Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Hey there South America!  First stop, Rio de Janeiro.  The one thing I have to say right off the bat about Rio and perhaps Brazil in general is that I found the people I encountered here to be extremely warm and friendly.  New Zealand likely comes in a close second, but the people have been some of the friendliest I've encountered on my trip.  Without even asking, when we've looked lost people just came up to us and offered directions.  Also the language here, Portuguese, is one I don't speak.  Usually even in the friendliest of places, when you're someone who doesn't speak the language you'd expect to face at least some mild frustration from locals who have no idea what you're asking for.  Though, not the case here, folks genuinely seemed to want to help.

We saw that warmness again at our first stop, Christ the Redeemer.  At this point in the trip I had two friends with me, Adam and Josh.  When we were riding the tram a Brazilian tour group was interested in where we were from and in welcoming us.  Also, every time the tram would pass another tram up the mountain the people in both trams would let out a loud and extended cheer.  At first I thought perhaps we were just in the party tram, but it happened over and over again both on the ride up and down.  Here we are at Christ the Redeemer.

Unfortunately it was a rainy and dreary day, but we still had a pretty good view down to the city.

After heading back down the mountain, with more cheering, we set out to see some more of the sights of Rio.  That started with a long walk to include lots of steps!

With the help of a local, we found a tram that got us the rest of the way to where we were going.

Our next stop was the Metropolitan Cathedral of Rio de Janeiro. The church is dedicated to Saint Sebastian, the patron saint of Rio de Janeiro.  It was completed in the 1970s and as you can see has a unique pyramid like shape.

After the church, we stopped by the very popular Escadaria Scaloron, or the Selaron Steps.  The steps were created by Jose Selaron who was from Chile, in the 1990s.  At first he just started with the steps outside his home, but it soon spread as he scavenged the city for more material.  In later years as the steps became more popular, he received donations of material from all over the world to continue his work.  He was found dead on the steps in 2013. The photo below is just a small section of the steps.

Most of the rest of our time in Rio was spent enjoying food and drink and the beautiful beaches of Ipanema and Copacabana.  Bohemia beer and Caiperinha's quickly became our favorites drinks. This was the breathtaking view at sunset from the balcony of our AirBnB in Ipanema.

One day we spent the afternoon on Ipanema beach.

Here's a look back at Ipanema beach from afar.

Another day we checked out Copacabana which borders Ipanema. The beach formed a semi-circle and was a lot longer than it looks!

More Bohemia please!  Oops, didn't realize we were getting the full size bottles, oh well!

In the evenings we checked out the bars and as had been the case throughout Rio, we met lots of friendly folks!

Rio was relaxing and made a great first stop in South America.  Up next, Iguassu Falls!

Capetown, South Africa

Table Mountain, South Africa

After 4 days in the bush it was time to head back to the city.  Capetown, South Africa!  The first night we made a stop for dinner at the V&A waterfront.  I didn't take many photos; there were lots of restaurants, a mall, as well as a ferris wheel on the waterfront.  It looked like a waterfront you'd find just about anywhere.  Though you could certainly tell a lot of money was invested here.

The first full day was dedicated to Table Mountain.  We were lucky to have amazing weather.  To get up the mountain you can either hike or take a cable car.  Being short on time, we took a zippy ride up on the cable car.  Once up top, as the name suggests, the mountain is pretty flat, so we spent a good amount of time exploring the mountaintop and taking photos.

View approaching the top of the mountain from the cable car

View of the city

You could practically reach out and touch the clouds

Views from atop the mountain

Views from atop the mountain

Views from atop the mountain

After Table Mountain was a stop at Camps Bay, a beach about a 45 minute walk away.  The photos weren't great as it was quite cloudy by the late afternoon.

The next day was spent checking out nearby wineries!  South Africa is known for several white wines and also a red called pinotage.  The weather was great, so it was a perfect day to drink wine and see some of the area just outside the city.  The photos below are from the Babylonstoren winery.

That night we made a quick stop in Bo Kopp, a neighborhood known for its brightly colored buildings and homes.

The main objective of the last day was to the see the penguins down on Boulders Beach.  It took quite a while to get there, but once we arrived it was amazing how many penguins there were to see.  There were hundreds of them along the beach.

I had a good time in Cape Town.  Table Mountain was stunningly beautiful and the wineries were great.  The city has lots of good restaurants and trendy bars and cafes and new places seemed to be popping up around the city.  People were also very friendly and helpful whenever we needed directions and recommendations.  One thing that took me a little by surprise was the level of poverty in the city.  It was more than I'd expected.  The government is in the process of building what you could call tiny houses on the outskirts of the city which our driver pointed out and explained as we drove in from the airport.  The homes are meant to replace an area of adjacent dwellings that were in quite poor condition.  On one evening downtown, we were probably stopped half a dozen times in about 30 minutes for money or food.  We were also stopped more than once and offered coke and weed.  Cape Town has a group of "safety" officers or something like that, I forget the exact name.  They aren't police, but they wear yellow vests and are a very visible presence throughout the city.  At one point when someone followed us for half a block asking for money a yellow vested safety officer told them to move along, and they did.

This of course happens in lots of cities around the world.  It certainly has happened to me in Miami Beach and in New York and even at home in DC, but I'd say I was surprised because it felt more persistent and frequent than in other places I'd been.  Of course if you're in need of food you're going to ask for it –  you certainly can't fault people for that.  I had this image in my head of Cape Town being a stunningly beautiful seaside town, which it is, but seeing that and areas of significant wealth and new development alongside such extreme poverty made it a bit more jarring.  A little embarrassed by my ignorance, I looked up some of the stats and learned that over 35% of residents earn less than $250 a month and South Africa's unemployment rate currently tops 27% which is a 14 year high.  In all cases these stats are even worse among non-white groups.  So while apartheid ended in the 90s, it still has significant impacts.  Of course, I was just there for 4 days, and I'm sure it’s a lot more complex than what I was able to observe, but I at least wanted to share my thoughts and make note of some of what a saw.

