sandboarding anyone???

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We are back from Swakopmund. Actually arrived back into Windhoek yesterday, and went back to work at the hospital today. More about some crazy cases and updates on some favorites tomorrow. We had a very busy monday at work! But now...for all the fascinating news about our adventures in Swakopmund! We took the bus on friday, and since T.I.A. it left about 2 hours late, we decided it was because we were waiting for a few travelers coming from a bus from capetown South Africa, but no one at the Intercape depot could really tell us why it was late or when it would arrive. Ah well, we just sat around and decided what we wanted to do once we got to Swakop. We also met a cool young girl from Boston. She just finished college and was on her way touring Africa, then Europe backpacking all alone! Then she would work in Italy and Spain for a year each teaching English. She had a pretty impressive plan and was interesting to talk to. Made me feel really old though! :-) Once we actually got on the bus we had a ~5 hour trip to Swakopmund, we stopped about 5 minutes outside of the city at a rest stop and everyone got off to get snacks, etc.. Then we were off. the scenery was amazing to watch. It started out with the huge rocky volcanic mountains around Windhoek, then about 2 hours into it became more dry and then I fell asleep for about 40 minutes. I woke up to sand everywhere and some small desert bushes. It was such a drastic change! flat and sand and desert! what a change from Windhoek and city life! Before it became desert there were actually many trees all along for 1-2 hours and a ton of weaver bird nests in each tree. they are so interesting to see, I tried to catch a picture but we were on such a speedy bus they are all pretty blurry. I'll see if I have a good one to post. Or you can google weaver bird nests in Africa :-) I also saw baboons! the 1st time they were sitting in trees so I thought i was imagining them, but then I saw them crossing the road and again hanging around on the side of the road. We got to Swakopmund and managed to find the I-Namib tourist center. We asked for directions to our Guesthouse, and booked our boat ride and quad biking for saturday. We managed to find our Guesthouse and dropped all of our stuff off. Then we went exploring in the cold (50's), foggy/cloudy day. we did some shopping in the stores, visited to beach which was cold and windy, though still impressive to be at the beach in Africa! No one was around in town, we would run into random stragglers and locals, but it seemed very empty. Everyone also seemed to be speaking German, which was a strange experience, it definately felt more like Germany than Africa. We at dinner at a small family-owned African/German restaurant and it was delicious! the appetizer was small breads to dip in a yummy pate type dip. Then we made the mistake of asking what the pate was. oh, its just oxtail fat with spices. yum. I had trouble eating it after that, but I will admit it was very tasty for animal fat :-) We walked back by the beach and to our place before dark b/c the streets were so empty we didn't feel that safe walking after dark. The next morning we got up, had a huge breakfast at the guesthouse, then caught the transport to Walvis Bay! We took a catamaran ride for a few hours, saw whales, tons of dolphins, pelican, and one of the largest seal colonies! it was amazing. thousands of seals all over and playing in the waters around the boat. One came on board also and we got to pet him! we also saw the very long oyster farming barrels too. The ride was cold (everyone was wrapped in blankets) and foggy with a nice water spray most of the time, but so worth it! After that we got a quick break to change, and picked up another transport to the dunes! We ended up in a small group with a few other German girls so it was fun! We went off and it was so much fun! Raissa's bike actually was leaking fluid and quit working...they tried to leave her behind and say they would be back with a new bike! thank goodness she said "no way!" and they dropped her with us until a new one came. then we really were off, twisting and turning up and down the huge sand dunes. It was so amazing! We stopped about an hour into it, way up high on one of the dunes. Then the guide offered us to try Sandboarding!!! we had really wanted to do the combo (1 hr quadbike and 1 hr sandboarding) but the office had said it was too late in the day. We were dissappointed, but then he let us take a few turns each down the giant dunes! face first, you lay on your belly on a heavy piece of sort of a mix between cardboard and particle board. You hold on the the front, lift it up and push off! it was so much faster than snow sledding!!! We have videos, but here you can see sort of how high the "medium" dune was and how small we looked going down. It was so much fun! We ended up eating that night at the Swakopmund Brauhaus, I had German food, Raissa had some delicious game meat. it was really good actually. We even tried out our bartering skills at the center seller area. The bus ride back on Sunday was just a long, but actually left on time! We got back to the neighbors visiting with their 2 week old twin boys! fun fun. they are tiny and adorable. Lots of stories from today at work, but we'll just post this and some pictures and more tomorrow!!! Make sure you look at all 12 pics we are posting!!! (they don't all show up within the text).

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Comments

[Mom]

Sounds like you had a great weekend!!! You must be really excited about the Safari this weekend. Did you get a picture of the baboon you saw on the road? Great pics and will look forward to the ones from this coming weekend. Have a great week. Love you Mom