Blogs from Cape Maclear, Southern, Malawi, Africa

Food diesel and soft drink shortages, riots and political unrest, Water issues and power cuts. Every day is a challenge; every problem is met with a smile. This is Malawi. Nothing surprises Malawians anymore, they battle on each day. Described as Africa for beginners, Malawi truly is the warm heart of Africa. Arriving at a chaotic bus station and waiting 3 hours for a 4 hour bus journey will test anyone’s patients, but witnessing Africans singing together during an uncomfortable bus journey provides a rollercoaster of emotion. Being the only white face in town attracts a lot of attention. Walking less than 10 minutes between inquisitive conversations is overwhelming, dealing with bus passengers taking it in turn to sit with you and chat is both monotonous and tiring. One minute you find yourself laughing with the ... read more

Dear All Greetings from Lake Malawi! What a beautiful place, and a far cry from either the blandness or chaotic riots of the capital. Apologies for taking time since my last entry – this has not been down to any social movements getting out of hand, but rather the lack of Internet places along the route to where I am now. But what a relief- since my last entry, things seem to have calmed down hugely on the Malawian city streets, and I’m in pretty much rural areas where most people don’t really know what’s going on in the urbanised world anyway. Currently writing from a beautiful bay on the southern shore of Lake Malawi, called Cape MacClear –absolutely stunning, like a snapshot of the Caribbean but with fresh water and not salt. I believe I ... read more

At long last, I have a decent travel story. This one involves a hostel that Megan, Dave and I chose on our own, public transportation, modified hitchhiking, and good bars within a safe walking distance. The tale begins in Lilongwe, where I woke up at 5:30am Friday. We walked to catch a minibus at 6:45am, which, combined with a short walk, got us to the bus depot around 7:15am. The bus depot is a mess. As you scan the lower windshields for a sign that includes your stop, guys approach and ask you where you are going. They then direct you to their company’s bus. This approach helped us to quickly find the right bus, except that bus was clearly full. When we asked the money collector if our ticket was good for a different bus, ... read more

After checking in for our 3 beds in the dorm, we entered the room and were greeted by 3 girls who go to Michigan State. One is even from Livonia (I realize the wonder of this moment will only be appreciated by a few of you)! They’re here, along with 2 guys from New Brunswick (Canada, not New Jersey), for summer internships. Desperately hungry, as it was now approaching 2pm, Dave, Megan and I walked along the beach in search of food. We passed women doing laundry in the water, kids splashing around, but very few tourists. We saw a few as we passed Gecko Lounge, but for the most part, we only saw Malawians. We decided on Mgoza for lunch. They had an open area above the bar, kind of like the tree house where ... read more

WE SENT THIS A LONG TIME AGO WITHOUT PICTURES, NOW WE HAVE A FAST CONNECTION SO WE ARE REPOSTING WITH PICS. WE WILL GET EVERYTHING ELSE UP TO DATE SOON! (FYI-You can click on picture to view full size) Hi Everyone! Here's more of our continuing adventures in Malawi. Sorry but no pics this time. We just can't find an internet cafe with a fast enough connection to let us download pictures. We'll send them later. After our Mulanje Mountain trek we went back to Blantyre for 2 nights for rest and laundry. Then back on another bus to Monkey Bay. This bus ride was okay, packed full, but not to long, 6 hours. The bus dropped us off at the turn off to Cape Maclear as there was a taxi waiting to take people to ... read more

Hey! Well, Africa was amazing, I am doing today's blog update on Malawi as there is just too much for each place to stick it all into one entry! Mark and I arrived in Lilongwe, Malawi after our 8 hour flight from London to Nairobi, layover for a couple hours in the AM and then 2.5 hours flight from Nairobi to Lilongwe. We were met by our driver/guide Henry and cook Raphael. We didn't yet realize that they were booked just for us for the first 5 days of our holiday. Henry was quite friendly and informed us about various things in their culture. We took a few different roads to check out things such as the tobacco farming, etc. It would take us a few hours to get from the airport to Mua Mission where ... read more