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We are having a great time in Spain! The above video is of Plaza de Mayor in Plasencia which is a few blocks from our hotel. The city was built in 1118 and the square has been there since the beginning. Every week for almost 1000 years they have an open air market in the square. We are staying in a building that used to be a convent and monastery so all the rooms have very monkish rustic style to them. I will post more videos and some of Nicole's photos soon but for now here is a short video of one of the dozens of giant storks that nest on the roof of the building:



Yesterday we even saw a huge eagle with about a 12 foot wingspan flyin gover the pool area but I didn't have my camera on me. I will be on the lookout for him later though!

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link : comment(2) : catagory : africa posted:2008.07.03 16:16

We have made it out of the paradise of South Africa and we are now in a little town in Spain called Plasencia. It is about 2 hours drive out of Madrid and the location of many 15th century vacation homes of the rich and powerful. More about Spain will be coming soon because we have a very fast wireless connection in our hotel room so I am going to catch you up on some South Africa images and video and then hit you with the Spain posts.
We were sad to leave Jo-burg and Nicole's sister Angele's family. We had a great day hanging out with Nicole's niece Jenna and nephew Joe.



We played some basketball and walked around their beautiful neighborhood which includes a wildlife preserve where we saw some black swans that were swimming with their little baby swans:



I have never seen so many strange and wonderful animals as we have seen on this trip. Just walking in their neighborhood we saw a very weird bird with a very long beak that the kids said are deadly. How about that! Deadly birds just wandering around the hood! Speaking of wonderful birds:



If you check the photos on the right hand side of this page you will see some more images from the Jo-burg part of our journey. For those in the Bahamas, we also hung out with someone you might recognize:



Stay tuned for more updates from Spain as we settle in and begin to enjoy the country that brought the world Picasso, Goya, Dali and more...

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link : comment(3) : catagory : africa posted:2008.07.01 13:23

We are with Nicole's sister and her family in Johannesburg. We have been having a great time and hanging with Ryan. I can't post pictures because I am not on my own computer but everyone sends their love from across the world! Hopefully I will be able to post some image and video from Spain. Stay tuned!

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link : comment(6) : catagory : africa posted:2008.06.29 10:54

Right now we are resting in Hermanus until we fly to Joberg on Saturday. The above image was taken by Nicole on our ride back from Pater Noster. We went to Pater Noster only because it was recommended as a great vacation spot. While we were playing scrabble in the living room of the guest house, Nicole opened a tour guide type book and we discovered that the region around Pater Noster was famous for much more than great vacation spots. It is home to the worlds largest and richest fossil collections:



This video shows the excavation of what used to be a river bed. Over the last few decades they have discovered skeletons of animals long extinct and dating back 5 million years! It was interesting to see the jaw bones and teeth fully preserved after such a long time.
Then we went onto the West Cape National Park which is home to one of the most important historical discoveries ever found. Eve's Footprint is a fossil record of a human female dating at least 117,000 years ago. Around the corner from there is the location of the Saldhnaha Skull which is the olderest piece of human skull bones ever found (at least 115,000 years old) We took a drive through the park and foudn this look out point called Seeberg which means 'seeing mountain':



It was breathtaking to consider that we were walking on land that some of the earliest human beings walk on. What struck me was how fertile the land was. Even the cracks in the giant rocks had little forests growing out of them even without any soil just the water and sunlight. It was as if things couldn't hep but grow in such a rich climate. We spend a good deal of time just silently wandering around the site and taking in the view:



In the video about halfway through the pan you will see a little village and that is the location of Eve's footprints. The mountain used to be made of wet sand but has been transformed by the elements over the 117,000 years into a solid rock structure.
We are leaving Hermanus tomorrow and today is pretty rainy! I hope to secure an internet connection in Jo-berg (and then Spain) but if not then that will explain my lack of posts from here on out. Thanks to all who have commented and pray that I can keep up the posts for the rest of the journey!



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link : comment(3) : catagory : africa posted:2008.06.27 02:07

How could I post a video of an ostrich prancing and not get ANY comments! Oh well, moving on to other interesting things. The above video is a quick pan of our room at the Dunes Guest House in Pater Noster. This place was truly amazing down to every last detail. We woke up and had a wonderful breakfast before taking ne last drive through the little sea shore town:



After a short drive we stopped at one of the richest fossil deposits in the world and a wolrd famous national park. I have some more stunning photos and videos (even some of ostrichs but you clearly don't like the big birds) I will post more soon but just to give you a hint ClickHere. I understand that you are either too busy to comment or you are just a bunch of:





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link : comment(2) : catagory : africa posted:2008.06.26 02:04

Today we drove up north of Cape Town to a little town called Pater Noster (Our Father). It is right on the sea and was founded when a group of Portuguese sailors shipwrecked on the rocky coast. They eventually settled here and named the town after their tendency to pray the Lords Prayer. The town is very unique and a favorite vacation spot for South Africans. On the way we stopped to take photos and I spotted an Ostrich prancing on the side of the road:



What a treat to see an ostrich running along the side of the road! To be honest I had to throw a small rock at him to get him to run but it was worth the effort to see the lazy bird strut.
Once we arrived in Pater Noster I was immediately struck by the beauty of this little fishing village. The main industry is tourism and most of the men in the town also go out on the rocks and fish for their daily food. We are staying in a four star guest house that is owned by two interior decorators from Jo-burg. It is called the Dunes Guest house and the place is fabulous inside and out!



Nicole and I are in the one on the right and gregg and debra are on the left. We went to a nice lunch and then spent the afternoon hanging in the great room playing scrabble and drinking nice wine. Soon the sun began to set and I pulled out my video camera just in time to catch the sun as it made its final decent into the chilly sea:



After the sunset we had a nice dinner of crayfish (a cousin to the Bahamian crawfish but they serve the whole thing not just the tail!) We are now back at the guest house and turning in for the evening. Tomorrow I will post more shots of Pater Noster and anything interesting that finds its way in front of our cameras! Thanks again for the comments they really do make us feel loved!

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link : comment(1) : catagory : africa posted:2008.06.24 14:07

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