Africa was shockingly expensive. We expected that the touristy activities would be expensive but we underestimated the degree to this expense. True, eating in Africa can be cheap, lodging too, but that’s about where the cheapness ends.  We definitely could have spent less here, but we wanted to do the “big” Africa things: safari, Kilimanjaro, mountain gorillas.
A reminder of how all this works. Every dollar amount represents how much the two of us, combined, spent on the average day in a given country. Airfare to and from the continent (very expensive to get to Africa) is included in transportation in the totals line and aren’t applied to any specific country. As always, visa fees are …

Keeping this blog alive through Latin America took minimal effort beyond just writing up the posts. We might pay a few extra pesos for a hotel with wifi where we could upload photos overnight or need to spend a few hours here or there sitting in an internet cafe to make sure things were running smoothly, but all and all it was easy to find decent internet connections and the electricity was pretty regular. Africa however was a whole new ballgame.
Starting in South Africa we were shocked to find some of the worst connection speeds we’d experienced on this trip. Ecuador, Bolivia, and even Guatemala, all had better connections than what we generally found in South Africa. …

Although we needed only two visas for all of Latin America, we’ve needed a visa for almost every country we’ve gone to in Africa.  Some countries are straight forward, but others make the process a virtual nightmare and seem to change their requirements every other day.  In an effort to help other traveling souls out there, here’s our guide to African Visas.  All requirements are for American passports unless otherwise noted and were as of our travels December 2009- April 2010.
South Africa- 90 day multiple-entry tourist visa upon arrival at all land borders and airports.  1/2 page sticker with a barcode.  Free!
Swaziland, Lesotho and Namibia- No visa required, free entry.
Mozambique- Crap shoot, no seriously.  Everyone we’ve met seems to have …

Harare and out of Zimbabwe
Leaving Zimbabwe we had two choices to get to Malawi: north through Zambia with bad roads and a $50 visa fee or east through Mozambique with slightly better roads, a shorter distance, and a $30 visa fee. We opted for the cheaper, faster, easier route and headed to Harare for one last hurrah in Zimbabwe.
Coming from a great couch-surf in Bulawayo we opted to try for a second with Harare. We had some time to spare before meeting our host nd enjoyed a quick taste of the posh life at the fancy hotel (the bus’ drop-off point) before hailing a cab to head into town. Our taxi-driver, Forbes, took us not only to our final destination, …