse ingredients we could scavenge and pull together at the ranger station (our home for 3 weeks). Our muscles are sore, but we are happy. We miss you all very much -you are in our thoughts! Write us when you can - we enjoy hearingwhat's happening in your worlds. And we promise to write you back,update our blog, and upload new photos as soon as we get a decent connection. Much Love and Buy a Donkey (Afrikaans for "thank you" - for real!),
Lauren and Michael