Za madonna with za biga boobies (fountain in the main plaza of Antigua)

Lake Atitlan

The following morning we caught a bus to Panjachel on the shores of Lake Atitlan, a massive and stunning lake in the mountain highlands of Guatemala. Panjachel itself is nothing to write home about but the lake is magnificent, surrounded on all sides by mountains rising sharply out of the lake, plus a few volcanoes sprinkled around the horizon. The lake has several small villages on it which we visited a couple. Panajachel is the main gringo meeting point as it is the only village easily accessable by road. This has meant the village has grown significantly and has lots of stalls selling arts and crafts, it also means it has plenty of cafes and bars for us to enjoy. The margeritas here were a lot cheaper than Antigua so we felt it rude not to sample a few. We spent most of our first day on the lake browsing the stalls, book swapping and generaly enjoying the amenities. The following day we caught a lake taxi, a small motorboat with a sun shade. What the taxi lacked in life jackets was more than made up by the speed. Our first village visit was to San Pedro. San Pedro was a more traditional village and heavily populated by hippies, who were to haunt us for the next couple of days. We found some solar heated plunge pools, but abstained as the last taxi left in the early afternoon and we were getting peckish. Instead we found a nice cafe overlooking the lake with a gorgeous blue sky. There is not much else to do there other thann chill with Mojitas, but seeing as we had those for brekky we decided to catch the last taxi back. After checking out of our Hospadajare we caught another boat to a place on the lake called San Marcus, the beardy wierdy centre of hippy ville. Our guide book advised us that it had the most unique accomodation in Guatemal, which indeed it was. Each hut was built into a shape of a pyramid, and the two ´temples´, one for the sun and one for the moon, were also pyramids. As part of your stay, the courses are free, as well as mandatory as we failed to appreciate when we first checked in. But, hey, this sounded like fun. Our first lesson was meditation in the moon temple. We all entered via a small hatch in the floor to a tunnel that led to the inside of the pyramid decorated with buddhas and other effigies, with another smaller pyramid in the centre with a crystal on the peak. We found a mat each and then the white robed guru entered...todays lesson was going to be exploring our emotions. Mild panic on my behalf, which I´m sure Jo shared, nut it was too late we were locked in. Actually it was fun in the end, we had to face a partner (Jo and I were on different sides of the pyramid and hence could not take the easy option), take deep breaths, look in each others eyes and then express to each other our deepest fears and anxieties. This was followed by some group sesions and finally some breathing exercises. It was kinda spooky, afterwards on exiting the pyramid we all felt really, really chilled and peaceful. Post emotion treatments we made a dash into the village proper for some dinner and wine. This was a bit of a shocker as the village mostly consisted of rubble as a couple of months ago they had a bit of a hurricane that had flattened the place and badly damged some of the other villages. The only place that seemed unaffected, poor tykes, was the school. We had to awake early the next morning for a yoga session, which I escaped as I was up all night hooked into the pyramid vibe and being at one with the cosmos, Joey on the other hand had slept well and later told me it was really good fun, lots of strecthes and poses to channel inner powers or somehting like that. We checked out before they could drag us into the metaphysics lectures, and caught a boat to another part of the lake. The casa del mundo, built on a cliff side, designed primarily for mountain goats. Getting us and our rucksacks to the hotel was quite a feat, but worth it. The views from this place were unbelievable, every room had unhindered views onto the lake as the place is vertical. We spent the day chilling out on hammocks watching the passing boats, admiring the view right across the lake to the volcanoes and mountains with a whsipy cloud or two breaking up the blue skies. The owners and staff were extremely helpful and friendly and we felt in heaven. It was such a shame we only found this place on our last day on the lake as we could have stayed for quite a while. The hotel insisted on communal dinners, and hence we were trapped between an american family visiting uncle in Antigua, and a canadian artist for the night. It was a really good night, the wine and conversation flowing, excellent food. Luckily the americans were more on the liberal side so i don´t think i upset them too much, and Joey got a good contact for an artist in Scotland who may be pursuaded to visit her workplace to help with conservation education. A little worse for wear we hit the sack only after Joey making a video of the lake, in total darkness with running commentary. Waking the next morning was a struggle and we had the get the first boat away from the hotel back to Panjachel to catch another bus to take us deeper into the highlands and Chichicastenanga for market day. The biggest market in the whole of guatemala, been running for all known history, although of late this has meant an increase in toursit craft stalls. Yet this took none of the magic away, villagers resplendent in their colourful clothes from villages all around the highlands still come as their main trading centre. It was a vibrant, exciting and colourful experience. Many many stalls of crafts especially mayan arts surrounded the market, and if you ventured inwards there were the food stalls and local wares. All through the day fireworks and bangers were being fired from the crowd, as although generally speaking guatemala is a catholic country, the mayans in the highlands still practice their old religion. This has been mixed into the catholic religion and even some of the mayan gods now reside in the churches. One of my favourite, which I failed to visit, is Maximon (mah-shee-mon) who demands cigars and rum as offerings, the locals tend to leave cheap ciggies and beer instead, but this is my kinda religion. I really loved the way in Chichi the old and new, the tourists and locals, freely mix all intent on their individual bargains and we spent the day haggling prices away. We ended up spending far too much and we haven´t really worked out how we are going to carry this stuff around. Tomorrow we plan to return to Anitgua via various buses we havent worked out yet, and then make our way to Honduras, probably making a dash straight for the carribean coast where we´ll move onto the Bay Islands for some serious scuba action, apparently the whale sharks are in town.

