Cape Town, South Africa

We drove from Windhoek to the airport at dawn. The car rental return with Europcar was quick and easy. We drove 2,637km over the past two weeks, averaging about 300km per driving day. That’s more than I imagined, and further than we drove on the South Island in NZ. Most of it was over gravel roads too. Our Toyota Fortuner held up pretty well over all the bumps, and I was was suitably impressed with our Peak Design car mount.

Check-in with Airlink was also quick and easy. We had some time to kill cause everything had been so quick, so grabbed a cappuccino and croissant before dumping our water and going through security and immigration.

Windhoek’s international airport is pretty small - there were only eight gates, and about ten departures today. Checked out the souvenir shops and used up our remaining Namibian dollars.

The flight to Cape Town took under two hours. Airlink served a decent meal again - they’re a really good regional airline. Not sure what I will do with my Skybucks frequent flyer points though.

The immigration line up at Cape Town was huge - it looked like all the big jets from Europe arrived just before us. We took bets, Heather won with a guess of 1h15 that was almost bang-on. (I had guessed 2h, and Marissa 1h30). The immigration officer was very friendly once we actually got to the front of the line, maybe cause we’re commonwealth.

As expected, our luggage was waiting for us (I had checked the AirTags so we knew it had made it here). Customs waved us through and then we searched for our driver. The poor guy had been waiting the whole time, holding up the sign with our names for the past 90 minutes as passengers slowly streamed out. Marissa quickly got a SIM card, and then we were off.

Got a whirlwind tour of Cape Town on the drive into the hotel. We’re staying at Derwent Boutique Hotel in the Tamboerskloof neighbourhood of Cape Town, walking distance to all the restaurants along Kloof St.

Relaxed the rest of the afternoon, and then met up for the NYE mini-celebration at 5pm for the hotel guests. Chatted with the owners, who are Canadian. At 6pm we left for dinner at the Black Sheep, we had the early seating and had to be done by 8pm. The food and service were excellent, with an amazing view of Table Mountain as a bonus. (All the restaurants we are dining at in Cape Town are recommendations from the hotel owners).

We stayed up until midnight to celebrate the New Year for the first time in years. We had a nice view of the fireworks over the V&A Waterfront from our deck. The air had cooled to about 18C, very comfortable for sleeping.

Windhoek, Namibia

We ended the safari part of our trip today. Marissa got up early for the morning game drive. Heather and I had a leisurely breakfast, watching the wildlife grazing in the savannah.

We were on the road by 10am, on the B1 back to Windhoek. There was nice scenery but boring to drive, just a straight road and no other cars.

Marissa had learned about the different types of fences on one of her educational excursions. At the time she thought it was knowledge she’d never use, but now we found it really interesting because we could identify private reserves vs farms or other land uses. A lot of the land approaching Windhoek was private reserves.

The guidebook said there was a good curio place just outside Otjiwarongo but we didn’t see anything. The A1 started shortly after, a divided highway with two lanes in each direction, speed limit 120km/h and devoid of other vehicles. Seemed like a lot of infrastructure for us.

We reached our hotel, the Olive Grove, around 1pm. Checked in, had some lunch, and then went into town for some souvenir shopping. Unfortunately the main curio shop, Namibia Craft Centre, was closed over the holidays. There were a handful of stalls outside.

Back at the hotel, we reconfigured our packs for airplane mode, had a nice dinner and settled up our hotel so we could just leave in the morning. The weather was really comfortable for dinner, about 24C and low humidity.

Okonjima Nature Reserve, Namibia

It was nice and cool for our morning safari, about 18C and overcast. Marissa had joined the excursion to see the cheetah rehabilitation centre; Heather and I went on a nature drive. It was just the two of us plus our guide, Mathew.

Mathew was really knowledgeable about the local wildlife and fauna. We learnt quite a bit, even though we’ve been going on lots of game drives the past week or so. We saw a number of species we hadn’t yet seen on this trip, including dik-diks, duikers, and warthogs. We also saw a family of bat-eared foxes, and a canary, which I’ve not previously seen in the wild.

We returned to the lodge around 9:30am, and had a large breakfast (probably better classified as a brunch given the time and the amount we ate).

The safari schedule here at Okonjima Bush Camp is more what we were accustomed to - breakfast after the morning safari, a long break over the afternoon, and then an evening safari. It’s much more relaxing than the six hour excursions we had earlier on the trip.

The afternoon safari was tracking leopards, which are collared here. We started with spotting a non-collared one, which was a bonus! Our guide then used an antenna to locate two other leopards. Unfortunately they were sleeping in dense underbrush and not photographable. (I took some anyways).

The collared leopards are all named by the researchers. Our guide said that one of the leopard’s name was Luka, and we all wondered the same thing, if it lived on the 2nd floor.

We ended the game drive with a collared leopard who was resting after eating. It wasn’t interested in us and was habitualized to the vehicle, but we still got a little close to it for our comfort and the leopards imo.

Anyways we got back to the lodge a little after 8pm. We were still full from our brunch and then lunch, so it was a small dinner.

