Malawi, Tanzania... and beyond

I'm still alive and still enjoying being on vacation... going on a month and no desire to quit. We have been in Tanzania about 5 days now. We spent Christmas hiking up a mountain in the rain forest. It was my first experience in a rain forest. It was beautiful... sorry no pics for that one. Were in Zanzibar now getting ready to celebrate New Year's. We're staying in a place called Stone Town. It's a crazy cool place. It's a town of tall stone buildings with mazes of narrow streets in between. We've been busy dodging cars and vespas the last couple days... oh and getting lost on the way to our hostel. It's really freakin hot here but swimming in the ocean combats that nicely. Speaking of water sports, here are a couple of pictures from Malawi. The first is of me rowing a dhow. These boats are very difficult to balance. We all flipped over in it many times but eventually I got the hang of it and successfully rowed to the other side of the bay. My Father would be proud... especially since he taught me how to canoe. The second picture is also from Malawi. We went cliff jumping there. It was great fun. Catch you next year. Peace.

Mozambique

News Flash: My Peace Corps Service ended 3-Dec. My world tour began 4-Dec.

I left Namibia on Friday 4-December. It was sad, exciting, nerve-racking and lots of other stuff. I'm now in beautiful Mozambique... although it took three days on a bus to get here. Honestly the bus ride didn't bother me. I met some interesting people, got to spend eight hours in a place called Vryburg thanks to a broken-down bus, and my body only hurt half the time. But seriously, It went by like nothing. I think it's because of the pacienca (patience in Portuguese) of the people. We never really knew when our new bus would arrive but 66 people just waited. I never heard anybody raise their voice or get really upset. It really helps when the people around you are relaxed. I feel like that would have been a very difficult situation in Western culture. I arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa at 4am. This was actually convenient for me because my next bus left for Maputo, Mozambique at 8am. I slept a little at the bus station and then we were off.

I've been in Mozambique for less than 24 hours but I like it already. Maputo is the capital. It's where I will be for the next couple days before I go up the coast to a nice beach town called Tofo. The country language is Portuguese. Many people
speak hardly any english. That's been tough but I learned the greetings and how to point at stuff so I'm OK. Also I'm couch surfing via the couchsurfing.com website. It's great! I'm staying with a nice Portuguese family. Here's a quick photo... I think I'm still on this street actually. I better get back to exploring. My plan is to enjoy some Mozambiquan seafood, museums and street markets. From here I will meet my friends in Malawi, then travel to Tanzania, Kenya, Egypt, Israel, the UK, Italy... and maybe more if I'm not broke. Tudo Bem, Chao!