South Africa: Soweto

playing soccer

 While we were staying in Johannesburg we visited Soweto which stands for SOuth WEstern TOwnships.

government housing

   In Soweto we took a tuk tuk tour. A tuk tuk is a small three wheeled vehicle that is used as a taxi in some countries. We passed a school right at dismissal so we played soccer with the kids in the street. They won but it was still really fun. after the soccer game we visited the men's hostel. Hostels were neighborhoods where they separated men and women during the apartheid. The men's hostel is quite dirty. We visited the  butcher, he was getting a cow head ready for eating. The smell was really strong, and many roofs were made with asbestos which is dangerous for humans. Near the men's hostel were big, fancy buildings that the government had built so that the people in Soweto could live there, but they wanted the people to pay for it so nobody could afford it. There are still guards today.

   We stopped at a little shack to eat chicken necks and feet, they were really good. Then we visited the women's hostel which was much neater and cleaner. Last but not least we visited the Mandela house, (the place where Nelson Mandela grew up) and the Hector Pieterson memorial and museum, a memorial to the Anti-Afrikaans Soweto Uprising led by schoolchildren in 1976.

houses

                                        I think Soweto was a good experience and it was eye opening
                                        on how different other people's lives can be.

Cape Town

One of the last things we did in Africa was go to Cape Town. This is a post about what we did there.

Surfing

We went surfing at Muizenberg. Surfing was really fun especially when I stood up. We took a surfing lesson at Gary's surf school. At Boulders beach we saw penguins. They were really funny. One of them attacked my Dad's phone when we were taking pictures. When they were swimming they seemed to fly underwater. We also went to Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope which form the southern peninsula. It was pretty windy at Cape of Good Hope, at the top we built rock piles on really steep cliffs

Boulders beach

Cape of Good Hope

In Cape Town we visited a place called Cheetah Outreach where we could pet cheetahs and hold meerkats. WARNING: meerkats stink a lot. One of the cheetahs thought Hugo was his breakfast. Because of the line we skipped the cableway at Table Mountain, a big, flat mountain in the middle of the city.

Hout Bay

Cheetah Outreach

Cape town was amazing
and if I ever get a chance
I'll go back.

France: The alps

   When we got to france we drove from Paris to Arzon in Brittany, which takes about 5 hours. We spent the night at my grandparents' house, we then drove to the alps on the other side of the country.

 

   We stayed in a very small flat and walked around the village of samoëns to go rent our gear. I liked how there were a lot of little specialty shops instead of one big supermarket. Every night at the village there were animations; one night there were alpine horns that we got to play, another night there was bingo. The last night we went to a restaurant called La Clarine and had fondue, it was really good.

mont blanc in the background

   I took two lessons; a discovery lesson, and a freestyle lesson. On the discovery lesson we went on slopes we had not done before such as a red called marmottes. On the freestyle lesson I learned how to position for the jumps, and boxes, it was really fun.

Paragliding

   

   One of the days we went paragliding. You could do it on skis or on foot. For the take off you just ski and then you're flying, it's amazing! Once you take off you just sit there and enjoy the view. Right before the landing we did some aerobatics. I was really excited afterwards.

   There is a really long blue run called les cascades, it is 14km long. It is really fun but kind of hard. While we were on it we saw the military training.

About to go on les cascades

 

danger!

   

In the end this whole thing has been a great experience, and I hope I can come back some day.

Johannesburg: Nature Reserves

    Johannesburg and its surroundings have a lot of nature reserves and I went to a couple.

    We visited a place where  you could pet baby leopards, white lions, and white tigers. There was also a really big owl, baby fennec foxes and lots of snakes and reptiles. In the predators department we saw cheetah, lions, white lions, and hyena. Petting the baby leopards was really cool, their names were Luke and Leia. My dad had his glasses stolen by Leia and she would not let go. She also scratched my dad, her claws were sharp! But the animal that there was the most of were ground squirrels.

Ground Squirrels

Petting Leia 

    We also went to a place called monkeyland. At monkeyland monkeys could climb on you. But we had to watch out because some monkeys were pickpockets. Monkeyland is a place where they take monkeys that were abandoned or are in danger and keep them. The smallest monkey there was the squirrel monkey. There was a monkey that stole some tissues from my pocket. Another one peed on one of the visitors in our group!

Monkey grooming my mom

Monkey eating seeds

South Africa's nature reserves are really cool you should go if you have a chance!

Madagascar: Islands

Our lodgement.

The last places we went in Madagascar were Nosy Sakatia and Nosy Be, both of which are islands off the northern coast Madagascar. We flew in a propeller plane, it was my first time flying in a such a small plane. When we landed we were really close to the water. We got picked up by a taxi and  drove to shore. It was late so we got a special boat ride. On the water it was dark and the sky was beautiful; if we looked at the water there was bioluminescence everywhere caused by jellyfish. The next day we rented snorkeling gear and a kayak.  We saw lots of pretty fish and sea turtles, it was really cool. On the second we took a  pirogue to another beach where there were lots of little jellyfish that you could pick up and throw. While we were swimming I got cut by oysters and it hurt a lot. Finally, on the last day we swam with the turtles. They were not scared at all. I even grabbed one turtle's shell and rode on it a little. Back in Nosy Be we visited the Hellville Market. It was chaotic, very chaotic. We bought vanilla and ylang ylang oil that is used to make perfume. Later we walked down to the Hellville Bay, it was full of trash. Then we went back to Tana (the capital) before flying back to Johannesburg.