Okonjima Nature Reserve, Namibia

We’ve seen a lot of cool stuff this trip, but today we saw something that was out of this world! We checked out of the Mushara Outpost and headed east on the C38. It’s paved roads the rest of the road trip, yay!

We had a detour past Grootfontein to see the Hoba Meteorite, the largest intact meteorite on earth. It’s estimated at 60 tonnes, and remains where it landed. It skipped into the ground, so there’s no crater. Up until 1987, it just sat in a farmer’s field, when it was donated by the farmer to the state. Combined with Namibia’s independence in 1990, it has become a proper tourist attraction, with security to prevent vandalism and the like. We paid our admission (about 20 CAD), had a short 10 minute guided tour, took our pics and touched the meteorite. It’s probably the only time I’ll touch something not from earth.

We stopped for a break in Otavi. Had some really good chips (french fries), topped up the gas tank, and carried on to Okonjima Bush Camp, our final safari lodge of the trip. The landscape had changed back to dry desert and shrubs. We had just gotten used to the humidity around Etosha!

The chalets at Okonjima Bush Camp are spaced about 100m apart and all have private views of the savannah. There’s no a/c, but unlike the pizza ovens we slept in at Rostock Ritz, these actually worked at cooling down the inside.

We were too late for the afternoon game drive so just relaxed in our chalets. We had dinner after sunset, enjoying the lack of big moths we encountered in the (wet) Etosha area. We had an early start for safari tomorrow morning so went to bed early.

Etosha, Namibia

Today was big cat day! We were hoping to see the big cats today in Etosha NP: lions, cheetahs, and leopards.

We had an excellent breakfast as we watched dawn break and listened to the birds and other creatures wake up the day.

At 6:30am we met our guide (we never caught her name) and were off, just the three of us in the back.

We retraced our route from yesterday for the first hour, until we cut off from the C38 in the park. Along the way in we saw a Verreaux’s Eagle-Owl, a type of owl. Either our guide spotted it, or more likely knew its favourite spot; both boded well for the safari :)

We saw a clan of spotted hyenas, including a very young one. Watched them play around for a few minutes. Our guide was in contact over the radio with her colleagues to find out where game had been spotted. They used a numbered code to identify animals, by size. We were most interested in the 3s (lion), 4s (leopard) and 5s (cheetah).

We got word of some 5s beside some road. Our guide checked with us if we were okay with doing 60km/h (the speed limit, although in an open air safari vehicle on dirt roads, it was dusty), and then took off like a bat out of hell, at 80km/h. She was quite the character, we really liked her as a guide.

We saw the two cheetahs at a distance, not really worth a pic yet. Our guide said they might come towards the road, so we waited. She had a tea in the meantime. Then her radio called out about a 4, in action, and she quickly turned, said ‘Hold my tea’ and we took off at 80km/h again.

It was a leopard stalking a baby zebra! I think every guided safari in the park was at the location, at least a dozen vehicles (one disadvantage of national parks vs private reserves). Marissa wasn’t comfortable with watching a kill, so we took some pics and then went back to the cheetahs.

The cheetahs had since made their way to the road! And were drinking from a small puddle at the side of the road. We took lots of pics. Our guide got on the radio excitedly to her colleagues ‘5 on the road! You must push!’ (meaning go fast). We found her hilarious.

Drove around some more, and saw another pair of cheetahs, and then a leopard in a tree! Our guide was very surprised at the volume of cats - normally these are very difficult to spot in rainy season.

We returned back to the lodge around noon, a very enjoyable game drive thanks to our guide.

The afternoon game drive was at 3pm, which didn’t leave much down time. Instead, Heather and I opted out, and were planning to do some birdwatching on the property. Marissa went on the drive, joined by some other random guests. The guide saved her the full front row though :)

Our bird watching didn’t pan out as it absolutely poured rain all afternoon. We actually enjoyed relaxing in our tent with the rain coming down, so it all worked out :)

We chatted with some of the other guests in the main lodge. Everyone had done the same circuit (it’s really just a choice of clockwise or counterclockwise) and in fact we had mostly stayed at the same places (also not a surprise, as there’s not many options at each price point).

Marissa arrived after her game drive and we sat down for dinner. It was at a communal table, so we chatted some more with the other guests. Marissa had seen a lion, We had grilled beef with a pepper sauce, it was the yummiest yet. The kitchen here at Mushara Outpost is excellent.

Etosha, Namibia

Another day, another safari lodge. Today we drove through Etosha to our next lodge, Mushara Outpost, at the east end of the national park.

We packed up at Safarihoek and said our goodbyes to the staff. The staff here are great, one of our favourites.

We started on yet more bumpy gravel roads. After a couple hours, reached a gas stop just before the southern gate of Etosha NP at Okaukuejo. It was a nice stop, with very clean bathrooms and a decent curio shop. Got some more cash from an ATM, this time without the lineups or cultural exchange.

