beentouring's Guestbook

Inspiration . . .
. . . is found in the darkest places. Your photo of Ahmed Kathrada's hope for Robben Island is an inspiration for all of us.

Moving Account
A very moving account of this dark, dark time in South Africa. I keep thinking of your tour guide. Perhaps he needs a regular reminder of which side of the bars he is on to sustain stability. It's so hard to comprehend such irrational cruelty.

The right change and other matters
I was shortchanged once in Guatemala - if you can call it that when the vendor just looks at you stupidly when you ask for your change. Since I was supposed to be learning Spanish, I went through it, slowly and painfully. This costs so much; I gave you this much; you owe me such and so. It wasn't a matter of even a dollar, but I wasn't going to give up just because I couldn't communicate it. When I finished he gave me a big grin. And my change. As for your ruminations about the serving class - yes, it is easy to look at all forms of earlier privilege and think how nice they were, forgetting what it must have been like to provide that luxury.

Lilies
An amazing shot of the calla lilies - growing wild? Planted but then on their own? Or carefully cultivated? It's always amazing to see flowers I know mostly as houseplants in the great outdoors as hedges or growing wild.

I foiund him!
Well, I found one man. Given the rest of the picture, I hope there wasn't another down there! What a great day you had, the ostrich farm especially. You raise an interesting point about our odd ethical lines when it comes to animals (OK to eat them but not to sit on them?) - and I expect I'd have had the same odd mix of reactions. As for the "nude" or unfeathered haunch exposed by the drooping wing - good grief! Who knew?

Great shots
The cave, the market (sweet pears and hot peppers? interesting combination), the new birds - all fabulous! You also did well at the market, considering you were in a language you didn't understand. I had to work really hard in Guatemala to get the numbers as they barked them out - and I supposedly spoke the language, at least a little. I used to cheat by getting a rough total in my head so I'd have some idea of what to expect . . .

Cheetahs and bridges
Good for you for going in the cheetah enclosure. I'm not sure I'd have the nerve, even with supervision. And the suspension bridges - what a great photo!

The Great Karoo!
Don't some words just make you smile? As for the stealth kudu, I can see why they were tricky to spot - they're remarkably difficult to see even in freeze-frame, and I suppose they were bounding across the clearings pretty smartly. And the leopard turtle shot is a gem. There's something about turtles . . . And similar to the last post that saw echoes of Arizona and Australia, the last time I heard about Gondwanaland was in New Zealand. They were very big on it down there, for some reason.

Lousy sandwiches
Sandwiches in Scotland were much the same as you describe - thin and tasteless. It's good that other parts of the cuisine are better, in both places. As for the century plants, the only other place I see them is Arizona. How odd to have echoes of Scotland and Arizona in South Africa . . .

School discipline
I sometimes wonder if tourists set back schooling everywhere they go! In Guatemala I visited a school with one of my instructors and the kids were just as you described: squirrelly. I liked the story of your interaction with the vegetable gardener - it makes me wonder about the ripples from that one encounter. We meet folks in other countries, but my contacts with tourists in Canada are few and far between, even though I live in a tourist destination.

Fantastic
Love this shot.

Lots of little (yellow!) birds
A great video - I think I can get my leg as high as my knee. The girls seemed shy, as teenagers can be anywhere, at least with strangers. I was surprised to see that dinner included Vietnamese soup. Was that special for the tour, or is food in South Africa as cosmopolitan as in North America?