Winter Solstice

So sorry for the delay in update! We have been busy, well vacation busy anyway, with a guided tour.

We arrived in Johannesburg after 16 hours of movies and mediocre food at about the same time our domestic flight was taking off. Fun! I had chanced it by booking the two flights too close and sure enough, our flight out of Atlanta left almost an hour and a half late. There was a lot of figuring and finagling but we eventually made it to our hostel room in Durban at 3:30 am, a cool 30 hours after taking off from El Paso. The place was a bit "soggy" as I now know Lonely Planet describes it, but at the time it was a bed and we slept hard when we finally got around to it.

The next day was Spain v. Switzerland and all we pretty much had time for was retreiving our tickets and heading to Moses Madiba Stadium. The atmosphere was amazing! Vuvuzela blowing, fans chanting and cheering, flags everywhere—it was just so joyful. Our seats were decent even if they were in close proximity to the world's most annoying American. Think soccer mom, subtract absolutely any knowledge of soccer and then add alcohol. "Run!" "Go!" "Shoot!" He couldn't even sing the Olé Olé song correctly, but I digress.

It was such great fun, especially watching Spain. Despite the loss, they dominated with style. Switzerland had a lot of heart and they really played with a never-say-die toughness. At least that's what I can remember after four or five beers.

The following five days have been filled with game drives, a hippo boat tour, cheetah petting, an overnight with a Zulu family (amazing), horseback riding, hiking and of course watching as many World Cup games as possible. My without a doubt favorite experience so far was spending time with the Ncibilika family so stay tuned as that will be the subject of my next posting.

Today is France v. South Africa and although j'adore France, go Bafana Bafana!