We arrived at the park border where there was a checkpoint. Marissa had her passport on her (ours were packed in our suitcases), so she completed our paperwork to enter the park. We’ve been changing lodges every 2nd day and it’s hard to remember where we’re coming from or going to - which unfortunately were some of questions Marissa had to answer. We had to look up on our phones. At least we knew we didn’t have any firearms or drones (or plastic bags).

A couple km later at the park gate, we showed our completed paperwork, paid our park fees (150 NAD per person, 50 NAD for the vehicle, about $40 CAD total) and drove in.

We have a couple game drives in Etosha tomorrow with a guide, so just drove straight through today. We did see quite a variety of animals, including zebras, ostriches, blue wildebeest, eland, springbok and oryx. Pretty good for us amateurs!

The roads were bumpy gravel, with a max speed of 60km in the park. It was slow going. We originally had plans to stop for lunch at a camp in the park, but that would have added about 45 minutes of driving time, so instead just headed for our lodge. We could see rain falling from storms all around us, but somehow our route avoided all of them.

Showed our paperwork again at the eastern gate at Namutoni. Our lodge, Mushara Outpost, was another 10km down the C38. We passed by a couple dazzle of black-faced impalas, a vulnerable species, for which we stopped to take some pics.

We arrived at our lodge, but weren’t sure if we were at the right spot, as there was no signage. We thought it was maybe a private house. So jumped back in the vehicle and followed the arrows. We then realized the arrows pointed to the exit; and so we looped around, parked, and emptied out of the car again, trying unsuccessfully to act cool like nothing happened.

Anyways we were in the right spot :) had our welcome drink (rooibos iced tea), and settled into our rooms. It’s another different setting - each chalet is nestled in the woods, like a fancy cottage. The main lodge reminded us of going to a friend-of-a-friend’s cottage, with leather couches, large antiques and artwork.

The food here at Mushara Outpost is excellent, the best we’ve had on the trip. We were swarmed again by the big moths that come out after it rains. (We had them at Safarihoek as well). Had a tense walk back to our cottage in the dark, hoping that lions didn’t get us. (Lions did in fact walk through the grounds later in the night).

Etosha Heights, Namibia

Merry Christmas! We were awakened by a passing rainstorm around 5am. We had to get up soon anyways so just stayed up and watched the rain over the plains.

It was still drizzling when we headed to the main lodge for breakfast, so we got to break out our new travel umbrellas we bought for the trip. We were the only guests so just left them to dry in the lodge when we went on safari.

We boarded the safari vehicle and headed out. We heard a lion rumbling in the distance. Drove through the reserve slowly, looking for animal tracks. I actually spotted a large bull elephant in the hills, munching away on branches as thick as my arm.

On the safari we saw lots of giraffes, some including an Angolan giraffe with very different markings than what we’ve seen previously. We also saw lots of bird species, and a turtle.

We returned to the lodge for lunch, and then had a few hours to relax before the afternoon activities. It was the first extended down time we’ve had and I used it to catch up on my blog and pics. We usually build in more down time to relax; however the excursions and safaris have lasted much longer than I expected. We’re still glad we saw what we have, even though it’s been jam packed. Woe is us :)

I skipped out on the afternoon safari so I could hang out at the photography hide. The three of us were driven down to the hide at 4:30pm (there’s predators about, so it’s not safe to walk), and then Heather and Marissa were picked up at 5:30pm for their safari.

I really enjoyed watching the animals from the hide (and got some cool pics too!) The hide windows are at ground level, and the perspective from that angle is great. Got some pics of giraffes drinking which I hadn’t seen before.

It’s easy to get focused on an animal through the lens and miss out on other activity around the watering hole. I almost missed a confusion of guinea fowl right in front of me. I only noticed when they started chatting with each other. I’ve always had trouble getting a good pic of one - they tend to run off at first sight of humans and like poor lighting conditions. Here I was able to get some in focus, with some bokeh to boot.

Also in the hide was Olwen Evans, the photographer who designed the hide for Safarihoek Lodge. She gave me a couple wildlife photography tips, for example that smaller birds love the puddles in the roads after a rain shower, and that low light pics usually look better in b/w.

Later we had our Christmas dinner in the lodge, including a roasted turkey. The staff provided a little entertainment, singing some traditional songs. I really like how Safarihoek promotes the local culture. Yesterday our server had provided click language translations for the menu options. We tried to learn thank-you, and sort of got it, minus the clicks. We really enjoyed our time at this lodge.

Etosha Heights, Namibia

We had breakfast, packed up while enjoying the view from the room, and were on the road by 10am. We stopped at a couple large boulders near the entrance to Mowani Mountain Lodge for some pics for Marissa.

We enjoyed about 10km of pavement before we turned off onto gravel roads yet again. The route from Damaraland to Etosha Heights is not a common one, and this was reflected in the lack of upkeep of the road.

We stopped at the 2nd gas station in Khorixas, to fuel up and get cash from the ATM. The Mowani folks had said this was the less-busier gas station; they also told us how to pronounce the name of the town which I’ve since forgotten.

There were about 10 people in line for the ATM. Heather and Marissa waited in line while I got gas. The ATM line took over half an hour, as some folks seemed unfamiliar with using one, and others had trouble getting cash. Christmas Eve is a popular time to get cash, as most everything shuts down at noon for a couple days.

