We love Cape Town!

Hey guys! Guess what? This is the first blog post coming to you from AFRICA! How exciting is that? I think it’s pretty exciting. That’s the first piece of big news from the last two weeks, the second piece is that I am no longer a solo traveler! My best friend Briana has finally joined the volun-year and I am so happy to have a traveling and adventure buddy and a friend. So, lots of excitement. We are currently in Cape Town, South Africa as part of a month of volunteer vacation. August is my halfway point on my trip and I’m taking it as a vacation month. After our two weeks here in Cape Town we will be heading to Tanzania, joining my family (!) and embarking on the grand adventure of climbing Kilimanjaro and doing a safari…. But that’s still a week away and this post is about mine and Briana’s Cape Town adventures!

After a wonderful last day in Cusco where I got to hang out with my cousin, I said some emotional goodbyes to my wonderful host parents, got in a taxi, and headed off for 23 hours of travel. I had four flights and three layovers but eventually I made it to the African continent! My first adventure/challenge upon arrival was to pick up our rental car and drive it 45 minutes to our apartment. It was night time, I hadn’t driven in five months, and they drive on the other side of the road here so it was a pretty stressful 45 minutes to say the least. But thanks be to God, both the car and I made it to our AirBnB apartment in good condition! The next four days were spent sleeping off my jetlag, buying new clothes (I haven’t had new clothes in five months!), getting to know the area around our apartment, and mostly waiting for Briana to arrive. Finally, on Saturday night I found myself in the international arrivals waiting area so excited that it was hard to sit in the silent airport, I wanted to scream about how excited I was!! AT LAST after an eleven month separation, Briana came out of the doors and best friends were reunited!

Since then, we haven’t wasted a minute exploring all that Cape Town has to see and do! We have strolled around the craft and food stalls at Bay Harbour Market, where the food offerings were so extensive and amazing that we had trouble choosing just one; we have walked on the beautiful Sea Point promenade along the coastline, mingling with all sorts of local Capetonians and walked in the amazingly beautiful Green Point Park. On Monday afternoon we enjoyed a beautiful, delicious, and elegant afternoon tea at the exclusive Mount Nelson Belmond hotel. We each had three pots of tea and lots and lots of delightful savouries, sweets, and of course, scones! It was a gorgeous day and we really enjoyed ourselves. We have strolled through the Company’s public gardens and been wowed by the flowers and a local magician; We hiked to the summit of Lion’s Head mountain with half the population of Cape Town, and did some serious rock climbing and scaling to escape the crowds on the way down. We spent some time the lovely Clifton fourth beach before heading off to a two hour sea kayak adventure. Sea kayaking was cold and difficult but was also beautiful and very rewarding. We saw two penguins and a seal and got to watch the beginning part of the sunset from a sea kayak in the middle of the ocean; I’m not sure if Briana enjoyed the beauty of the kayaking as she was busy racing against nobody and refusing to stop paddling even when there were animals, or the waves were moving us along, or the guide told her to, but regardless we both had a great time and enjoyed ourselves. Naturally we were exhausted at the end of that very physical day and so rewarded ourselves with a lovely dinner at a yummy Italian restaurant. Nature rewarded us too with an incredible sunset.

We continued our week by soaking up the sun and sand at beautiful Llandudno beach and enjoyed strolling around the Victoria and Albert Waterfront. The V&A is the most visited tourist site in all of the African continent and we had a great time wandering the giant mall, visiting the aquarium, watching the sunset over the harbor, buying lots of locally made products and eating a luxurious seafood dinner. On Thursday we woke up early and headed out for the coastal town of Hermanus and the Hemel-en-aarde valley which hosts some of South Africa finest vineyards. The drive took us about two hours but it was an absolutely stunning drive right on the coast. On our way, we stopped at Stony Point which is home to one of two penguin colonies in South Africa. This was an absolutely amazing experience as there were so many penguins and the boardwalk through the colony allowed us to see them in all kinds of locations; their nests, the water, the beach, and the rocks. It was really incredible to have the opportunity to see so many penguins in the wild and get up close and personal with them. Our next stop in the valley was the Creation Wines tasting room, on the way there we passed through a group of baboons casually strolling along the side of the road….WHAT!? Africa man. When we arrived at the tasting room we were shown to a lovely table with great views of the surrounding vineyards, valley, and mountains and promptly treated to eight AMAZING wine and tapas tastings. The food was incredible and unique and the wine was delicious and paired so expertly with the food, we enjoyed ourselves immensely to say the least. After our lovely wine experience we headed down into the center of Hermanus to walk upon the cliffs and look for whales as Hermanus is the whale watching capital of South Africa. Unfortunately we didn’t see any whales, but the cliff walk proved to be so spectacularly beautiful that we still had a great time and enjoyed ourselves taking selfies and scampering among the rocks. 