Viva La Antigua!

Ola los amigos! Antigua is fantastic and we're well impressed with how well our Sanish has come along. We can now, with a bit of improvisation and help from the friendly Guates, ask for everything we need and pretty get our point across. This has been largely due to the help of Clemencia y nos otros maestras, Rosy y Lesli. We've really enjoyed staying with the family and tonight will be our last meal with them. Last night we took a few photos so we'll post one on the site when we get a chance. They live in the old town part of Antigua and to get there you have to walk down the side of what seems to be the main street that traffic enters the city on. This means you get all the old American style school buses which have been painted magnificently, choking out big clouds of black smoke at you, while you're trying to squeeze past the oncoming pedestrians without getting flattened. It's all good fun. You also see alot of Toot toots, the Central American version of the African Tutus. Strange that the name's so similar. You finally get to the end of the busy entrance road and the road widens out into the typical cobbled streets that run throughout the whole of Antigua. Every morning at about 7.30 we have walked towards el parque central, where everyone gathers. Shoe-shiners of all ages (from 6 to 50), women selling ready sliced mango, papaya and pineapple, local school children, Spanish students and at the weekend lots of families out for a day trip from Guatemala City. We continued on past the square to our Spanish school where we worked for 4 hours, Dave with Lesli and me with Rosy, with a half hour break. It's been hard work and very brain straining but definitely well worth the effort. The house we've living in nice, quite small and basic, with the typical open air central area with lots of flowering potted plants and big concrete washing up sinks. Our room is comfy with our own bathroom with shower, specially built by Julio who is a builder by trade. He's currently building another ensuite room to accommodate more students which must make an enormous difference to their income. We're paying $130 for a week including meals. Obviously by Guatemalan standards that's loads of dosh. Rosy, my teacher, says she earns 10,000 Quetzales per year ($1 = Q7.5) teaching Spanish. Our meals have been yummy and very traditional which is cool. Lots of frijoles (refried beans), typical local veg like guisquil (pronounced: whiskil; a green pepper looking veg which is more like a juicy spud), a squash called guicoy and of course sweetcorn always served with lots of tortillas. We had a couple of nights off eating with Clemencia including Sunday, her day off, and so we sampled the tacos, fried plantainos and random meat (by Dave) in the outdoor food market outside La Merced, a very impressive cathedral. We haven't walked up a volcano, as you are seriously advised to go with an organised group accompanied by tourist police, and none of the trips organised by our school were at convenient times for us. This hasn't bothered us too much as it's very hot during the day and the views of all the surrounding volcanoes from the town are spectactular. El volcan Pacaya is active so it would have been good to see it in action, which it often is apparently, but maybe a little scary. Dave's dissapointed because we haven't seen any volcanic action and haven't had an earthquake either (Dave - except a few rumbles from Joeys bottom)! Ha ha ha :-) Sunday was fun, we went Margarita and Mojita crazy at some lovely bars and then joined the throng in the square for the catholic procession as it got dark. It was incredibly atmospheric as the procession came into the main square and past the huge main cathedral, led by lots of priest-like people in long purple satin robes (Dave - They looked like wizards to me) lining either side of the street and down the centre people swinging their metals balls holding burning coals and incense which smelled lovely (sometimes like cinnamon) and completely swamped the place with smoke. They were followed extremely slowly by three different 'floats' carried at shoulder height, with colourful statues of Jesus and Mary decorated in gold paint and flowers. The crowd around us added to the mood, all holding candles which glowed through the smoke. We took a couple of videos, so hopefully they have caught the atmosphere and the soulful singing coming from the cathedral. We bought some magnificent parajos de paradiso (birds of paradise flowers - my favourite) and roses for Clemencia at the huge market place to say thank you and have booked our bus tickets to Panajachel on Lake Atitlan to the north-west of here and leave at 7am tomorrow (Miercoles 22a Marzo). The littlest hobo is calling and we feel it's time to move on. La Antigua has been a fantastic place to spend the week learning un piqueno de Espanol.

