Having just spent 9 months in Latin America we consider ourselves to be something of chicken experts. For several months in Central America, if we weren’t eating chicken with our rice and beans it was because we were eating eggs with our rice and beans. So imagine our surprise here in Africa to find equally great chicken once again, but this time the chicken owes its success to the mix of cultures here in South Africa.
Although it is obvious that this country consists of people of English decent and African decent, it might be less obvious how many other cultures call South Africa home. There are the Afrikaans, descendants of the original Dutch settlers, sometimes called Boers. …

There’s always someone with something to sell. No matter where we are, on a bus, on a beach or at a famous historical site, there are vendors, both young and old hoping to make a buck. Snacks, cold drinks, knick-nacks, entire chicken meals, random bathroom tools to super glue and even a kids picture dictionary its a veritable shopping mall of goods on the go. While it can be annoying, in the case of a cold beverage on a hot bus, its often exactly what you want at the moment. Given that we’re traveling with small backpacks I often don’t even look at the handi-crafts that amble by for fear that I’ll want it and won’t have a place to …

Wanted: Rest and relaxation for two weary travelers starting their travels in Africa.
Found: Tofo Bay, Mozambique.
Back in September we met a wonderful group of South African’s in Bolivia. Upon hearing our arrival date in Johannesburg they quickly informed us that well, the entire country is on holiday from mid-December to mid-January. Translation: transportation, accommodation and activities would be completely booked or ridiculously crowded and overpriced. Ouch. So our plan, at their suggestion was to hang out on the beach in Mozambique for a week or so and let the crowds have their fun and go back to work.
That was the plan. What we found when we arrived in Mozambique was an ideal little vacation spot on the Indian Ocean. We …

We were sitting on the beach, around 10am, waiting for our surf lesson to begin. In front of us went one, then another, and finally a third before our lesson started. The first two fishermen were carrying barracuda, apparently safe to eat here, the third was carrying something else equally large that we could not identify.
Over the cosrse of our days in Tofo we were able to literally follow the entire process beginning with what I just described on the beach. The fishermen would return from the morning with their catch, we even passed them as we set off on our SCUBA trip. Then they’d walk the fish up the beach to the main market and parking area and sell …