Heather and Marissa had a good time chatting with the other folks in line, one of the few interactions we’ve had with locals.

The ATM looked like it might be broken or out of cash by the time they got to the front. They gave it a try, and immediately got their cash. They made a beeline for the car (I had the engine running) in case they did in fact empty out the ATM, leaving a long line of cash-less people behind.

The directions became conflicted between ExpertAfrica, our physical map and Google Maps. The road conditions weren’t quite as bad as the way into Mowani, but certainly couldn’t be called good.

We passed through six gates where we had to manually open and close, I guess to protect farm animals. They each had a sign mak toe asb which Marissa Google translated as Afrikaans meaning close the gate please and not something bad like ‘road closed due to flooding’ or ‘keep out’.

We finally saw a sign for our next lodge, Safarihoek, and knew we were on the right track. Followed the signs to the private reserve main gate, where we signed in with a guard, and then a few km to the lodge itself.

We had the whole place to ourselves, as we were the only guests tonight. The view from the lodge and our rooms is a vast plain all the way at to the horizon. Quite the contrast from our previous lodge!

We had a mini-lunch (it was 3pm and we didn’t want to ruin our dinner). We had plans to head to the photography hide for the sundowner, but a large herd of elephants (20+ including some babies) had walked by earlier, so instead we had a small safari to track them down.

We saw them just before the border with Etosha! It was quite cool to watch them walk by, protecting the little ones. Our guide, Mamsi, said they were less than one month old. We had a fake charge by one of the males, we kept calm and they just went on their way.

We got to the hide just in time for a sundowner. Chatted with Olwen, the in-house photographer who helped design the photography hide.

Dinner was outside on the deck. There were dozens of large moths flying about, which happens every time there’s a big downpour. We ate quickly and went to bed. There was a fireplace in the main lodge, so maybe a chance for Santa to visit.

Damarland, Namibia

We had a normal safari-time start to the day - up at 5:30am, breakfast at 6am, and then out on safari by 6:30am.

We wore our puffy jackets to start the day, it was about 18C, and in an open-air safari vehicle. We were hoping to see the desert-adapted elephants, in the Torra Conservancy.

We crossed them off our list within an hour, as we saw a herd of five elephants. They have larger feet for the sand, and longer trunks. We watched them at a watering hole for a few minutes, then continued on further into the conservancy. We spent the next few hours tracking down elephants, giraffes and other wildlife.

We were back for lunch, had a brief hour-long break and then were back on the road at 3pm, to see the ancient rock engravings in Twyfelfontein, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

We had mistakenly thought these were rock paintings in caves, but in fact they’re engraved, and exposed to the weather. There’s thousands of engravings scattered around the area.

Twyfelfontein is the colonial name, the official name is ǀUi-ǁAis which means jumping waterhole in the clicking language of Nama/Damara. Our guide spoke Nama/Damara, which is the first time I’ve heard the use of click consonants in real life.

Our guide took us on the 45 minute circuit. The highlight is an engraving of multiple animals including a lion.

We were back at Mowani Mountain Camp around 5:30pm. We decided just to relax in our rooms until dinner, as the view was the same as the sundowner spot. We haven’t had much down time this trip, what with these lengthy excursions, so I was falling behind in my blog and pics.

Dinner was excellent yet again. It was busier at the lodge; they said they were fully booked from here through New Year’s. And so ended another full day of vacation :)

Damaraland, Namibia

We had a really nice breakfast at the Strand Hotel, one of the more extensive buffets we’ve had this trip. Watched the beach activity come to life with beach volleyball players, surfers and other water sports. It was only 18C but I guess it’s all relative.

Packed up the car and headed north on the C34. We made a quick stop to see the Zeila Shipwreck, a few metres off shore. We then turned inland around Henties Bay, our last look at the ocean until Cape Town.

The temperature slowly climbed as we drove east on the C35. By the time we got to Uis in Damaraland, where we stopped for lunch, it was over 30C.

Uis is a cute little town. We had relaxing lunch at the Cactus and Coffee Teagarden, including a home-made iced tea. They had some nice souvenirs too; both Marissa and Heather bought some curios.

Filled up on gas, and then continued along the C35. The road condition was the worst we’ve had this trip, sandy/gravelly and very bumpy. The scenery however was spectacular, with giant rectangular boulders the size of houses and piles of other large boulders.

The road switched back to pavement and it felt amazing. After a few km we reached the turn off to Mowani Mountain Camp, our lodge for the next two nights.

The lodge and rooms are built in and around the boulders. It’s one of the more scenic entrances to a lodge we’ve seen. As usual, the staff were waiting for us at the entrance with cool towels and a refreshing drink.

Our room was nestled between two giant boulders, overlooking the plains below and the rocky hills in the distance. It even had a/c :)

After our really hot stay at Rostock Ritz, we had looked at which other places didn’t have a/c, this was one of them. On the drive up we were dreading another couple hot nights. But the design of these lodges created a natural draft that cooled the place down even without a/c. Anyways it was quite a relief to us.