Nosotros Estudiamos en Guatemala

Originally the plan was to spend a night in Guatemala City and find out about transport to Antigua the next day, but on arriving we saw a man holding a sign saying 'Shuttle bus to Antigua' so off we went straight away. The capital is apparently not particularly worth exploring and a tad dangerous so we didn't mind missing it out. Antigua is a lovely looking traditional central american town. Rows of colourful single storey houses by cobbled streets. Lots of cathedrals, and particular to Antigua lots of ruined cathedrals due to the proximity of an active volcano. Antigua suffers from more than its fair share of earthquakes. Recently, in February, the volcano blew again giving everyone a fright. This is a frightfully catholic country, although we are looking forward to the processions on Sunday. On arrival we moved into a cheap hotel, complete luxury compared to our African places. We could tell already travelling around central america is going to be much more easy than Africa. The transport is good, the lodges are in good condition almost luxurious and the tourist infratructure is sound. The transport and accomodation is suprisingly cheaper here as well. This is going to be a breeze... We spent our first day exploring the town and getting excited at the miriad of bars, restaurants and shops. Our only major stumbling block in central america is the language, all being spanish. Neither Jo or I have a word between us. So the following day we went looking for a spanish school. We eventually decided on a 5 day crash course in travellers spanish with accomodation supplied by a local family. On our first day of spanish lessons we checked out of our hotel. The 1 on 1 lessons were indeed intense and Jo had a major brain ache. We were a little nervous as well as we were to meet our host family that afternoon. We needn´t have worried as they are wonderful. Clemencia, the mum of the household, greeted us and made us feel most welcome, showing us our room for the next week and then preparing lunch for us. The past few days of spanish lessons has followed a similar pattern. We get up far too early, Clemencia make us a brekky where we practice our spanish with her and her two boys, Daniel and Erik. We head for our lessons for the next 4 hours, before returning home to lunch with the family again practicing our spanish. After lunch we head into town exploring the bars, shops, cathedrals and soaking up the latin atmosphere in the Parque Central before heading back for dinner and more spanish practice. One morning Rosi and Lesli, our teachers, requested we head off to the market for some practice. This we think now was a ploy for them to get some shopping in, although we did learn the names of the fruit and veg. Rosi and Lesli are fab, they're very friendly and we all get on well which make learning a lot more pleasurable. Our spanish is improving at an incredible rate. We can now hold a basic conversation and most importantly order a beer. It was quite embarrassing at the beginning of the week as the conversation with the family over dinner would consist mostly of sign language and any english they knew, but now we chat about familiy and religion and food. Its great staying with a family here as we have a window into their life here. Clemencia is incredibly patient with our broken spanish as we take 5 mins to construct a sentence in our heads, conjugating verbs and working out our els, ellas, tu, ustedes, nosotros etc We have a few more days lessons left and then we´re on our own in spanish world...

