Johnny One Eye

From Posadas, Argentina our next major stop was to head to the famous Igauzu water falls, which are on the border of Argentina and Brazil. On the way there we were going to stop at another set of interesting waterfalls called the Saltos de Mocona near El Soberbio, Argentina. The falls are somewhat unique in that they run lengthwise down a river for about 3 km. However after taking a 6 hour bus ride to get there we found out that the river was too high and the falls where covered up. Oh well these things happen. So the next day we hoped on another bus to Puerto Iguazu, Argentina, which is the touristy town adjacent the Iguazu falls on the Argentina side. The Iguazu falls are absolutely amazing and my words and pictures would never ... read more

My sister had arranged for us to go camping with her BaAka (pygmies) workers in the jungle for a couple of nights. She couldn’t stay the whole time so she was going to head back after the first evening. In all it was going to be the 9 guys who worked for her, 4 of their wives, and 8 kids. We packed our stuff and walked about 5km to Mossapola one of the BaAka villages to meet up with some of her workers. Some people were going to meet up with us later so a few of us headed out it was about another 4 km walk through the rainforest to get the river we were going to camp by. We got to the area where the BaAka decided we should camp. It was literally just ... read more

Elephants One of the few tourist attractions in the Central African Republic is located down near Bayanga. Where there is a national park that has elephants and habituated gorillas (habituated means that after years of work researchers have been able to get one family of gorillas used to people enough so that you can get close to them). There is a big watering hole called Dzanga Bai where all the elephants come to drink because the area is rich in mineral salts. The place is more of a giant mud pit than anything else, surrounded by a dense jungle. To get there we had to rent a truck and go off-roading through the jungle for about 40 minutes. Then it was about a half hour hike through the jungle. Our guide made a serious sounding comment ... read more

Traveling from Bangui to Bayanga The drive from Bangui to Bayanga felt like you were in a movie, which had nothing to do with the fact that I got to ride down with the movie producer in his land cruiser. I guess this was because I was still not used to how different everything is here that it did not really sink in that this was real life. The distance we had to travel was about 250 miles and that took us about 12 hours. Only about 40 miles was on paved road. I did find it rather amusing that where ever there were pot holes (and there were many big ones) instead of fixing them they were just marked with paint so you could see them better. The rest of roads were dirt logging roads, ... read more

Travel Blog 6-15-09 to 6-24-09 Munzu in Africa You know you are in a remote place when the Lonely Planet Travel Guide writer comes looking for you to see about transportation to the village where you are heading. Here is excerpt from the whole 8 pages the Africa Lonely Planet book has on the Central African Republic (CAR): If it’s the ‘real’ Africa you’re looking for, Central African Republic (CAR) may be it. A country of staggering rare natural beauty, with some of the world’s most amazing wildlife, it nonetheless remains underdeveloped, fragmented and poverty-stricken……… Travelling here is a backpacking bungee jump. At the time of writing most of the country was not considered stable or safe enough to travel through. May be a better phrase is stereotypical Africa. It is an extremely poor place. I ... read more