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  Port Elizabeth, South Africa
Saturday, February 25, 2006

Seven short days in Africa seemed like years. I'm sitting on the top deck of the Explorer missing friends and reminiscing about a rejuvenating week of experiences and memories. We began last Monday on the Bazz bus, a traveling bus that winds up the southeast coast through the scenic Garden Route. We ended back at our boat with tears in our eyes, and spent a good few hours watching the lights of Africa disappear and the sounds of Jamey drum circles echoing off the ship.

My birthday may be a good beginning point for our South Africa bus trip. It was decided that it was only appropriate to have my first swimming experience in the Indian Ocean in my birthday suit. Riptides, cold nipples, undertows, sunburns and sand dunes that sizzled under our nakedness. The day was 23 years in the making of special ness, with the company of friends to make it even more memorable. We spend the day being children again and taking in the amazing coastline of the Indian Ocean. There were no people on the beach -probably a good thing- and we sipped champagne and talked about my newly appropriated senior citizen status within the friend group, as I am the first one to reach 23. We set a pretty high standard for birthdays to come amongst the rest of the friend group. Four shared bottles of champagne and twenty-three shots of yager in my belly made for some great pictures and "remember when's", no doubt.

Nights in Africa consisted of magic. In many different ways. Some can be conveyed and some are impossible to explain. The sky at night is one memory that sticks in my head still. It is bigger than any sky I have ever seen, save maybe the Grand Canyon, and the stars are unfamiliar and intriguing in that sense alone. We tried to memorize some constellations as we laid on our backs in the forest looking up for so many hours on so many nights; the Southern Cross is still engrained in my head. I even peeked at it last night for a short does of nostalgia.

Met some wandering surfer boys from Germany, Spain and Africa in Wilderness. They had a tricked out VW Euro van outfitted with kick ass music, mattresses enough for us all and plenty of Red Stripe beer (Natti Ice of the Affrikaneers). They adopted us and we meshed the Nor-Cali vibe with the South Af vibe ending up with quite the concoction of craziness. We quickly integrated into the scene with some local insight and plenty of windy road trips to hidden spots that you could only know of if you lived their yourself. Beautiful bays, waterfall hikes, sunrise lookouts, estuaries.... the list goes on and on.

Wilderness, a town we spent 3 of our traveling nights in, was a hard place to leave as we tried twice and then gave up- it was pointless to escape the coolest town ever. I will attempt to explain how unique and special the town of Wilderness was in a recipe that follows: one cup of Hait(sp?)-Asbury with a little Bolinas spice and some Santa Cruz pepper. Possible a little sugar icing of the Barcelona/Rome punk scene as well. (And the guys all sound like their from Down Under, which doesn't hurt either.) While in Wilderness we stayed at a hostel called Fairy Knowe. That gives a slight hint to the hipster, dreadlocked, no shoed, granola eating, and digerie doo playing vibe that was going on at the Knowe. Where should I even start with the Knowe....composting toilets, organic food made fresh for us at every (amazing) meal, local bands that camped out with us jamming every night, bongo drums and watercolors and oil pastels and silk skirts that became our staple clothing items the entire trip. It was a blast, and just the thing we were looking for. (For Tori, Adam and Lexi, Fairy Knowe was exactly like The Ranch in San Luis Obispo, yeah?)

Bus rides through the countryside, as we defiantly had many many hours of those, were unique experiences in themselves. Saw a lot of the different cultural and physical landscapes that make up the country. The colonial Dutch influence was evident in the architecture and make up of the tourist cities. Yet these places were in no way representative of the Africa that the majority of the population lives in. Townships (African ghetto's) like those outside of Cape Town and Johannesburg provided a stark contrast to the hippie scene of Wilderness as well. The luxury of the tourist industry supporting the large safari locations like Kruger and Pilansberg stood black and white to the poverty of the townships. Beggars, starving children, prostitution, blood drives for AIDS victims, unsanitary conditions, hunger and poverty existed like I could only have imagined before being exposed to it first hand. I chose not to take any pictures when we saw this side of Africa. I have a strong belief that my actions behind a Kodak lens in places like that only take away from my being able to truly absorb my surroundings. Being exposed to a lifestyle different from mine, be it only for so short a time, was difficult in a lot of ways. It makes you think about fairness in a light that is hard to process. I think the most important thing I could do when seeing these things was to try my best to be present in every way so that I could take those memories home with me and learn from them further.

Upon return to the ship I stumbled into my bedroom to see it full of happy birthday air mail cards and flowers from the fam. Props go out to Dennis Fitzgerald and the siblings for the great flowers, that are still smelling fresh and clean 5 days later!!! And thank you for all the happy birthday cards! I loved them all and I have them sitting in a pile next to my bed. I felt close to you all for the day and I loved that more than anything. To Makenzi and Chris, thanks for the digital photos that I magneted onto my growing wall collection. The roommate especially loved those late-night-table-top-three-girls-pics Makenzi, no doubt the man who makes my bed every morning and does my laundry also appreciates their "colorful" nature.

We arrive in Mauritius the day after tomorrow. Excitement is high! Some of the world's most untouched coral reefs beckon us, and way groovy volcanic craters to hike down into. Me and my two best girlfriends are traveling around the island on bikes that we have rented for the whole time with some other SAS guys who want to get off the beaten path. We've packed our sleeping bags, a 3 gallon bucket for mixing drinks on the beach, our swimmers, ipod speakers, snorkels and sun dresses. I think we're set. Mauritius has officially been dubbed the "Spring Break of Semester at Sea" so that just about covers the duration of activities we'll be engaging in for our time there. From 2 nautical miles east of Madagascar, ciao, tschus, lates, I'm out!

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