Arrival in Victoria Falls - 26 July 2016

26 July 2016

We woke very early to get to the airport.  While waiting I went into the store, Out of Africa, hoping to buy an African penguin.  They didn’t have it, but I saw baby booties, which hopefully will be used in the future.

Victoria Falls International Airport in Zimbabwe

We had lunch on the plane and landed in Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe.  The lodge we are staying at is truly lovely.

Shortly after arrival we went for a sunset cruise on the Zambezi River. There was no limit on the drinks and I drank two glasses of wine and I was quite tipsy.  While the stated objective was watching the sun set, we did see some animals.   We saw crocs lounging on the banks of the river and some baby crocs on tree branches.  The big excitement was a pod of hypos playing with each other.  They would do mock aggressive moves with each other.

Cruise on Zambezi River

On the river

Island in middle of Zambezi River

Views along the river

Crocodile on river bank

Crocodile

Hypo in the river

Motorized flying kite

baby crocodile on branch

Another baby croc

Croc on the shore

Holes in mud ate nests for bee eating birds

Hypos

Hypos

Hypos

Hypos

Pod of Hypos

 Pod of Hypos

Bird

Bird

 Elephant

Elephant

We had dinner at the lodge that we are staying at and the menu included crocodile and other exotic (at least to me) items.  After dinner, I went to my room, uploaded my pictures and then went to bed.  I had requested a 6:00 am wake up call.

Soweto in Johannesberg - 25 July 2016

25 July 2016

After breakfast, we headed into Soweto.  Soweto is now a very diverse neighborhood.  There are areas that are wealthy and there are areas with abject poverty.  In addition there are neighborhoods that are middle class.  We visited the House that Nelson Mandela live in for many years before he was arrested.  We had lunch in a B&B which was nice and the food was good.  We also visited a monument to a child killed during the apartheid riots. We visited a school that could use help.  The new principal tried to hit us up for contributions to help the school. Our tour guide apologized saying that the principal was new to the job.

Soweto

Soweto

Soweto

Mandela's house in Soweto

Picture in Mandela's House

Room in Mandela House

Stove for cooking and heating in Mandela's House

Soweto

Soweto

Monument to child killed 

Monument to child killed

Monument to child killed

 school in Soweto

Classroom

 Another class at school

 Soweto

 Soweto

very poor area of Soweto

 Moment to the 10 points

Poor section of Soweto

 Soweto

B&B where we had lunch

The last official activity of the day was visiting the apartheid museum.  It is very well done, but I would have preferred to do something else.  What? I don’t know.

Apartheid Museum

I bought another wallet for Micah so my shopping is effectively complete