Check That Off the List

Here is a list of some of the unique things I've done since January:

• visited a traditional healer and learned how to cure HIV


• went on a safari in the Okavango Delta saw many exotic animals


• rode in a mokoro (traditional canoe)


• watched bottle-nosed and heavy-side dolphins ride our waves in Walvis Bay, Namibia


• saw hundreds of seals in Walvis Bay...including adorable babies


• learned how to sandboard on the dunes of the Namib Desert in Nambia


• sweet-talked my way out of a speeding ticket in Windhoek, Namibia


• visited the most profitable diamond mine in the world: Botswana's Jwaneng Diamond Mine


• saw one of the world's seven wonders: the mighty Victoria Falls


• bungee jumped 111 meters toward the Zambezi River at Vic Falls


• traveled to both coasts of southern Africa--the warm Indian to the cold Atlantic


• saw a welwitscia mirabilis--a baby of only 14 years, but better than nothing (although I am a little disappointed I didn't see one the 1500-year-olds)


• watched the Botswana national football team, the Zebras, play South Africa's Bafana Bafana


• climbed to the top of Botswana's Kgale Hill


• made phapatha (traditional rolls)


• watched Dikakapa perform, the national champion traditional dance crew


• learned to navigate the city of Gaborone quite well using the combi public transportation system


• saw the brand new World Cup Stadium in Green Point


• saw African penguins in Simon's Town, South Africa


• visited the oldest vineyard in the southern hemisphere: Groot Constantia


• climbed to the top of the Cape of Good Hope, the most southewestern point in Africa


• hiked through Tsitsikama National Park and saw beautiful coastal rock formations


• went to the southern-most point in Africa: Cape Agulhas


• saw the most beautiful vineyards in Stellenbosch


• drove South Africa's Garden Route


• saw a herd of over 40 elephants in Addo Elephant National Park, in addition to many kudu, cape buffalo, and warthogs...and dung beetles, too!


• took a 29-hour train ride from Cape Town to Johannesburg


• been mugged twice...once in Gabs, the other in Jozi; the latter of which I was NOT able to chase down the thieves to recover the stolen items