Into the Bush

It is Friday (we think) and we have made it to Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania.  We are staying at the Movenpick hotel in Dar which actually is very nice.  Dinner tonight was italian food (yes we went to London to have Argentina steak and we go to Dar to have Italian).

Tomorrow morning at 9AM we leave for Lake Manyara National Park in Tanzania.  It is 2 flights and the second one lands on a dirt airstrip - should be pretty cool!.

No pictures for today as all we did was go from hotel to airport to hotel - so nothing exciting unless you consider the signs of the hotels we stayed at interesting.

Not sure what internet access we will have once we get there but we will do our best to provide updates as I know everyone is looking forward to seeing pictures.

Tony used to say "To the Monkeys" - we are going to modify that to now say "Into the Bush"

"This is being added to your existing case." -- Stuck in Jo-berg

Today is a double post day as well!

So, today has not gone as planned.  We missed our connection to Dar Es Salaam in Johanesburg due to a flight delay in Durban.  Ran all the way to the gate like we were on "The Amazing Race" only to find out that the gate was closed.  I {Bethe} cried for about 10 minutes then got really upset and then finally calmed down.  Luckily we were able to get a room in a hotel right across from the airport.  We had a nice dinner with a bottle of champagne and will now stay the night until our flight leaves tomorrow afternoon.  We will miss one day of Safari but luckily we did not miss any of the World Cup matches unlike some of the unlikely people we heard about.

As for our quote in the Post, that is what the American Express agent said to us regarding their third screw up with our booking.  At least the hotel and champagne should be covered.  Cheers!!

Oh, and here is a picture of the Durban stadium and our picture with a crazy Spain guy last night --

Our picture uploading is behind - we are working on uploading the pictures from the Cape Tour and Semifinals today.  Hopefully everything is updated before we leave for Dar today

World Cup Semi-Finals

We had the greatest time at the semi-final games.  We had better seats at the Netherlands v. Uruguay game and the Holland fans were out of control.  We had the highest seats for the Germany v. Spain game but they were still fabulous!!

We did not get to see much of Durban as we arrived at around 4:00 a.m. and slept until 2:30 p.m.  However, we did get a chance to walk down the board-walk and it definitely has a different vibe than Cape Town.  We even took a Rickshaw, which made us feel a bit guilty for doing.  Overall though the games were amazing!!!

Second Half of Tour -- Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope

In the second half of our tour, I found where I am going to build my South Africa house...and yes Mom we will have a guest house!  This place was amazing!

Plus, whoever thought you could see these animals at the Beach...could you imagine in Pedro?

Little Anthony-- what animals are these?

Coolest thing in the world!!!  By the way, Vinnie slept great last night...so great he kept me up all night with his snoring!

First Half of Tour -- Table Mountain

Well, the Dutch have arrived as have their costumes...we saw these people two different times today...I had to take a picture with them!!

Table Mountain was unbelievable...absolutely breath-taking!

Luckily we got to the mountain before the clouds rolled in so we were able to get some great pictures!

The final picture is of the cable cars that take you up and down the mountain...way steep!

We are contemplating [i.e. Vinnie is contemplating] whether we will go repelling down the side of the mountain tomorrow.  I say what a way to go though!

Wine Tasting & Jet Lag in Cape Town

Happy 4th of July Everyone!!

Today we went wine tasting outside of Cape Town which was a very nice day.  Almost have no clue what day of the week it is which feels like a good thing. 

Before we go into the wine tasting we first shall start with Jetlag. 

It can be a tough.  I (Vince) am definetely not settled into the time zone change.  Terrible sleeper to begin with my body still can't figure out where it is.  So we had a 7:45 AM alarm for breakfast before wine tasting and at 3:45AM I was still up.  So needless to say I am a little tired but trying to stay awake until 10PM so that I can get back on schedule (at least that is the hope)

We had an absolutely amazing day today in an around Cape Town.  It is winter here but the weather was in the mid 70's and sunny skies.  We went to 5 vineyards today and they were all very interesting.  Reminded Bethe & I a little of Napa (except everyone has a funny accent and drives on the wrong side of the road).  We had a mixture of champagne and wine to satisfy both of us and went to lunch at an amazing little spot (pictures are uploaded at the bottom)

We could not ship any wine home - the US has strict laws in place right now for South Africa wine coming into the states.  So we will have to figure that out when we get home.
We also stopped and picked up new vuvuzelas today - know we just need to learn how to use them!!

Tomorrow is Table Mountain and the Cape Tour.  I am told we will be able to see penguins on the beach down there.

Sue and Howard hope you enjoy the fireworks

Cape Town - Quarterfinal Argentina vs. Germany

We went and saw the quarterfinal game today in Cape Town.  It was Argentina vs. Germany and it was an amazing experience.  The picture is before the game.  Bethe took a lot of pictures of videos (so you can hear the vuvuzelas) during the game and you can get to those from the bottom of the blog where links to all of our pictures are. We discovered the games only take Visa and have no ATM's - so lesson learned take lots of South Africa Ran to the game. 

Getting back was also an expereince as very crowded where the game is.  We finally got a cab and he was not exactly sure where the hotel was.  So he drove us and we had to call his cab company on my cell for them to tell him how to get to our hotel.  Frustrating but than we left our vuvuzelas in the cab (din't realize it until 3 hours later)

STUPID STUPID STUPID (not nice words Anthony)

So we will have to get new ones!!

Tomorrow we go wine tasting.  Hopefully we are standing at the end of that.

The comments are great - especially Little Anthony's (co-authored by Kim).  If you have not read them you should (just click on the comment link below each post where it says comments or click on the article headline).  It is great to see the world through a 3 year old mind and imagination!