December 6, 2008 Salvador de Bahia, Brazil

Translated it means, Our Savior of the Bay, Salvador de Bahia was the first capital of Brazil and the first major port. African slaves first came here to be sold and the African influences can be seen today. Ladies wearing rolled up scarves on their heads, the popular drum music and the cuisine is all said to have an African influence. We were stuck by the lovely colonial architecture of this city of over 2,250,000 inhabitants.

We arrived earlier than expected, so we were off the ship by 10:00am to the top of the old town area. The lovely bahiana ladies, dressed with colorful scarves on their head and large hooped skirts engulfed us after we got off the shuttle. They wanted to have their pictures taken with us… for a cost we found out afterward. Two ladies each asked 2 reals each for the opportunity to have their pictures taken with us. So goes the entrepreneurship of Bahia.

After we got out of the clutches of the bahianas, we enjoyed walking around the old town area, looking at the artwork, leather sandals, people watching and listening to the drum practice. Being a Saturday, everyone was out walking and enjoying the city. We stopped back by the main square and watched the capoeira practice. These are men who practice a musical kickfighting ritual from their African ancestors. As we took pictures, we were approached by the men asking for money for the picture we had taken. We just walked off.

There is a picturesque elevator that links the upper and lower towns, so for .05 reals, we rode the elevator to the lower town and did some shopping in the Mercato Modela. This is the old slave market that has been turned into a souvenir area where vendors sell hammocks, t-shirt and musical instruments, to name a few.

Crystal wanted to try the local delicacy, coconut water. So for 1 Brazilian real, the three of us sipped straws in a green coconut with the top macheted (sp) off. Not considered the safest area, we walked in the median, past the tourist police back the ship.

Next, more from Brazil…..

December 3-4, 2008 Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

November 28, 2008 Jamestown, St. Helena, UK

November 24-25, 2008 Walvis Bay, Namibia

November 20-22, 2008 Cape Town, South Africa

November 17-20, 2008 Madikwe Private Game Reserve, South Africa

It is so difficult to describe the wonders of the bush, I doubt I will do it justice.

We (ten of us from the ship) left the ship on November 17, were driven to the Richards Bay Airport. It was interesting to see a place that looked familiar again. It has been so long since we saw buildings and homes that looked like home and lots of English signs. We all got on a plane to Johannesburg, the capital of South Africa, and were driven to another airport on the other side of the city. It was interesting to see the major highways that looked so much like home, with the exception of the cars driving on the left side of the road. We met our pilot, who gave each of us our tickets and we got on our chartered flight to Madikwe Hills.

On our arrival, we were greeted by two zebra and impala just off the dirt runway. We divided up in our respective Range Rovers as Crystal and I went to Madikwe Hills Lodge and the others went to Mateya. On the way to our lodge, we encountered a giraffe and some elephants. What a way to start our safari. When we reached the lodge we found out that the afternoon safari ride had already begun, so Crystal and I got acquainted with our “room” and decided to go into our private plunge pool. As we enjoyed the cool waters, we watched a storm go across the bush. It was a magnificent sight to see. Afterwards, we enjoyed the setting sun over the mountains.

We were fortunate to have this safari put together for us by our travel agent, who had also brought a group of our virtual friends to Madikwe, too. After they returned from their drive, we all met up for dinner. What fun we had meeting so many of our online friends, finally.

The next morning we were awakened at 4:30am by a phone call from our ranger, Frans. After a quick coffee and sweet roll, we were off on our first game drive. The highlight of the morning was our first lion. It was so exciting to see a lion pride of dad, mom and two cubs. We enjoyed watching them roam and rest right alongside our rover. After we watched for awhile, we heard another lion a few miles off roaring for a long time. It was amazing to hear the delightful sound. After a bit of time, we saw our daddy lion roar back to his brother. It was unbelievable the sound of that roar. We wondered in where the sound came from…. somewhere deep, deep inside that animal. It was time for us to go, so off we went and just up the path we saw the horns of a wildebeest and that is all. Frans guessed it was dinner for the lion family. Just a few feet later we encountered a pack of wildebeest, most likely soon to be another lion meal.

Now the drives seem to run together, but we saw loads of giraffe, elephants and impala. Frans and Max, our tracker, laughingly called the impala McDonald’s due to the M shape markings on their backsides. On one morning game drive we saw two kudu. We had had kudu for our dinner meal the night before and Frans said, “Yes, there are two less today.” He was only joking.

Our most memorable drive was to find the African wild dogs. We didn’t think much of it at the time, but with only 3000 left on Earth and with what we saw, we were ones of the very few to see some. On that afternoon drive, we drove for over an hour to the east side of the game reserve. After reaching the fence, we stopped and waited. Frans was in radio contact with other rangers on the reserve and knew they were on the way. In the far distance, we could barely make out dots that were the wild dogs. Twenty-three in all they pranced down the dirt road in bunches. Some of them were loners; some came in groups of three or four across, others in a single line of 5. The best part was seeing the seven pups just two weeks out of the den. Still pups, they had found a piece of cardboard and had a playful time jogging up the road pulling that cardboard for another’s mouth. As the playing was going on, the older dogs stopped in the road and waited for the youngens to meet up with them. Finally all were accounted for and the packed left us for the bush. Not long after leaving the dogs, a ranger reported that they had taken down a wildebeest.

More safari to come .......

November 17, 2008 Richard's Bay & Johannesburg, South Africa