Relaxed and washed up, and then met up for a sundowner. This was the same view as from our room :) although with a Rock Shandy, the local non-alcoholic drink of choice (soda water, lemonade and bitters, technically not 100% non-alcoholic but close enough).

After the sunset we had an excellent dinner under the stars.

Swakopmund, Namibia

I was up early before the sun rose. Decided to stay up with the hopes of seeing a meerkat from our front balcony. The temperature was pleasant outside when I first got up but it was discernibly rising. By 7am it was already too hot in the sun. Didn’t see any meerkat.

Anyways we had breakfast, packed up and headed to Swakopmund. The hotel folks had suggested we check out the pink flamingoes along the way in Walvis Bay, with some vague directions. The guide book, Google maps and hotel all had different suggestions on exactly where to find them.

The drive was really scenic through the Kuiseb Canyon. About 30km outside Walvis Bay, the highway became a divided highway with two lanes each direction (and only us on the road).

First we tried going down the exit to Dune 7, a tall sand dune that visitors can climb. Supposedly there were flamingos nearby, but we didn’t see any.

Closer to town, Marissa navigated to get us to a ‘flamingo viewpoint’, according to her phone. Sure enough, there was a parking lot, boardwalk and hundreds of flamingos! Gave a tip to the car watcher (20 NAD) and got out of the car to get pics. It was then that the temperature change hit us. It was only 19C with a mist blowing in from the ocean, almost a 20C swing from Rostock. Brrr.

Our flamingo watching didn’t last long. Back in the car, turned the dial to heat, and continued onto Swakopmund. We took the more scenic B2 rather than the new highway a little inland.

Got to the Strand Hotel, the place to stay in Swakopmund. Marissa went in to reception to sort out parking etc. They seemed to be expecting us, which seemed odd. Then we remembered that our last hotel had asked us to deliver a bag left behind by other guests, who were also staying at the Strand. As I had mentioned, the place to stay :)

We cleaned up and headed down for lunch. It was nice to be back in an urban setting, although it’s not like we’ve been roughing it by any stretch.

At 3pm we headed to the lobby to meet the Sossusfly folks. We had booked an excursion to fly over the dunes, south to Sossusvlei and then over some ship wrecks on the way back. Heather and I had always wanted to do a flying safari along the Skeleton Coast, and this was a good way to get the same view.

We picked up another couple tourists who were doing a different flight. Got to the airport, security let us through the gate and we drove on the tarmac right beside the plane. I thought it was really cool, like a private jet experience :)

It was just the three of us in a little prop plane that seated five plus the pilot. She gave us the safety blurb and then we were off!

It was cool to retrace a bit of our path over the last couple days, this time from the air. The sand dunes are fractal and it’s hard to get scale, so just enjoyed the view. It was warm in the plane (I had thought it would be cooler at an altitude), almost hot.

Sossusvlei looked very different from the air, but we did recognize it. Flew back up along the coast. The ship wrecks were interesting, although hard to get pics in the slight turbulence. The large sand dunes dropping into the ocean were cool too. Reaching Swakopmund, we flew over stands of flamingos (another collective noun I had to look up). This was the highlight of the flight imo. I just took lots of pics and hoped some were in focus (only one turned out). The last sight was of the salt pans, also cool to see, before we landed back at Swakopmund Municipal Aerodome. Overall it was a great experience, and we didn’t feel airsick at all :)

We were dropped off at our hotel around 6pm. We barely had enough time to sort through our pics before heading down to dinner. I thought I had built in down time on this trip, but apparently not! It was a rather full day, another transit day that did not feel like it.

Rostock, Namibia

We all woke up refreshed at Hoodia Desert Lodge, our first good sleep of the trip :) Today was our shortest drive, only two hours to Rostock Ritz.

It was a pretty drive through the Naukluft Mountains. We passed by the Tropic of Capricorn but missed the sign, and weren’t interested enough to make a u-turn for a pic.

We had a pit stop in Solitaire to fill up on gas. It’s a hopping little junction town. They had a little gift shop that we browsed. Marissa bought, wrote and mailed some post cards.

We arrived at Rostock Ritz about 2pm, checked in and had our lunch. It was 38C but in the shade and a breeze it was bearable. However our igloo-style rooms were really hot. They were built with stone walls to supposedly keep out the heat but instead the stones were getting heated and so the whole room was hot. Marissa said it was like we were in a pizza oven.

We tried to nap in the afternoon but it was too hot. I used the time (the first down time we’ve had on this trip) to finally catch up on my blog. Unfortunately I couldn’t post cause the hotel’s internet access was really spotty.

We had dinner back at the main lodge. It was okay, the first so-so meal we’ve had. At least the view was cool.

It took a while to fall asleep in the heat. Overall the place definitely felt like a transit stop.

Namib Desert, Namibia

Today was our big day to see the famous dunes and dead trees in Sossusvlei and Deadvlei!

