Zanzibar airport

Holy crap, quite the experience getting out of Zan. We had a trnsfer to the airport so the driver had a guy there waiting for us rather than the bag boys attacking are bags when we pulled up. This guy was great he went up to the counter got the guy to take us next at another counter(there was a long line) they took all our bags (we were only allowed 22 kilos apiece we has about a hundred total),guy just took them no fee. then then had you come into the baggage area and walk your luggage to the screeners. The female screenersays to me open those bags, I saw let me get my kids over,while we were waiting she says if you give me a tip I'll make it okay, I give her my last 4 singles and my bags go thru the screener! then we step up to pay the departure tax,$30.00 I had put it aside because I had been warned about it. The guy asks me where I'm going after he has this huge scene with unhappy Romanians,lots of yelling and shaking of passports. I tell him Dar es Salaam, he says then where I say eventually the US, he gives me $80.00 back,stamps my boarding pass, I say to the boys lets get out of here. We walk out to the airplane and I can see all our bags being loaded except one of Pete's. I send the boys to board and ask the stew if I can stay and watch. After I tell her my whole sorry tale of lost luggage shes says ok. I see a load of luggage heading to the Romainian plane with Pete's bag on the very bottom,I refuse to board they've closed the baggage bay and started the engines, they send me over (running on the tarmac to show them petes bag. They throw all the bags on top of his on the ground grab his and tell me c'mon run! Crazy place!

We sayed at a B&B in Soweto fri nite we were right down the block from Desmond Tutu's house. We'll be home soon. sitting in Atlanta waiting for our flight we get home about4 pm and will try to have a normal bedtime. e

Hey Grandma!

Jumbo Grandma and readers,
I saw about a thousand pink Flamingos and a few African Fish Eagles. Those were the most important sightings along with the secretary Bird. Hope you are doing well and to the rest of our viewers an African Fish Eagle looks very similar to our Bald Eagle. Well see you all soon we depart today for Jo-berg and from there to the US. Hope to bring some of this hot weather back with us!

Pete

Zanzabar

zanzabar is loads of fun. we went on a spice tour and city tour today and really got the culture that we needed. the spice tour was different than we expected, we anticipated more of a spice plantation, insteda we got a guide to take us through the forest and show us the different spices that were just wild. it was lots of fun smelling the leafs and guessing what the spice was. the city "stone town" was also lots of fun. the market was a blast and spices were cheap! i got about 20 madagascar vanilla beans for about $15! maybe if you are good mr parsons, ill let you have one. other than that we just lay on the beach and look ath the indian ocean. we will probally not post tomm. seeing as we will be travling to joberg and staying in a b&b. so therefore i will leave a link to my facebook photo album which contains some safari pictures! http://uwm.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2174596&l=7924e&id=26724030
James

Looking back on the blogs, I realized that we hadn’t written much on our train experience. As stated earlier, the train was simply amazing and the staff made it even better. The train was headed by some random dude who wore a lavender naru jacket. We didn’t see much of him though. The second in command however, was our kind of guy. He was rather scatterbrained and some other qualties that lead us to give him the nickname: Mr Weasley. He also had a persona that resembled David Parsons. The bartender, Trevor, was also a lot of fun. In fact, two years ago, he had actually worked in lake Genieva! So he knew where we were from, he even still had his state id. I had a great time teaching the staff how to make white Russians with that ever delicious Amarula

James

zanZbar

easy travel to here a one hour direct flight from Arusha. We all enjoyed our safari. Marge gave Pete a South African bird book of grandpa's so he has been birding the whole time, I think his favorite in S africa was the fish eagle. Our guide, Charles or Bubba, is excellent. Ellen P. he reminds us of our guide in the rain forest, remember Edison? We saw 35 giraffes all wandering on the top of of Ngorgoro Crater where we were yesterday. After our day in the Serengheti (jan 4) we stayed in a tented lodge. It was deeeelux we had mosquito tented four poster beds in our tents. we have so many pictures to share with you James says he can put a slide show on the tv,......wanna see our slides....? Bob Parsons you will have to come to Green Bay! Our Lodge last night at the Crater was also wonderful it reminded me of one of the old Yellowstone lodges, beautiful huge windows overlooking the Crater from the dining room and our rooms, food was good also. ellen