Phileas Blog

If anyone out there's still reading this and we're not just writing about our adventures for our sake, then HELLO, we hope you are all well. I only mention this because we haven't had any messages - so get writing. So, after a brief all inclusive luxury break at Mill Field, CSG (it was lovely to see the families, we're glad to hear you're okay now Nan Little), we flew off to our mate Smudger's in Philadelphia, USA. Dave writes - We flew from the UK with US Airways now dubbed by us as US crapways. Bloody awful airline! We may have been spoiled with emirates. This was more like a budget no thrills airline. We had to wait in a queue of hundreds with only 3 staff serving. We turned up early when heading to Guatemala and it still took over 2hrs to make it to the gate. With US crapways you have to pay for your whiskeys! You also have to pay for the headphones which is a cheek as the films are rubbish and few. We were most disappointed and will never fly US crapways again, unless of course we need to see Smudge and they're the cheapest... Thanks Dave, so I was saying... America is paranoid if you didn't already know. We noticed this immediately on disembarking... help I'm being hijacked by Dave again... guns everywhere, strict routines and even the agriculture section were loaded, just in case we bought in gun toting cows. Huh hum, anyway, we were finger printed and photographed (Dave thinks he was DNA swabbed in the loos) and luckily not questioned as to why we were continuing onto Central America, and Mark was waiting for us, well prepared and on time as always. We were taken back to Mark's lovely new pad to drop our bags and were whisked out to an Irish bar. We managed to meet Terra, Mark's new Doris (as he describes her. And no her surname isn't Ist, Ferma, Cotta or Dactyl)) and quaff a few shandies and gobble down a huge 'appetiser' sized portion of tacos before the jet lag kicked in. During the night I think I must have contracted some kind of bug as I blew chunks down the loo. Most distressing, but luckily felt fine the next morning. We awoke to find that Smudger had left us 'the Smudger challenge', a list of free tours, excursions and museums that had to be visited by the time he returned from work. So on a gloriously sunny, but absolutely freezing day, we left for Washington Square, with a memorial to the soldiers who fought for independence, where lots of soldiers are still buried (basically Philly seems to be one big burial ground) and took pictures as evidence that we weren't just pretending to have been there. Then onto the liberty bell museum which was interesting, describing how and why the bell was made and it's importance as a symbol of liberty to America (it has a bloody big crack in it which could also be of significance now - Dave). Independence Hall was next on the agenda, being the place where the constitution and declaration of independence were signed. After our history lesson we walked to the much more convivial Reading Market where we ate falafel and huge ice cream and browsed the stalls. We came to realise America does not do small portions. Wednesday, again Mark had to work so we decided to walk to the old town and visit the Quaker Meeting House. William Penn, a famous Quaker who named Pennsylvania, was given Philadelphia by the king as his Dad was owed lots of money, and moved there setting up the town much as it is now with lots of squares intended to provide the people with wide open spaces, these have now shrunk but the streets are still in a grid. Penn preached religious tolerance and was very liberal for his day. This is still reflected in Philadelphia, known for it's gay community. We were shown the meeting room by an old quaker who explained what Quakers were all about and a bit of history, including the fact that hundreds of bodies were buried under the building. That evening Mark dropped us at the Body Worlds exhibition, we missed it when it was in London, which was really good. Loads of plasticated bodies (a new method in preserving organic material using some kind of plastic) cut up to display various body systems and put into different positions. One exhibit showed a family, Mum, Dad and young boy who had donated their bodies (everyone in the exhibition had, you'll be pleased to hear, for educational purposes) and they had been named the 'Blood Family' as only their blood vessels remained. Absolutely incredible how they had managed to remove all other tissues to leave the heart, arteries, veins and tiny capillaries in tact. Some were in active postures such as riding a bike to display muscle functions. Dave came away terrified by thoughts of all the awful ways he could die, particularly considering the number of grey lungs on display to remind us of the horrors of smoking. The next day we raced to the station to catch a train to Mark's work where he picked us up and drove us to the Amish country. We enjoyed seeing the horse pulled buggies they use to get