We had breakfast at 5am and were on the road by 5:30am. It’s about a 25 minute drive from Hoodia to the park gates at Sossusvlei. Once inside, it’s a 61km drive to Sossusvlei itself; and then a few km along the dry sandy river bed of the Sossus to finally get to Deadvlei. The last bit requires an experienced driver; our guide/driver Enis (sp?) had been doing this for 15 years and he said he had seen many tourists stuck.

There’s activities along the way to Deadvlei like climbing Dune 45 that some tourists stop to do in the cool early morning, but we were most interested in Deadvlei and so booted it there.

There’s lots of dunes along the paved 61km drive, and with the sun just rising, looked amazing. I took a lot of drive-by pics at 70km/hr.

Along the sandy part, just before we arrived at Deadvlei, we passed by an oryx, perfectly posed beside the road, with some particularly nice-looking dunes in the background. The contrast of the red dunes, blue sky, green desert plants, and black-and-white oryx was really cool. We asked Enis to stop and took a few pics and then carried on. Later we looked at the pics and it was our favourite, almost like an AI generated pic.

From the parking lot it’s a 1.1km walk in the sand to Deadvlei. There were some tourists on their way back already (there are a couple lodges inside the park, they can get to Deadvlei for sunrise). Aside from them, we were the first of the 6am entry folks to arrive. We could see lots of tourists spilling out of their vehicles behind us, so we picked up the pace.

And then we were there! It’s quite amazing. I was also amazed that we had the place to ourselves, at least for a few minutes, so that I could get tourist-less pics. Our guide said that in busy season, there’s up to 6,000 people per day that visit.

I took hundreds of pics. The sun was still low enough to have great lighting. There were more trees than I had realized. Enis explained that the trees used to be sustained by the occasional heavy rains that would flood the Sossus. About 900 years ago, sand dunes cut off the Sossus. The occasional rains were just enough to turn the surface clay at Deadvlei into a solid surface, choking off the trees. Because the desert is relatively lifeless, there’s nothing to decompose the trees.

We stayed at Deadvlei for over 90 minutes, and then carried on with the excursion. Saw some more dunes, and made our way to Elim for a picnic lunch. Enis set up a carpet, table with table cloth, even a hand washing station! It was just like in a travel brochure. While he was setting up, a couple male oryx had a little turf battle, butting heads and locking horns. The older oryx won but was bloodied a little. This all happened about 100m from us, but Enis said we weren’t in any danger.

After lunch we had a quick stop at ?? Canyon and then headed back to the lodge. We were beat from the early start and the heat.

We all napped over the afternoon, and then had another tasty dinner. I think we were finally over our jet lag cause we had our first solid sleep on the trip.

Namib Desert, Namibia

It wasn’t until today that we felt like we were on a road trip, having figured out how to stream music from our phones to the car; which side the fuel side was; and found various cubby holes in the car to store stuff.

Before the trip, I had researched and bought a fancy phone holder for the car, by Peak Design. I had thought I broke it the first day having loosened it too much, but a quick google search showed me how to fix it. But then it turns out the car had Apple CarPlay so it wasn’t needed. However, we couldn’t connect both my phone for maps and Marissa’s phone for music, so we needed it after all. It’s the best car phone holder I’ve tried, we’ve gone over some bumpy roads and it’s held its position, and only fallen off twice on really big bumps.

We’ve been learning how to pronounce things: bagatelle is Italian-like with the trailing e pronounced, vlei is a cross between ‘vlay/flay’ and means river, Swakopmund is phonetic and means ‘mouth of the Swakop’

It took about five hours to drive from Bagatelle to our lodge near Sossusvlei, including a quick stop in Maltahohe.

Hoodia Desert Lodge is in a beautiful setting, beside the Tsauchab River, which was dry at this time of year. It’s low season and there was just one other couple at the lodge (tomorrow it’s just us).

Dinner was excellent. We had an early start tomorrow (4:20am!) to get to the dunes so went to bed right after dinner.

Kalahari Desert, Namibia

We finally started the safari road trip today! First we had a little errand to run, buying an extra camera battery for Marissa. She had called a camera shop the day before to confirm they had her battery type. And then we were off!

It was three hours to Bagatelle on the B1, a nice paved highway, speed limit 120km. We passed through a police checkpoint just outside Windhoek. We had everything in order with our car and license and they just waved us on. About 20 minutes from Bagatelle we turned onto C20, a dirt road, and probably the end of paved roads for us for the next two weeks.

We checked in at Bagatelle and arranged our excursions. For some reason I had pictured this as a transit stop on our way to Sossusvlei, but there’s quite a lot to do here.

We got a golf cart ride to our rooms, got cleaned up, and went back down to the main lodge for the afternoon nature drive. (Marissa went on a different excursion to see the cheetah feeding.)

We really enjoyed the nature drive. We saw springbok, oryx, wildebeest, giraffes, white rhinos, and bat-eared foxes. We also saw a cory bustard flying, the heaviest flying animal currently living, according to Wikipedia. It was much more than I expected.

We didn’t have time to shower before dinner, but did return to our rooms to quickly wash up. Luckily we did so, as there was a spectacular sunset from our deck.