Friday was the first rainy day of our trip so we decided to take it easy.We started our day at Truth coffee roasting which is a really cool steampunk themed coffee roaster and café. The décor was cool, the food and coffee were yummy, and the wait staff were hilarious and showed us a great time; we were invited back by at least three different waiters and even received a phone number from one! It was a fun morning for us:) Things unraveled a bit from there as I got sick from all the coffee, Briana left her phone in the restaurant (luckily we recovered it), a man posing as a parking attendant ripped us off, sites that we wanted to visit were closed or under construction, and it was rainy. We decided just to cut our losses and head to the movies where we saw, and immensely enjoyed, the new Ghostbusters movie. We then spent the weekend doing all sorts of fun things! We spent a ton of time at the World of Birds in Hout Bay where we got up close and personal with all kinds of animals! Our favorites were the owls (we are Chi Omegas after all), the baby servels, and the adorable squirrel monkeys who enjoyed climbing on us and rifling through our pockets. It was pretty fun to say that that wasn’t the only time I’ve had a monkey on my head in the last month! After our animal encounters we headed to the Sea Point Promenade and spontaneously decided to rent and ride bicycles down the promenade. It was easily one of my favorite activities that we did and I spent the whole time singing the song ‘Perfect Day’ and pretending I was in Legally Blonde. We froze our fingers off looking for shells on the beach in the rain but it was a wonderful day in Cape Town. 

To finish up our weekend we headed down to the Cape of Good Hope, the most south-westerly point in Africa. On our way down to the bottom of the peninsula, we saw baboons and ostriches chilling on the side of the road and spent way too much time rock hopping and collecting cool shells. We got to the tip and enjoyed the views and took the necessary pictures. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful place and we had a great time. On our way back up the coast we stopped at the other African penguin colony to say hi to our new favorite feathered friends. Boulders beach is a more stunning location, but there isn’t as much interaction with the penguins and it’s much more crowded than Stony Point, we are very glad that we had the opportunity to visit both sites! Also, African penguins are hilarious and we absolutely love watching them go about their lives. We were headed back home when we saw a ton of people out in the ocean and wondered what was going on (the ocean here is very cold and its winter). Turns out we were at Muzienburg beach which is home to A LOT of surfers and surfing schools. We strolled down the pretty beach lined with colorful bathing houses and enjoyed some time watching all the people surf, boogie board, and paddle board through the waves. We rounded off our trip with a super difficult hike up to the top of Table Mountain which was full of steep stairs and gave me Inca Trail flashbacks. We enjoyed great views from the top and on our last day in Cape Town, strolled the world class botanical gardens which are located right on the side of the mountain and are very beautiful and well maintained.

We absolutely LOVED Cape Town and can’t wait to return, which we are sure we will do. South African people are probably the nicest people that I have met so far in my travels and everyone we encountered (minus the fake parking attendant) helped make our trip unforgettable. Thank you South Africa for such a wonderful welcome, we are so sad to leave!

While we are sad to leave, we are also pretty excited for what’s up next! On August 19^th the Powers family and Briana will head up the infamous Kilimanjaro mountain, the highest mountain in Africa if you didn’t know. We will be spending eight days hiking and enjoying each others company. After our hike we are doing a five day safari before the rest of the Powers fam heads back to the States and Briana and I start our three month volunteer placement in Arusha, Tanzania.

Thank you SO MUCH for continuing to read the blog and like the pictures, I never take your support for granted. Lots of prayers and good thoughts will definitely be appreciated as we head into this next adventure. God has taken such good care of me so far on this trip and I really am grateful to all the people back home who are sending thoughts both my way and His, it makes a difference!

Until next time after we’ve conquered Kili!

LP

Goodbye, Peru and thanks for the memories

Well dear friends, here I am sitting in the Lima airport getting ready to say goodbye to Peru and soon enough, goodbye to South America. It’s been awhile since my last post, and in that time I have finished my volunteering project, been to a desert oasis south of Lima and Manu national park which is part of the Amazon jungle. I’ve also seen another friend from Argentina and had a surprise visit with my cousin. Suffice it to say, my last weeks in Peru have been just as adventure filled and exciting as the rest of my time in here! Here is a recap.

Three weeks ago I traveled to Huacachina, an oasis in the middle of miles of sand dunes about four hours south of Lima. I stayed in a nice hotel with a pool and a giant sand dune behind it. I climbed the sand dunes and took a dune buggy tour at sunset complete with sand sledding. It was really fun but would have been more fun if I had had someone, particularly my brother because he would have loved it, to share it with. I had a few money issues while I was in Huacachina but thanks to a combination of some extremely nice Peruvians and my savior of a mom I was able to work it all out and enjoy my weekend away.