SAFARI

cheetahs warthogs hyenas(hakuna matata)elephants lions and more all in 1 day we are on safari! The airline lost half our luggage\(all of Jim's ) all our stuff for safari I'm out there in the skirt I wore on our flight to Dar es Salaam. New Tee shirts for everybody from the gift shop tonite! Don't have our Malaria meds, gin and tonics all around! e

wow, its been along time since weve done anything. i personally blame this on the lack of high spped internet which leads to the fact that it is pointless to try to upload pictures sorry. there is much i have to say but let me start at where we are: we are in tanzanina. 2/3 of our luggage is not. my mom and pete each have a bag here but all i have is my carry on. Honestly, after a day of south african travel, i will be amazed if one team will be able to show up on time for the world cup in 2010. after the snafu with the luggage, we had a rather interesting ride which included a police stop point and a huge accident. as for the rest of the trip's finer points not mentioned thusfar: New years was a rousing success. dispite we were unable to get me to dive with the sharks in the aquarium. the holliday started with ellen and myself deciding that we needed (i needed) champaign. so 30min before we left for the concert, heres my mom and i sprinting through the streets of cape town looking for a liquer store. we finally found one and got to the concert on time. the concert was very enjoyable i prefered dr. victor because he was more of a party performer. when we get back to the states aka: high speed, i will upload some video of the concert. we also had those glow in the dark rave braclets which everyone enjoyed. the concert came to a close with us bribing a taxi driver with chocholate to get us a ride back to long street. we then partied, with my mom somehow being able to sneak by the bouncers. they are now turning off the lights in the lobby and i am finished with my white russian so this is where i will leave the update. -Jim

Jan 2

Today was our tour of Robben Island, we were all looking forward to it very much,it's where Nelson Mandela was in prison. All tours were canceled, high seas and wind. Any trips up Table mtn were canceled also. Two things we will miss doing,as we leave tomorrow. It's a big travel day for us we leave the hotel at 4:30 am fly to Jberg then to Dar es Salaam then on to Arusha where Kilamanjaro and Serengheti is near we get to our hotel at about 6pm then get picked up the next am to start our Safari. We took the first of our Malaria pills tonight.

We heard my brother Bill has lost his middle finger it has been amputated, we are very bummmed, would like to be able to talk to him ect.

We saw the new years minstral parade today it was very colorful and loud it went on for hours.

We went to the market today and bought a shitload of stuff. I tried an evening gown on that I had my eye on but it's not coming home with me too expensive, I think it was a designer shop.
everything fit in our bags we still have room!
We ate at a sushi bar tonite it had a revolving track around the top of the bar you could just pluck off the plate you wanted as it came by. it was very fun,we have some photos but it takes forever to upload. Our hotel charges 130Rand per hour for internet, we have found some other places in the neighborhood for 10 R but you never know when they will be open. It is easy to forget that SAfrica is third world, Capetown is a large comopolitan city, but it does not have the infrastructure it needs. they will be hosting the world cup in 2010 and they don't have a transportation system. just taxis. no subway,some buses.
But they do have some of the most physically beautiful people I have ever seen,the mix is Malay Indian and Black(you have to call it colored, black is an insult) just stunning women very pretty faces, their clothes are very colorful not really provacative but their bodies are so well put together they all look like models.
Well, I have the taxi reserved for the am I'll remember to set the alarm. On to Tanzania. ellen

New Years

He ya'll,
I am here in Cape Town and I have lots to tell you. New years eve we saw a concert in a national botanical Garden (kirstenbach) . We were pretty far back but it was the best concert ever. It concisted of Dr. Victor and the rasta rebals and Freshly Ground. The lead singer of freshly ground actually blew me a kiss. Not jokin either. She saw me with my hands up and actully blew me a kiss while she was singing and dancin'. Later on we went out on long street which Jim and Mom call Burban street which I guess is a place like marti gras. Then we discoverd a few bars and afew people who were real jerks to us. The first bar we went into a guy urinated off the top balcony and was escorted out of the bar. After I saw that I was no longer able to handle anything more at that point. So I said good night to my family and told them to keep an eye out for these flashy things I saw people wearing on their ears. But I asked a genttleman and he pointed me in the right direction. I bought a pair for myself and hope you all will be able to see them on our return. We have bought to much stuff!!
-petey