Currency: Rand (7.5 Rand=$1 USD)

Cities Visited: Kalk Bay, Stellenbosch, Cape Town

There are 11 official languages in South Africa and we met many people who spoke at least two of them.  Afrikaans is the language of the Dutch settlers who came to the country (I didn’t know this until our visit).

Many South Africans will tell you that Cape Town is not like the rest of South Africa.  We hope to return to see this for ourselves.

You will need an electric plug adaptor here.

Internet is awful and supposedly is run by a monopolizing company.  You will pay big time to use wireless and/or regular internet. 

Rent a car here; public transportation is expensive, dangerous, unreliable, or doesn’t exist.  With that said, don’t expect to get a car during the holidays.

When parking a car, tip (small change to) the guy who offers to watch it.

Although the apartheid ended more than 15 years ago, it is still on the hearts and minds of many South Africans and it affects them in one way or another.  Take time to appreciate this. 

If you want to go to Robben Island during high season, reserve tickets online ahead of time.  Also, be prepared for tours to be cancelled to the island due to bad weather.

It is not unusual to see barefoot children walking around the city with their families.  In fact, a South African told us that schools encourage students to come barefoot in the summer because they end up losing their shoes otherwise.

Everyone talks about seeing “The Big 5” when going on safaris.  The Big 5 animals originated from game hunters and are difficult to spot on foot.  They are the lion, leopard, elephant, buffalo, and rhino.  If you don’t have a chance to see the big 5, swim with the penguins at Boulder’s Beach at least.   

“Kitsch”-a term used by our South African host, but hard to explain.  It has something to do with gaudy-ish, funny artsy stuff that you might use to decorate your house, but it’s not to be taken seriously. 

Foods and beverages that are a big deal in South Africa: Rooibos tea (who knew?), wine (we all knew), biltong (what?), chutney (like you’d get at an Indian restaurant).

Things we liked:

Deenaree´s list…

• Food: Seafood
• Experience: Ringing in 2010 on the patio of our hotel by the sea with Leonardo and his large group of family and friends
• Something to remember:  The word “emerald” comes to mind when you think of the oceans here – come back when it’s a bit warmer to enjoy swimming in them. 

Ben´s list…

• Food: Biltong (dried meat like beef jerkey, but WAY better)
• Experience: Looking out over the oceans from the Cape of Good Hope
• Something to remember: Loved the atmosphere and scenery in the famous wine region and want to come back to see more of the mom-and-pop organizations

The falls sit in Iguazu Falls National Park on the Argentine side, which protects them and the surrounding jungle.  The falls themselves defy description.  Legend has it that Eleanor Roosevelt, upon seeing Iguazu Falls for the first time, simply said “Poor Niagara”.  We have not been to Niagara, but suspect we would have to agree.  Our first view of the day was of the Devil’s Throat from right above the falls via the man-made walkway.  It was stunning to see such an enormous rush of water from only 20 feet away.  The bottom half of the falls was not even visible due to the incredible mist kicked up from the turbulence.  We marveled at how such a platform and walkway could be built and envied the Brazilian side of the river, who could see this in all its glory.  The rest of the day, we hiked around the national park and had more spectacular, panoramic views of the rest of the four kilometer (!!) length of waterfalls.  It is impossible to describe them and our photos only do them a little more justice.  During our time in South America, this was my single favorite place of any we saw.

With only a day to visit we did not have time to hike through the jungle portions of the park like we would have liked.  Supposedly littered with animal life, especially birds, we were disappointed we were going to miss out.  However, our trip was not without encounters with some of the local fauna.  Butterflies were everywhere, in amazing colors and quantities.  Yellow butterflies would swarm around a single spot in the hundreds and beautiful purple ones would land on us regularly.  It became a fun game to play to see if we could time a photo to capture the purple inside of the wings as they opened instead of the bland, brown outside of the wings.  I can safely say I have never been so fascinated by butterflies in my life.

Not all of our interaction with the animals were positive.  We noticed a few times on our way past the snack shack that an interesting little critter was looming around.  It looked like a cross between a raccoon and an anteater and we later learned it was a coati.  We figured it must be looking for food, but having seen a number of signs, warnings and pleadings not to feed the animals, we figured it must have just strayed a bit from the jungle.  It was cute and a few photos later, we moved on.