Last weekend I went to a Mormon church service with one of my roommates Kris. It was very interesting and during her time in Cusco I learned a lot about Mormonism and learned that’s it’s definitely not as weird as people generally think it is. I really enjoyed having conversations about faith with Kris and I always enjoy learning about other types of religion and beliefs. We may not believe all of the same things, but faith is faith and church is church and we had a great time sharing it together.

Last Thursday was my last official day at my volunteer placement. I did everything pretty much as usual, helping my kiddos with insane amounts of homework and having fun tickle wars. At the end of the day I gave all of the kids little gift bags with pencils, a sharpener, and an eraser. The gratitude I received over these little presents was overwhelming and made my heart so full. In my time working with the kids I realized that when I am playing with kids I can forget that I’m in another country, far from home, speaking a different language. Kids are kids all over the world and no matter what corner of the world I’m in, where the kids are, I’m at home. The next day was a local parade for all the schools so the after school program held a raffle to raise money. I was in charge of collecting money and distributing raffle tickets and for four hours, it was pure insanity. Peruvians do not have a high threshold for patience and some of them really don’t like it when their raffle prize ends up being pencil. It was a crazy morning but it was really fun to be part of the local community and to see all the kids in their school uniforms with huge grins on their faces is always a highlight. After the raffle, the teachers at the school took me out for lunch and we enjoyed each other’s company and said our goodbyes; it was a really touching day and I’m going to miss them all very much. I might be starting a fundraising page for the school so please keep your eye out!

During my last week in Peru, since the kids were on school vacation and I didn’t have project, I took a four day tour to the amazon jungle. We went river rafting and ziplining and did lots of jungle walks looking for birds and bugs and monkeys. We saw a lot of bugs, some pretty cool birds and even monkeys and a capybara! Everything we saw was through binoculars so I don’t have pictures but it was a fun adventure despite the 68 mosquito bites I received. Stay tuned on whether or not I have zika virus… On our last day in the jungle we got to go to a nature reserve and see sloths, capybaras, a tapir, and monkeys up close. I got real up close and personal with a monkey named Rosita who took a liking to my hair and sat on my head for ten minutes. It was just as amazing and fun as it looks in the pictures!

On my last day in Cusco, my cousin arrived in Cusco for a couple of days before starting a Machu Picchu trek. We had a great traditional Peruvian lunch and I passed on all my Cusco knowledge and wisdom from the last two and half months. It was so great to see a family member and fun to be able to share all my experiences and advice.

As my time in Peru comes to a close, I have been trying to feel sad but I haven’t really been able to do it. Sure, I will miss things like the kids at my project and my host parents, but excitement for the next step is my dominant emotion. My best friend Briana is meeting me in Cape Town and then my family will be in Africa and we will spend two whole weeks together on an amazing adventure. I have really enjoyed my time in Peru but unfortunately it fell during a hard part in my trip. I had just had the most amazing time in Argentina and knew that at the end of Peru was a reunion with friends and family. Peru had the unfortunate position in between these two really great events and because of that, I found myself constantly counting down the days until my departure. Cusco is a beautiful city and Peru is amazing country but like I said, I haven’t been able to muster up a lot of sadness at my departure. That being said I will definitely miss some general things from my time here:

-all the children who are always willing return a smile and an enthusiastic ‘hola!’

-the ladies in the plaza dressed in their traditional clothes and carrying their pet llamas and goats and offering photos

-the music, dancing, and celebration that always seems to be happening somewhere in Cusco

-the amazing architecture and stonework that defines the city

-being able to identify foreigners easily since we all have alpaca hoodies and wear them constantly

-the dry air that reminds me of home and the endless sunny days

-the colors that are everywhere, in crafts, flags, balconies and nature

-the friendliness of the people who are always willing to give a nod and a greeting

My time in South America has been an adventure to say the least. It will be weird not to hear and speak Spanish anymore and its crazy to think that my trip is halfway over. I’ve accomplished and learned a lot so far and I think that it can only continue to be an amazing trip. I’ve had some really great adventures and made some lifelong friends, but I am definitely ready to have some familiar faces in my life again. Traveling solo is a great experience, but after five and half months, I’m getting a bit lonely and can’t wait for my reunions with Briana and the Powers fam. Thank you all so much for sticking with me this far, I hope you continue to keep up with the adventures as we travel halfway across the world to a whole new world….. see you all in AFRICA.

LP