Three kids in a pirogue.

Hellvill Bay.

Madagascar: Nature reserves

Madagascar Boa

On our second week in Madagascar we got picked up in the morning by a guide named Aina. He drove us to a nature reserve where we got to feed lemurs, chameleons, and some Tenrecs which are small mammals that look like hedgehogs. We got to hold chameleons, snakes, the tenrecs, and geckos. There were also flying foxes and a crocodile.

Leaf Tailed Gecko

On our second day we went on a walk and saw two rainforest scops owls, and the biggest, loudest lemur: the indri. That day my mom got sick and we went back early. Later that day we went on a night walk. We saw tons of nocturnal animals: three different species of lemur including the mouse maki, pygmy leaf chameleons, and some spiders. Unfortunately, we did not spot any boas or foosas. On the third day we went to the primary forest. It had never been cut down and there were lots of huge, old trees. We saw a wood snake, Black and White Ruffed Lemurs, Mantadia Frogs, and got leeches on us. After that we went on another walk to a swimming hole and were "attacked" by more leeches. On that walk we saw one lemur and many frogs. When we got back to the hotel lemurs came into our yard and we fed them wild guavas. The lemurs even got into the room while my mom was sleeping and ate a banana.

Common Brown Lemur

Indris

Madagascar: Father Pedro and Fiekena Village

We stayed in a village called Fiekena. There were lots of animals like cows, chickens, turtles, dogs, geese, and a cat. We took our shower with buckets And we also flushed the toilet with buckets. the food was about the same as in the cafeteria. Our hosts were named Lalao and Céline. The cooking was done over a real fire. The milk was freshly extracted from the cow. We never knew if we were going to have electricity or not. At night to get the baby chicks in they would put the mother Chicken under a basket and all the chicks would come to her. There was a puppy named Mickey and Hugo loved to play with it, he even taught it to high five him.

Turtles.

Chickens

Father Pedro is the one in the middle with the beard

Lalao took us to see Father Pedro. Father Pedro is a christian who went on a mission to Madagascar and built lots of houses, schools and a university. Since we were foreigners and part of an organization to help Madagascar he called us out in the crowd and introduced us. The service was really cool because there was music and dancing. We also saw 184 kids get baptized. 

Madagascar: School, Les Zigotos

Salute and snack

In Madagascar we went to a school called Les Zigotos. We brought them school supplies, installed the internet and helped the teachers. The school uniform  was orange except on Mondays when it was white top, red bottom, because they raised the flag. At the beginning of the day they have a small recess before lining up for a sort of salute. Afterwards they line up for a snack and go to class.

Soccer

I learned about the industries of Madagascar including: Chocolaterie Robert, Savonnerie ( soap making ), and Star Brewing co. At 10:00am they have recess until 10:30am, then they have class again until 12:00pm when they  have a big recess and lunch ( and a movie on Friday ) until 2:00pm. The food is really good and made from scratch that day with local rice, meat, and vegetables I played some soccer which was played with a small bouncy ball and it came to blows. School ends at 4:00pm.

Cafeteria kitchen

On Fridays from 10:30am to 12:00pm they have music and dancing. That day they finish at 3:30pm after cleaning. We taught them how to play tic-tac-toe, they taught me how to play the valiha ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valiha ).

Cleaning

Tic-Tac-Toe

Dancing/Drums

Week 2: Kruger National Park!

The Kruger National Park is one of the greatest wildlife parks in Africa. It is located in northeast South Africa. On our first day we saw elephants and a water buffalo (they are scary when they're mad). On the second day we did a self drive and saw giraffes, zebras, crocodiles, baboons, and vervet monkeys. We also did a sunset drive, our guide's name was Wonderful. On the drive we saw a male lion, wildebeest, a 5 day old baby giraffe, and jackals. On the third day we got up at 3:15 A.M. for a morning drive. On the drive we saw a den of hyenas, there were lots of babies, and when we drove by they all ran into the den, and then started to come out one by one. We also saw a Red Crested Korhann  that made a clucking sound then started a high pitched song. That afternoon we did a self drive and saw two ground hornbills, they are really rare and we were the first to report a sighting this year. However the coolest part was seeing a huge herd of elephants with lots of babies (the reason there are so many babies in the park is that it is summer). On the last day we saw wild dogs which are really rare, hippos, and two rhinos. We stayed in these little huts called bungalows for three nights, and that's where I celebrated my birthday.

 

Elephant herd

Ground Hornbills

Hyena den

     

New Year's Day: Cradle of Human Kind

We went to Sterkfontein Cave and Cradle Of Human Kind. In the cave there was an underground lake with tiny shrimp. The shrimp were all white because it's really dark. There were holes in the ground above the cave where people could fall through. That's what happened to "Little Foot" and probably "Mrs. Ples". 

"Little Foot"

"Little Foot" was a tree climber and australopithecus and is the most complete skeleton of that species ever found. The fossil is about 3.67 million years old.

"Mrs. Ples" is the most complete skull found of the australopithecus africanus. 

At the end of the cave there was a statue you could rub its nose for good luck or rub its right hand for wisdom, but if you rubbed both you got bad luck. I rubbed its hand, Hugo rubbed both.

In the Cradle of Human Kind there was a cool trip were you went on a boat and it took you through primal earth and the Ice Age, there was even real ice.