around and to work their land. They don't like to have anything that will make life easier, or you could say more complicated and stressful. It looks like a very nice way to live, but I think I'd miss the electricity in winter and the men have silly beards. They only grow them once they're married so you can have hours of fun guessing how long they've been married for, either that or how much testosterone they produce. For another example of American sized portions, Dave bought a 'large' coke which was 44oz. Next stop a wine tasting session at a local winery and all for free. Very nice. We tried lots of wines, then were taken to their small cellar to try other wines in various stages of production. Mark bought lots of bottles giving the excuse that wine was far too expensive to buy in liqor stores a bottle at a time for his new habit of bulk buying. By this point I had perked up (I'd been feeling very groggy- Dave and Mark had started to call me 'narco' as I kept falling asleep) having thought that the bilharzia was starting to show itself. Friday. Hooray Mark has managed to get the day off so off to the seaside. We drove to Stone Harbour, New Jersey to fly Mark's power kite, but not before stuffing our faces with wonderful chocolate and vanilla fudge, nut clusters and candy sticks from a Willy Wonkeresque candy store. The beach was fantastic, lovely in the refreshingly cold wind, I was glad to have several layers on. Dave and Mark had a great time flying the kite while I took pictures and videos and collected shells as the wind looked too much like hard work to me. I had lots of laughs watching the other two getting dragged around by the kite, and only joined in to hang onto Dave to act as ballast (see photo). We then drove around looking at all the lovely houses backing onto beach or lagoon wishing we could win the lottery, before deciding to try our luck in the casinos of Atlantic City up the coast. We went to Donald Trump's casino where we wandered around cautiously eyeing up black jack and craps tables before Mark plucked up the courage to play a fruity. He dispatched with a few dollars then Dave decided to brave it on a black jack table. We then circled the tables for another ten minutes while the boys looked for an empty table so they wouldn't completely embarrass themselves in front of the other punters. There was no way I was going to play, far too risky, so eventually they joined two other harmless looking gamblers. Needless to say, I was the only one who came out a winner, doubling my money on the slots. It was loads of fun, I kept getting the ' wheel of fortune' ringing up and making loads of noise. After this we collected Terra from Mark's and went out for a few bevvies and grub. Phoned Gem the next day to wish her a belated Happy Birthday and soaked upt he rays on the roof garden as it was a scorcher of a morning. The 4 of us wandered into the old town past the old ships in the harbour and after a relaxed stroll headed to the shops for a few provisions and delicious fruit smoothies which we drank sitting in Brittan Square. Terra dropped us at a great Irish bar with diddly music where we sank a few local ales, while she went home to collect Sam, her lovely black labrador. Philadelphia is full of very friendly people and everyone who sat next to us we got chatting to. This could be partly down to Mark being unable to resist talking to anyone given the chance! On Terra's way back she picked us up from where about ten fire trucks had gathered for nothing that was obvious, which was quite exciting. We went off to Mark's local Italian restaurant for a yummy dinner, taking our own wine from the winery. Feeling more than a little delicate we headed off to another Irish bar from some early rugby action (we are 5 hours behind). It cost us $20 each to get in as there are only 2 bars in the whole of Philly that can show the games and they are charged by satellite TV. Appalling game (England were thrashed by France) but the great atmosphere, Guinness and a large brekkie afterwards helped. Home to Mark's for plenty of relaxation before being fed a huge and delicious sunday lunch and then being driven into town for the honorable task of running up the 'Rocky' steps that lead up to Art Museum. This was really good fun and a few other people were doing the same thing, most out for fitness runs, which was quite surprising considering it was pretty late and dark. We admired the lovely animal statues opposite the museum and then drove back to bed. While in Philly we have eaten and drunk more than during the whole of Africa put together due to the wonderful hopsitality of Mark and America's huge portions so have put on about a stone each. Thanks Mark and Terra for a wonderful time and for looking after some poor travellers so well. Alas, the next morning we had to leave fair Philly and of course our Smudge and head to the airport. Massive queues and another flight on US crapways, but we made it Guatemala safely.

