Alex Mathews with Saidi, a Tanzanian volunteer.

Alex Mathews (21), a senior at UCLA and my second cousin, is spending her second summer volunteering with One Heart Source in a village near Arusha. Alex’s grandfather (my Uncle Stan Mathews) connected us when he realized we’d be in Tanzania at the same time. We stopped in to visit and were impressed with her dedication and commitment to helping others, a passion we felt in all the people we met in the organization, all younger than 26.

College students volunteer for 4-week or 8-week sessions.

Kristin Danielson Bender, who I grew up with in Amery, serves on the board of JBFC in northwestern Tanzania; which we were not able to visit. Both charities were started by college students. Many young travellers we’ve met, both in Africa and South America, spend some time volunteering while exploring the world.

We went on both a sunset & a sunrise game drive in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park, Africa's oldest established protected area.

“You must be very careful. It is very dangerous there.”

I was hoping to begin my summary of our travels in South Africa by writing “Though we heard this warning again and again from so many people our experience was very different. We found only a warm, embracing hospitality from everyone we met.” I would like to write it now with the addition of “except for those few moments in Mtubatuba when we were mugged” (see David’s blog for May 28^th). And really, that was our experience of South Africa. We talked with very many wonderful people from very many different walks of life and cultures who were interested in us and wanted us to feel welcome and to enjoy their country. Their hospitality rivaled anything we found in South America. Speaking the language has made it so much easier for us to ask questions and have conversations about people’s lives, families, philosophies, apartheid, politics, the World Cup, religion, racism, culture. South Africa has been a fascinating and beautiful country to visit.

To ignore our mugging, however, would be Pollyannish of me. It was a scary and maddening experience, though the picture I carry in my mind of brave Glenda chucking groceries at the muggers still makes me laugh. After knowing we were unharmed, my first reaction was anger, that though I yelled “Rogue, rogue, rogue, help, help!!” at the top of my lungs and people were around, no one came to help. Later, our hosts at the backpackers explained that people don’t help because they are afraid of retaliation. That understanding made me feel better but it also makes me think there is a hopelessness and acceptance of crime which helps to fuel it. Though I feel that some of the warnings we received were more about fear of “the other”, segregation, and racism– theft (petty and grand) is a huge issue in South Africa. The majority of victims, however, are not tourists, or even relatively well-to-do South Africans, who can afford security systems, guard dogs, and high walls topped with barbed wire, but they are average people living in poorer neighborhoods.

Glenda’s visit with us was one of the highlights of our tour in South Africa. It was geat to catch up with her on her life and to share our journey, seeing it a bit through her eyes. In the two weeks she was with us I felt she had a good taste of what our experience has been, from the warm hospitality of the bike shop owner and staff who picked her up, toured the city, had lunch and dropped her back at the backpackers with her rented bike, to climbing 1000m with the bike in the beautiful and peaceful Swazi countryside. We had great conversations with Ebby and Joanne, South African business women, with Sumeshini, the widowed hotel owner, with Mlonde the manager of the bar and restaurant next to the dive hotel we stayed, with the cook Tulie in the fancy hotel we stayed, to name just a few of the people we met. We also had fine interactions with countless school children and people along the road. Finally we toured a game park and wetlands area where we were treated to sights of some of the African animals Glenda had first been introduced to long ago on the Sunday night TV show “Wild Kingdom” and I got to see my first rhinoceros.

We first spotted "the almost impossible to see" African Wild Dog (this one lost his tail).

Baboons sauntered right past our Land Rover.

A Cape Buffalo.

Nyala

Giraffe

Dawn on the Torres (towers) L-R: Sur(2850m), Central(2800m), Norte(2600m)

We hiked up in the dark with snow in the air to watch the sun rise on Saturday (04/Apr).

What does one do on their vacation after biking 15 or 22 thousand kilometers?  Why not backpack 120 km or so through one of South America’s grandest national parks, Chile’s Torres del Paine?  While it was a bit more challenging than I had signed on for (especially on my knees),  I loved our intimate experience in the Andes’ southernmost region.  We viewed and trekked through Patagonian steppes, forests, streams, rivers, glaciers, lakes,  snow capped mountains, and sheer granite peaks, some capped with black sedimentary rocks eroded at severe angles.  One night we were awakened more than a few times to the sound of a calving glacier crashing down a near-by mountain side.  On another night we fell asleep to owls hooting, perhaps after feasting on the many mice who flourish on what they scavenge from hordes of backpackers. (We contributed to this careless animal abuse when a fox tore a hole in our low hung plastic food bag and made off with our expensive peanuts, dried bananas and chocolate bars.)  My most favorite moment was at the top of a barren pass, 1229 meters high, when the 3rd largest ice field in the world came into view.  The Hielo del Sur, which we first glimpsed near Fitz Roy a month earlier, is the sculptor of this park,  in the lakes and rivers it spawns and in the wild winds and weather it influences.  Gazing to the north and west the vast whiteness stretched over and around mountain peaks.  Below us and to the south the enormous Glacier Grey filled the steeply sloped valley we would pick our way down the rest of that day.  Our “vacation” in the park was a fitting end to our incredible Andes tour.

We first glimpsed the Torres 8 days earlier at the start of our first backpacking trek in South America.

We did the complete circuit of 116 km with full packs + 17k on day trips.

The Dickson refugio, where expensive dorm beds are available.

We camped, but ate overpriced meals indoors every other day.

A spongy red bog below Cabeza del Indio (2230m)

Los Perros glacier.

It rained 3 of 8 days, sunny for 2.

Fall colors on the only high pass (1229m).

Glacier Grey flows from the southern end of the South Patagonia Ice Field

We viewed Glacier Grey on the rugged hike along it's left bank.

The glacier ends in Lago Grey...

...forming odd-shaped icebergs.

Dark sedimentary rock atop lighter-colored granite on Los Cuernos (the horns)(2400m & 2600m).

Mushrooms

Clear stream flowing over mossy boulder.

Cerro Paine Grande (3050) is the highest point in the park.

Eating at Refugio Los Cuernos with Nickolas & Lottse, a Dutch couple.

Firebush flower.

Hiking down the Ascensio valley from the Torres mirador (04/Apr).

La Basilica del Voto Nacional from Secret Garden's 5th floor terrace.

We enjoyed a wonderful afternoon walking around Quito’s old city and took many photos as the late afternoon sun came out casting a warm light on crowds in scenic plazas.  The last photo in my camera was of two robbers coming to assault us.  We had been warned of a recent increase in crime here since President Correa eliminated jail time for thefts under $600.  We became suspicious of the two guys following us on steps up to the El Panecillo overlook and I thought we were safe when we let them pass us.  I did not know that two more accomplices were below us.  I started to struggle with them until they brandished flimsy-looking foot-long knives, more for show than stabbing.  I then let them have my decoy wallet with $15 and an expired credit card.  After they ran off I realized they also took my camera with a thousand photos on it.  So I chased after them offering to buy back the camera with a $100 bill hidden in my hat.  I returned to Julie, who lost $40, thankful that we survived unhurt.  We contacted the police and spent two hours driving around and filing a report with Tourism Security.  All the while I worried we’d miss Happy Hour & veggie pizza back at the Secret Garden hostel.  (Photos taken with my old camera that I gave to Julie, left back in our room’s safe.)

We enjoyed pizza & wine with the scene of the crime behind us.