South African Safari - Balule

After landing at the small airport in Hoedspruit, South Africa we had a nice, though bumpy, 30 minute ride on mostly dirt roads to the safari camp.  Our driver joked that they call driving down bumpy roads in the bush getting an "African massage."  She also exclaimed, "Get off my guava, I had my indicator on" when someone was tailgating her before she made a turn which just sounded hilarious. 

The safari camp where we spent 3 nights was called Sausage Tree and was located just outside Kruger National Park in the Balule Nature Reserve.  It was was a tented accommodation, though they were pretty comfortable and well equipped tents and as you can see the tent is partially protected by a larger structure.  In the back of the tent was an outdoor shower that looked out over the bush that was pretty neat.

There were only 5 tents in total in the camp so it was pretty quiet and there weren't any other camps nearby. 

Even with the structure surrounding part of the tent you definitely heard birds, hyenas and other animals through the night and the flaps of the tent blowing around in wind.  The camp was protected by an electric fence to keep us safe from any wandering animals.

There were several common areas where the 10 or so guests at the camp had meals together and could also just relax in between game drives.

This was the view from the main deck of the camp.  You can see a small watering hole on the left and a mountain range faintly in the distance on the right.

The size of the camp made it really easy to meet and get to know the other guests.  Most of the other visitors were from the United States or Europe.  As a first time Safari goer it was interesting to talk to the other guests most of whom had been on safari before and hear about some of the amazing things they'd seen.

Each morning we were woken at about 5:15am for our first game drive.  The game drives are early in the morning and then again at sunset as this is when the temperatures are most comfortable, but also when the animals are the most active.  The morning drive would go about three hours after which we'd have breakfast.  Then we'd get some time to ourselves until lunch was served around 2pm.  After lunch it wasn't long before our sunset game drive.  Halfway through the evening game drive we'd stop for drinks in the bush somewhere and watch the sunset.  On this part of the trip I'd say I found a new appreciation for gin.  Everyone in the group was drinking it and raving about it, so who was I not to partake?  They also say it helps ward off mosquitoes.  Though I was probably wearing a liter of bug spray so who can really be sure?  Anyway, maybe I'd just been drinking crappy gin all my life, but the South African gin they served along with some herbs, fruit and tonic was delicious!  After the evening game drive we'd all get together for dinner in an intimate area outside that honestly reminded me of where they have the tribal council on the TV show Survivor. I never got a photo of it, but here's a shot of one of the meals and it gives a sense of the setting.  All the food at the camp was quite good. 

Though I've yet to detail the best part, what we saw on the game drives!  At most, 10 of us would pile into one big safari vehicle.  The owner of the camp was actually our driver, and there is also a "spotter" who sits in the seat in the front left actually hanging outside the vehicle and his job is spot any animals hiding in the bush! 

Here we are!  Josh wanted to be "assistant spotter" (I made that up) -- as you can see he's right up front.

The owner did a great job getting us really close to lots of animals but also describing for us the plants, birds and other wildlife we saw on our drives.  Here's some of what we saw with some comments in the captions:

We spotted this giraffe and it's baby nearby.

Here's baby giraffe.

This elephant was actually blocking our path.

At one point we came across a heard of seven elephants.

The elephants really weren't too bothered by us pulling up behind them

The giraffes and elephants pictured above were pretty plentiful and easy to find.  Once you found them, they also weren't put off by us, so we could get close and watch them for as long as we wanted.  We also spotted warthogs, hyenas, zebras and plenty of impala and kudu.  One of the hardest animals to spot, at least in this area, is the leopard.  Though we got very lucky to spot one on our very first drive!

Here he is! We only got close for about 30 seconds before he ran off.

I'd say the most amazing spottings we had were of both male and female lions.

This is a female lion we saw up on a rock.

This was a male (note the mane) that we spotted just after sunset.

Later one, we spotted the female again on the ground.

At one point we thought the female lion was going to attack this impala, but she basically ignored him.  We soon learned why.

She was calling for a male lion to join her.

And he actually did!  The male lion is illuminated by the light of another jeep that joined us and the female is on the right in the shadow.

We also saw rhino's but they made quite a strong point about not posting any pictures anywhere online as it helps poachers track them which is a huge problem in the area.  Not that more than 7 people read this blog anyway and I doubt any of you are African rhino poachers, but still I won't post!

Even when we weren't tracking an animal, the bush had its own unique beauty to it.

There is our spotter, looking down the road ahead.

I have to admit I stole some of these photos from my new European friends who rode with us on the trip.  This Dutch couple and also a Swedish couple both had these amazing cameras with huge zoom lenses that took great photos of what we saw.  My crummy little iPhone photos really didn't do them justice, though as you can probably tell, the giraffe and elephant photos up there are mine while the lion and leopard photos are from my new buddies.

I'd certainly go on safari again and try out another region in Africa.  While constantly applying bug spray and taking anti-malarials as a precaution every day was annoying, I don't think I got one mosquito bite the entire trip.  I think what really made it such an awesome experience was the small group of people we got to know and safaried with.  The people working the camp were also great hosts, amazingly hospitable and the food and drink was plentiful and delicious.  What else can you ask for?

Next stop, Capetown, South Africa!