Dinner was excellent, with some of the best grilled game we’ve had (kudu).

We were pretty tired, a combination of jetlag, lack of sleep from the flights over, and a full day. The wind was kicking up the sand so it wasn’t possible to star gaze, so we just went to bed.

Windhoek, Namibia

I was up early-ish at 7:30am as EuropeCar was dropping off our SUV at our hotel this morning. They were super efficient with the process. It’s a relatively new Toyota Fortuner, with 4WD to handle the sand.

Breakfast at the hotel was excellent (they make a pretty decent eggs benedict, although any place in NZ still takes the prize).

Relaxed back in our room, sorting out our plans for the day, and more rearranging of our packs from airplane mode to travel mode.

Because we already had the vehicle, we drove into town for our sightseeing. It gave me a chance to become familiar with driving it, and also we could stop at a grocery store to stock up on water.

The front desk folks were helpful in suggesting parking (right at the Christuskirche) and how much to tip the parking attendants (20 NAD, about 1.60 CAD).

Traffic was really light getting into the centre, about seven minutes from our hotel. Driving on the left was not a problem, as this makes 9 out of 11 countries where we rented a car and they drive on the left.

First up was Independence Museum. Namibia only became a country in 1990, which I didn’t know until we started researching this trip. The museum documented in murals Namibia’s history from colonial times through to independence. It was very well done.

On the 4th floor was a restaurant with 360° views of the city, including the classic pic of Christuskirche. The food was good, but you’re not here for the food :)

Drove back to the hotel, and timed it perfectly with Marissa arriving from the airport. Had a quick beer (non-alcoholic for us, we were having trouble staying hydrated in the heat) on the rooftop bar at the hotel.

Later we had dinner at the Butcher Block again, chatted away, and then called it a night.

Windhoek, Namibia

We arrived at our hotel in Windhoek at 6:30pm, three flights and 41.5 hours after we left home. I wasn’t looking my best after back-to-back overnight flights.

Our transfer through Johannesburg was pretty easy. They’ve really cleaned up on the bribing since our last trip through there ten years ago. The immigration folks even looked for space on a non-blank page in my passport, of which I’m running short. Namibia has an entry requirement of three blank pages, and South Africa requires two consecutive blank pages for some types of visas. These rules aren’t strictly enforced, but I’d rather not leave it to the discretion of the border official.

We had a five-hour layover in Johannesburg. It took less than an hour to get our luggage, clear immigration and customs, transfer to the domestic terminal (just a floor up), check-in for our Airlink flight to Windhoek, and get some cash from an ATM. South African rand and Namibian dollars are pretty much equivalent, and can be used interchangeably in Namibia.

We arrived around 5:30pm in Windhoek, and quickly got through immigration and got our luggage. There was a bit of line through customs as they scan everything.

We were met by an ExpertAfrica rep who connected us with our driver and we were off! Country number 104 for me and 64 for Heather :)

The airport is about 30 minutes outside the city, and it’s not until the last five minutes that it’s urban. We’ll see lots more of similar landscape over the next couple weeks. Our driver even pointed out a family of baboons and a warthog along the way in. There was also swarms of grasshoppers which I’m hoping aren’t going to be messing up our windshield every day.

We checked in, cleaned up and then went for dinner at the Butcher Block across the street. We sat outside in really comfortable weather (22C) and enjoyed our dinner. A nice start to Namibia!

London, UK

Nothing like starting off a vacation with a day trip to London between two overnight flights!

We left Toronto late Friday night. We had dinner in the airport at Pearson so we could maximize sleep time on the flight to Heathrow.

Airlines have really raised the bar on safety videos. The British Airways one is the best yet. They even break the 4th wall!

Immigration at LHR was fully automated. Took the Heathrow Express train to Paddington (23 minutes), and then had a whirlwind tour of nearby sites.

It was probably the best weather we could have hoped for in London in December. Sunny (!) and about 7C.

Walked through Hyde Park towards the National History Museum. It’s timed entry (I had booked tickets for 2pm) and by donation. We spent a few minutes looking at some old bones, and then carried on. It was a Saturday and the museum was packed (or maybe it’s always like this), plus we intend to see it properly on a future trip to London. Today was just something to do to keep awake :) The blue whale skeleton, Stegosaurus skeleton, and other dinosaur fossils were pretty impressive.

Next we were off to Buckingham Palace to see the King. We cased the joint, taking pics of his residence, scoping out security and movement of the guards. We didn’t have much time as we had a plane to catch, so even if King Charles had invited us in for a spot of tea we would have had to decline.

Walked back to Paddington Station and caught the express train back to LHR. Another overnight flight and full transit day to get Windhoek awaits.

Chapultepec, CDMX, Mexico

Our last full day here! Another nice weather day. We were pretty lucky over the trip, it's the end of rainy season and typically in October about half the days have rain. I guess there was rain most evenings which didn't really impact us; we only really needed our umbrellas one day.

