earth, wind & fire

No pictures for this entry... Sorry. So I stuck this on here. It's one of the
items that was on Parliament's agenda when we visited in Windhoek.

Today was another one of those days where 1. everything worked out despite our complete lack of planning, 2. we made new friends, and, 3. we had an absolute blast!

This morning we woke up, had another delicious breakfast (European pancakes with butter and sugar), packed up our camp and taxied over to the Rhino Star Service Station (a petrol station), where we had been told that we could, “do what the locals do” in order to get to Swakopmund.  See, because we hadn’t planned anything, when we tried to book bus tickets to Swakopmund we discovered that they were all sold out… That is why Trevor, Katie, Podge and I found ourselves at a petrol station with a bunch of “locals” trying to get to Swakopmund. And we did it! Within ten minutes of arriving at Rhino Star we had purchased a ride on a taxi/mini bus and were on our way.

The drive was pretty entertaining. Trevor, Katie, Podge and I were crammed into the backseat sweating like crazy, but I didn’t mind because I got to take in so much about our immediate surroundings. Driving in our mini bus I got the feeling that we were just a step away from traveling in a party bus. At least three people in our taxi were drinking (at 11 a.m. mind you) – and these people were not college students. Our mini bus was decked out with an awesome sound system that pumped everything from Justin Timberlake’s Apologize to House music throughout the vehicle. And our driver was the most friendly “DJ” I’ve ever encountered.

Things outside of our mini bus were also pretty interesting. We passed though our first two immigration checkpoints on our way to Swakopmund. At each checkpoint the driver was asked to show his license and all passengers were asked to show their IDs or passports to the immigration officials. A lot of countries in Africa have checkpoints like this and I find it interesting that the U.S. does not have similar checkpoints.

But my favorite thing about our ride to Swakopmund was getting to watch the landscape transform. What started as green, highly vegetated rolling hillsides morphed into a flat, yellow, grassy savannah. Vegetation gradually began to thin out until there were just sand dunes and rocks in its place. We had entered the Namib Desert.

Swakopmund is a coastal city surrounded by desert on all sides. Historically a German port, it still attracts lots of German travellers, especially during the holidays. Our friendly mini bus driver dropped us off in the city center and we set off to find our guesthouse. Between the smell of the beach, the side streets filled with shops and my own excitement, I couldn’t help but think of Cape Cod.

We arrived at our guesthouse and checked into our room where we were all thrilled to see that we would have our own beds for the first time all trip! Within twenty minutes of arriving we had planned adrenaline-rushing activities for both Christmas Eve and Christmas (which I’ll talk about in future blogs). I could tell then that Christmas this year would be far from conventional, but it would definitely be one to remember.

My favorite part of today though, was walking the streets of Swakopmund in search of the beach. Swakopmund had decorated for Christmas! While it was nothing like the decorations back home (flamingos mixed in with Christmas wreaths), it was nice to see some Christmas lights. Once we reached the beach, we spread out our towels, popped a squat, poured ourselves some Amarillo and spent the rest of the night enjoying the sand, the breeze and the water. It was a perfect way to end to the day and an even better welcome to Swakopmund.

Flashback to Botswana. Blogs just look so gross without pictures...