Power Kites - Joey as ballast

A winery in Amish country

Joanna "Three Hats" Little

In Philly with phriends (Terra 'n' Smudge)

Holiday in SA (re-edited the morning after the night before...)

After our dodgy deal in the black market in Bulawayo we had the money to leave the country. Upon dissolving into the crowd and slipping into the bus station I queued for the bus out of Zimbabwe. In the queue I met a delightful old granny telling me about her day and the amount of times she had to queue for this ticket. She asked where I was going and when I said we were going to catch the cheap bus out of town, "No!" she said, "Not that bus". The rest of the queue overheard her exclamation and promptly dived in telling me to avoid the cheap bus as that one is always stripped at the border of SA as the bus is full of smugglers. After being cornered by a pack of kind hearted Zimbabweans, full of honest advice, I decided to buy the expensive tickets and skip the torment of being searched at the SA border. The border between Zimbabwe and South Africa is much much more strict that other borders with a lot more checks and distrust, but the plus side of this is you get very little hassle from the touts. The difference is also marked when crossing the border, the change is massively significant, all of a sudden you are in the western world, with streets full of electric lights and cars and road signs and smooth roads and shops. We eventually arrived in Pretoria at 4am. Now South Africa is not known for its safety record, so upon arriving in the middle of the night we were a little worried. Luckily we managed to spot a taxi very quickly and after discovering our first option of camp was closed, went to another camp within the city where we moved to the top 10 most popular people on camp by stamping around the camp site in the wee hours putting our tent up. Again we had not slept for days and passed out in an instant, so sod'em. "We'd Made it!", "We'd done it!", it was this morning when we had realised we had done it. It suddenly hit us we had crossed half of Africa using local minibuses (matatus, dala dalas, matolas, tutus etc), ferries(2), trains (2), planes (1) and automobiles (1). We were two weeks early but had finished. It was a strange feeling, we had come such a long way and had such fun, we could not believe it was over. We wanted to go back, re-experience places, talked about ways we could have done it easier or faster or cheaper. The important thing was though we were two weeks early...so for a treat after the public transport...was to hire a car and be posh travellers and see parts of SA we had not been to before. We decided to make a circular route from Pretoria, to Zululand, down to Durban and then throught the Drakensburg back to Johannesburg and home. Our first destination is Sodwana Bay on the extreme north coast very near Mozambique. The drive was too far, so we stopped on the Piet Retief a very dull town. We found a place to stay, in a spooky house run buy a spooky grey cobwebbed woman. The house was dark, and full of old photos of ancestors. Jo and I argued who was going to risk their soul talking to her next. With great relief we escaped early the next morning (Jo writes, 'She was actually a very nice helpful lady, he's got a vivid imagination'.). We made a dash for the coast, it had the be the hottest day in SA so far (38C), and as Jo and I were so cheap we had not ordered aircon for the car and hence suffered. We found the place relatively easily, and after some confusion with the park officials found a camp site, albeit in the middle of an ant city (which found their way into the car and stayed for the next 2 weeks), and the local dive club. Sodwana Bay is one of the best dive sites in the world which was why we were there and we did a couple of magnificent dives. Jo got to see her first wild turtle and we had fun in some wonderful caves and saw some stunning nudibranchs, groovy colourful little sea slugs. The next day we got up as early as possible to avoid the mid morning heat and drove south down the coast to Durban. We had planned to stop off at a couple of places but the places we looked for were either non-existant or had no accomodation. We ended up giving up on the north coast and instead headed straight into Durban. We found a great backpackers near Brighton beach in south Durban. The owner was a complete surfer dude, and apparently the surf here was "lekker", to be honest the malls were "lekker", the area was "lekker", we were "lekker", I think his vocabulary consisted of "lekker" and "dude". We spent a great few days in Durban, enjoying the surf, the malls and bars. Durban was not all sun sun sun. One day we headed to Brighton beach which lived up to its name and pee'ed it down all night. Jo and I took the only sensible course of action open to us and hid in a bar. The rain did not let up and by the end of the night ended up having a shandy too many, yet the rain had not let up so we walked the last few miles in a tropical storm, dove in the pool (well the clothes were soaked any way) and continued the revelry with more booze and less clothes. We were basically indulging our western needs, restaurants, bars, shopping and bars....we had earned it. For the second part of our holiday we drove into the Drakensberg mountains. The Drakensberg mountains are absolutely stunning. The lowlands are gently rolling hills and then as you approach Lesotho the mountains tear out of the ground vertical to 3000ft. Magnificent. On a clear day you can see the tops but most days the tops are lost in mist. We spent a few days in the Southern Drakensberg enoying a private golf course and walks. Actually the golf took up most of the time as we were so pants it took us most of the day to get around a nine hole course. The central Drakensberg at the base of Champagne Castle is exceptional walking country and we spent the next few days hiking into the mountains searching out waterfalls and lost trails, generally enjoying the magnificent scenery. We also took the time to see the world famous Drakensburg Boys Choir. The show was held in the foothills of the central Drakensburg, where we were treated to some wonderful Mozart and a few fun Movie songs. The second half consisted of a medlee of traditional African folk songs and dances. Another good day out was to see the San(i) cave paintings in the northern Drakensburg. Unfortunately on the way we hit a little birdy with a mighty thump with the car. Jo was upset most of the way,not the best start to our day. The paintings were worth the climb in the midday heat. Painted on the side of a cliff overlooking the lowlands by the Drakensburg, unchanged in a thousand years. The paintings are very clear and quite detailed showing hunting and other cultural events. I like to imagine the painters, looking over the lands seeing the same sight as we see today looking for food and enjoying the sun. I like to think of him as Terry...ged'it? Sani-Terry....oh well it tickled me pink at the time. Finally, we made the final trek to Jo'burg. One of the most dangerous cities in the world and Jo and I stroll through, lost and no idea where we were going to go. Cut a long story short, we got lost, we (Dave) worried and then we found a safe place to stay. This final installment may seem rushed but to us the journey was complete the time we arrived in Pretoria, we had achieved what we had set out to do, the fact we arrived early and spent a couple of weeks on "holiday" is outside the scope of our travels, and seems more a private indulgence, a treat/bonus for success. So the first part of the journey is complete and now we are excited for the next part of our travels. Next stop, Philadelphia, Guatemala, Honduras and Belize.