The lion park

 On Saturday we went to the lion park! It was awesome. We got to go into this baby cub enclosure and pet the baby lion! Although shockingly they weren't all that cooperative and kept running around. They did however, stay put when chewing on someones sneakers and pulling the laces so they untied.

In that area they also had an enclosure of meerkats aka Timone from The Lion King.

trying to dig his way out of there

 Then we went on the safari part. We were in this giant van that had a gate all around it. The group of eight of us were pretty much the only people going at that time so we could each get a "window" seat. The first area we went to was the herbivore area. They let them all roam together so there were giraffes, zebras, ostriches, springboks, and more.

If you can see the red on his legs, it is because he is looking for a mate

for some reason, they all eat facing the same in direction

 Then we went into the carnivore section. First we passed by a family of lions.

The dad was yawning not roaring.

Then we went into a section of albino lions.

And then the coolest thing ever happened, these two male lions and some other male lion started having like, a conversation. They weren't roaring but they were going back in forth with like semi roar sounding noises. It was so cool.

All the work was clearly tiring to this guy.

Don't you just want to rub his belly?

And then we saw a cheetah. It was started to run and then stopped and just chilled for his photo op.

And that was our trip to the lion park!

Mozambique

It was awesome. We slept, we sprawled on the beach, we splashed in the Indian ocean (which is warm water btw) The water was beautiful shades of blue.

That's me, in the Indian Ocean

We go there on a tiny plane that we just walked right onto. They flight was pretty short, only three hours. The airport in Mozambique was tiny! You walked in, walked through the two people at customs, then baggage claim was there, turned a corner and you were where flight check in and security ( a sole metal detector) was. There was a tiny food place called "airport restaurant" The visa was easy too. We didn't get it before we left (we kinda forgot until it was too late) but we just showed up and they let us in.

This was where we stayed.

                                                                                                            

 We got food stuffs here a lot. On the left was a bakery filled with deliciousness and on the right was fresh bread and rolls. Most of the roads were not paved like this one, they were sand.

One day we sailed out to one of the islands near by and did some snorkeling. I had forgotten how much I enjoy sailing and the fish were awesome and had some amazing colors.

One day we went horseback riding in the morning. It was a lot of fun. My horse had these horse type sunglasses over her eyes because the pigmentation was poor or something. Her name was Evita. She enjoyed stopping to eat grass and occasionally going fast while we were on the beach. It was super fun.

Most of the time we spent lounging around on the beach or in the water or on this little deck thing enjoying the view.

This is what we saw when you opened the room door.

We tried to see the sunrise. One morning it was red!

The tide was crazy. High tide the water would start splashing up on the steps where we walked on to the beach. during low tide it was super low and sandbars would appear way out into the ocean. One morning we walked out to the sandbars. This dog that lived next door apparently came to the conclusion that we had no idea what we were doing and when it saw us swimming out there (or walking as it was pretty shallow) it came and swam with us to the sandbar. We walked across it to the ocean on the other side and when we stuck our feet in it yelped like oh hell no don't go in. Then it swam us back to shore, glancing back when the water got deep enough that we couldn't walk to make sure we'd be okay. It was adorable.

 

Can you see those little specks on the sandbar? That's us!

Local animal wise, there were chickens, a few goats, a whole lot of stray dogs that had a tendency to follow us. And then these lil critters.

Here are just some photos of local Vilanculos things

Housing

working on a boat

Playtime!

I am so glad I went! We had an awesome time.

The best part of this being spring semester

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SPRING BREAK





I'M OFF TO MOZAMBIQUE.



see you in a week 

Fun Facts 2

• People here hug all the time. Even if they just met you. It's like Hi I'm name I forget here okay bye hug hug hug. It's a lot of hugs.

• When it was cold the South Africans thought it was like cold and winter here. It's funny. It is chilly at night but like during the day it's so sunny and then like they're like its freezing when its perfectly nice out.

• For the first monthish I swear I didn't see a single cloud. They are still rarely seen. I practically had a panic attack when I first saw one. It was like omg something must be horribly wrong.

The sky

• They call university, verisity, but pronounce it varsity. So if anyone asks about your varsity they mean school not sports team.

• In other language quirks they call sneakers takkies. 

• I swear there are like no bugs here. We can just throw open windows and nothing comes flying in.  It's lovely.

• We only have a limited time with the laundry key, and like I've mentioned electrical things don't move the fastest around here. So basically clothing is never completely dry when you have to take it out. Rooms become drying racks.

• They call the school newspaper the vuvuzela...you know, after those plastic horns things.