Around midday we came back to the snack shack for a bite to eat and quickly noticed the little critter was still there.  Now though, it seemed to be more directly searching out people for food.  It began to mingle specifically around the people waiting for the next train.  Within minutes, and to our dismay, one of the men in line began to share his potato chips with the little guy.  The man and his girlfriend were quite enjoying themselves, even as the coati got a bit more aggressive once the potato chips ran out.  We continued to watch as it made its way down the line.  An old man fed it some more and another couple continued the trend.  Just before the train arrived a family of four finished off the feeding.  As the train boarding folk left, our little buddy moved towards those of us eating outside the snack shack.  The final anger was a group of middle age female tourists that showed up.  They wanted a photo and decided they would lure the coati with their food.  Mission accomplished!  They got their photo and the coati was well fed.

We know this was taught to most of us in elementary school, so for those of you please bear with us.  There are signs at the zoo and many signs when it comes to wild animals.  Still, we would like to make it more clear for the rest of society.  Don’t feed the animals!  It causes problems with natural feeding behaviors and makes them dependent on humans.  They can also become aggressive and attack if they are not fed by people in the future.  Additionally, the food humans eat may cause harm to the animals by making them sick.  I am sure there are many other reasons we could not even articulate, but we felt it had to be said.  We all love to see wildlife and hopefully it will continue to remain “wild” in the future.

Land Animals

Land Tortoise – Galapagos tortoises are the largest land tortoises in the world.  The first photo, Lonesome George, is the very last of his particular species on the planet.

Land Iguana – The Galapagos land iguana is endemic to the islands.  It eats fruit that falls from specific cacti trees and is not able to climb.

Lava Lizard – Lava lizards are found on all of the islands in the Galapagos.  However, the specific coloring pattern of the lizard is different on each island.

Sea Animals

Sea Lion – Sea lions are found in seemingly great numbers on the islands, however, they are an endangered species in nature as they only mate on the islands.  *Check out the youtube video below along with additional ones to see baby sea lions and more.

Sally Lightfoot Crab – These crabs have different apperances depending upon their age.  When very young, they are quite small and have a solid black apperance.  During adolescence, they have a reddish, yellow appearance.  As adults, they are more red and have a bluish underbelly.

Marine Iguana – The marine iguana is found only in the Galapagos Islands.  It is the only iguana in the world able to swim and look for food in the ocean.

Sting Ray – One of at least three types of rays on the islands.  They are common to many parts of the world.

Sea Turtles – Sea turtles spend most of their lives in the water with the exception of females coming ashore to lay eggs.

Air Animals

Pelican – Pelicans are also found in abundance in the Galapagos.  They are large birds, but the smallest species of pelicans in existence.

Blue Footed Booby – Blue footed boobies have different mating calls between males and females.  The males make a whistling sound, while the females make a honking sounds similar to a duck.

Nazca Booby – Nazca boobies lay their nests only on the rocky coasts of islands.  They lay two eggs for insurance and the older pushes the younger out of the nest if they both initially survive.

Frigate – The frigates in the Galapagos are all black except for a white patch on the chest of females and a red patch on the chest of males.  As a mating call, the males blow up the red patch, which looks like a balloon.

Sea Gull – This sea gull is the only fully nocturnal sea bird in the world.

Albatross – The albatross is born with a head of mostly grey to black feathers, which turn whitish yellow as it becomes an adult.

Galapagos Hawk – The galapagos hawk is endemic to the islands and is the only natural predator in the Galagagos.

Galapagos Finch – There are many varieties of Galapagos finches.  These finches played a major part in the development of Charles Darwin´s theory of natural selection.

Mockingbird – This mockingbird is endemic to the Galapagos Islands.  It is very used to humans and will move within inches and even stand on people´s bags!

Flamingo – Flamingoes are quite rare in the Galapagos, especially compared to other parts of the world.

Other Birds – We saw a few other birds on our trip, although we are not sure of the species of the following birds.