http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/ehenke/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from ehenke en-us Wed, 06 Jan 2010 18:29:25 +0000 Wed, 06 Jan 2010 18:29:25 +0000 I'm writing from another airplane. We're flying on air Botswana from Maun Botswana to Joberg where we'll spend a night before we head back to the bush. We'll go to South Africa next.I'm sad to be leaving Baines' Camp. It's a beautiful camp in a beautiful place and we had a wonderful time. I wish we could have stayed a little longer. Things were just beginning to get notawkward with Martin http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Botswana/North-West/Okavango-Delta/blog-315499.html I stopped writing yesterday at tea time thinking I'd have time to continue later. I should have known better. We seem to have no down time here.I'm sitting in the outdoor living room of the main lodge. We've just finished lunch and we have a few hours until we go out on our evening game drive so I thought I'd try to get a little closer to caught up on my writing. I can hear the hippos just s http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Botswana/North-West/Okavango-Delta/blog-314315.html Where to begin We're at Baines' Camp in Botswana's Okavango Delta. The camp itself is amazingit has a maximum capacity of ten guests and sits in the middle of the swamp on stilts. The main building is openair and includes a living room a campfire pit with a porch around it an outdoor dining patio and an indoor dining room. The rooms all have a bedroom and bathroom and a porch that looks http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Botswana/North-West/Okavango-Delta/blog-313653.html I am writing from the sky. We are flying from the Kasane Airport in Botswana to the Baines' Camp landing strip in the bush. Appropriately we're flying on a bush plane. The plane seats twelve passengers a pilot and a copilot right now there are nine people on board including our solo pilot. We're stopping twice before we arrive at Baines' to pick up and drop off other passengers. We spent http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Zimbabwe/Victoria-Falls/blog-310986.html This afternoon around 1230pm we arrived at the Zimbabwe Airport. When we left Johannesburg this morning we were advised to hurry off the plane upon arrival because Zimbabwe Immigration writes all tourist visas by hand. We did hurry and we were third in line. Thank God. It took twenty minutes to process the six of us. I can't imagine how long it took for those passengers who didn't get the http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Zimbabwe/Victoria-Falls/blog-309766.html Until Friday wersquore at MalaMala Game Reserve in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa. We arrived yesterday afternoon on a twelveseater airplane that picked us up at Phinda the reserve where we spent the previous three nights. Mpumalanga Province is in the eastern part of the country. According to the brochure MalaMala ldquois part of a conservation gene pool that covers 5.5 million http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/South-Africa/Mpumalanga-/blog-308951.html You have not truly lived until you have been charged by an elephant. I say that because I now believe that in order to know how alive you actually are you must at some point feel very close to death. An encounter with the matriarch of a breeding herd of elephants is a great way to do this I really recommend it. It's extra efffective if she charges you three times. More on this later.I'm wr http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Botswana/North-West/Okavango-Delta/blog-307176.html Hi everyoneI'm at JFK Airport waiting to board a 18 hour flight to South Africa. Over the next two weeks I'll be in South Africa Zimbabwe and Botswana with my mother stepfather sister and grandparents. We are going to be on safaris in the middle of nowhere so posts aren't guaranteed until after the trip is over when I'll have internet access again. However I'll be writing the oldfash http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/South-Africa/Gauteng/Johannesburg/blog-304492.html My friend Jacob found this on YouTube. It's a pretty funny promo video for the hotel we called home for three months in Cuba. If you'd like to see where we ate slept and drank too much tooexpensive coffee you can click here Hotel Palco How funnyThanks Jacobo. http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Cuba/Oeste/La-Habana/blog-302544.html The day started with breakfast at 7am. I had oatmeal. It was decent. At 830 we left on our morning walk. We looked for birds and insects and Delfin pointed out several plants. He made me a bracelet out of one of them. Irsquom slightly enamored.At one point Delfin was showing us a giant flower petal or leaf thast can hold water tree frogs lay their eggs in these so the tadpoles hatch in http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/East/El-Coca/blog-289731.html This morning we boarded a small plane at the Quito National Airport at 1010. An hour later we were disembarking in Coca a small town in the eastern part of the country. We took cabs to a hotel in Coca where we met our guide for our next adventure Delfin. Delfin is from a remonte Amazon community and speaks fluent English Spanish and Quechua. With Delfin we got into a 60foot 20passeng http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/East/El-Coca/blog-289722.html This morning we moved our bags from the Hotel Real Audiencia in Old Town to Caf Cultura in New Town. The contrast between the two parts of town is intense and reflected in the differences between the two hotels. Caf Cultura is significantly more expensive and trendy. They also try to take more of your money internet laundry etc.. I guess their rates are minimal compared to the U.S. Itr http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/North/Quito/blog-289691.html Today we had more greasy omelets and toast at the upstairs restaurant and then walked a few blocks to the Museo de la Ciudad. The Museo de la Ciudad is a history museum. The exhibits are designed to be walked through in chronological order. You start in the preColumbian era and end in the 20th century. We had an Englishspeaking guide give us a tour for 4.00. It was a cool placemdashthe bu http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/North/Quito/blog-289425.html Today we started the morning at about 845 with greasy omelettes at the upstairs restaurant. ALthough the hotel's eggs weren't gourmet its restaurant had a great view of the city. After breakfast we went to the Museo Franciscano. We got a toofast but detailed tour from one of the museum guides. He told us about 17th and 16th century painting techniques and told us some of the legends behind th http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/North/Quito/blog-289423.html Our cab picked us up in Seattle at 400am today. Eighteen hours later we are finally here. Our flights were uneventful but long. A minibus met us at the Quito airport and delivered us here to the Hotel Real Audiencia. On the ride here we passed lots of little storefronts all closed now that reminded me very much of Tenerife. I found myself beginning to feel very happyI think I forgot h http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Ecuador/North/Quito/blog-289415.html Buenas noches a todsRemember me I used to have a blog. Wait nothat's not quite right. I still have a blog. What I used to have was time to write in it.What do I have now instead of time A family four classes and an internship where I work 20 hours a week. A free hour is harder to come by lately. A lot has happened since I last wrote 79 days ago. Here are some quick updates http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Dominican-Republic/Santo-Domingo/Ciudad-Colonial/blog-266152.html Sometimes itrsquos hard to believe Irsquove been here for three whole weeks. Other times itrsquos hard to believe I havenrsquot been here longer. The last twentytwo days have been full of the excitement frustration discovery and homesickness that Irsquove decided are typical of the initial stages of most grand adventures. School is almost in full swing Irsquom about to begin a http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Dominican-Republic/Santo-Domingo/Ciudad-Colonial/blog-239147.html Great news I made it though my first weekThe last eight days have gone by quickly. There's too much to do and listening to and producing Spanish all the time is so mentally tiring that I come home each day physically exhausted. We finished orientation on Monday and on Tuesday classes started at Bon a university where Irsquoll be taking two of my four classes this semester.Bon is a semi http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Dominican-Republic/Santo-Domingo/Ciudad-Colonial/blog-235003.html Well I made it After three short weeks in the US I am now in Santo Domingo Dominican Republic. I arrived on Wednesday afternoon and spent the night in a hotel and on Thursday evening I moved in with my host family. It's now Friday night and I'm too exhausted to do anything but write this. I am in Santo Domingo with CIEE the Council on International Educational Exchange. There are about http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Dominican-Republic/Santo-Domingo/Ciudad-Colonial/blog-232959.html If you're interested in reading my paper on Cuban paladares or private restaurants let me know and I'll email it to you. http://www.travelblog.org/Central-America-Caribbean/Cuba/Oeste/La-Habana/blog-228692.html