We started the day at Zona Arqueológica Tlatelolco, about a 30 minute walk north from our hotel. Our path took us by the Palacio Postal, and so we gave one last try to see if it was open / accessible, and it was! We walked right in. It was one of the nicer post offices I've seen. There weren't many tourists either, possibly also discouraged by the past few days.

We continued on our walk to Tlatelolco, along a major street. The buses were mostly electric, which really cut down on the pollution that we felt on the sidewalk. The ruins at Tlatelolco are what I would call minor ruins. They aren't a destination in itself; but they are pretty cool to visit. It was very peaceful to wander around and through the restored ruins.

Just beside the ruins is a 16th century church, so we stuck our heads in for a view. It's an old church.

Abutting both the ruins and the church is the Plaza de las Tres Culturas, referring to the pre-columbian Aztec ruins, Spanish colonial (the 16th century church) and modern Mexico (1960’s urbanism). It's also the location of the Tlatelolco massacre, of which the protests had occurred in the Zócalo a couple days ago, commemorating the date.

We had thought about taking the metro to our next stop, the Museo de Arte Moderno (MAM), but ended up taking an Uber cause it was half the time and we wouldn't have to be concerned with people coughing. We've noticed an increase in people wearing masks the last couple days, so figured Uber would be safer health-wise.

The MAM was across the street from the Museo Nacional de Antropología which we had visited earlier in the week. We walked through a bit of the 1st floor, and then grabbed some lunch at the cafeteria in the gardens. There were some interesting exhibits in the gardens so we checked those out, and then the rest of the museum.

And that was it for our sightseeing in CDMX. Caught an Uber back to the hotel, relaxed and cleaned up, and had dinner downstairs.

...

Overall it was an enjoyable trip. We did see most of the things on our list, and as a bonus got to see the Inauguration celebrations. There was a lot of variety between museums and ruins and art. The food was also great, from street food to more upscale places. There's a cool artsy vibe to the city, at least in the historic center and surrounds. Definitely a good one week trip.

Centro Historico, CDMX, Mexico

It was a beautiful morning, sunny although still a bit cool (13C) at 8am. We got up a bit earlier to try to get to the 9am performance of the pipe organs in the Metropolitan Cathedral. The barricades were coming down so it was easy to enter the cathedral. We were a bit early (about 8:40am) so asked the police at the door about the timing. They said it was at 10am and that we should line up at 9:30.

So we went back to the hotel and had breakfast, returning to the cathedral at 9:30. We then realized our question earlier had got lost in translation (literally) and it was mass that started at 10am. Oh well. The organist was playing (presumably having started at 9am), so at least we got to hear the pipe organs, which was our main objective.

We then headed over to Miguel Lerdo de Tejada Library to check out the mural by Vlady Kibalchich Rusakov. Mexican muralism is big thing in CDMX, and I had mapped out some of the key sites to visit.

We had to show ID to enter; they were okay with viewing our passport scans on our phones. Most visitors are academics here for the library. They didn’t mind us as tourists, in fact they were super polite and keen that we were here!

Vlady’s murals are ginormous, covering three full wallls of the library, almost 1,750 m² according to the blurb onsite. We walked around and took our pics, trying not to disturb the academic folks.

A quick change of clothes at our hotel (it was about 22C now) and then we were back out touristing.

Walked over to Museo de la Secretaría de Hacienda, aka Antiguo Palacio del Arzobispada, aka SHCP Museum of Art. We were there yesterday and were thrown off by its aliases. It’s just across the Zócalo from us, much easier with the barricades removed. Anyways, it has amazing contemporary art, we were quite impressed. It was free to enter, and we only saw a handful other visitors.

Next was Secretaria de Educación Pública, aka SEP Site Museum, aka Convento de la Encarnación. This houses a lot of murals by the big three (Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiro), commissioned by the SEP. I really like the style, they could all be the cover of an Ayn Rand book. This was also free to enter and not busy at all.

We were getting hungry so had lunch at a random taco stall. The stall was really busy but they squeezed in a couple more stools for us. It was mmm good.

Tried yet again to get into the Palacio Postal. There was a long line-up to enter, filled with people waiting to do official post office stuff, so we decided to skip it.

Last stop for the day was Mercado de Artesanías La Ciudadela, for some souvenir shopping.

Had dinner at Paxia, which is atop the Hilton about a five minute walk from us. It was really good.

Walked back through the Zócalo, and called it a night.

Centro Historico, CDMX, Mexico

Today was the quietest morning we’ve seen on our street, what with Inauguration Day, protests against the government and busy weekends since we arrived Friday night. The quiet wouldn’t last all day though, as Oct 2 is the remembrance of the Tlatelolco massacre. The hotel said it was likely the protests would start around 3pm.

We finished our breakfast and hurried out to see stuff before the blockades went up.

First up was Templo Mayor, just off the Zócalo. The extent of this UNESCO site was discovered in 1978 by electrical workers digging a hole. It’s now an active archaeological site, with suspended walkways for tourists. It also contains an excellent museum within the grounds. It took us 90 minutes to wander through, and we skipped quite a bit. Templo Mayor is really impressive, a must-see in CDMX.

We then stumbled across Colegio de San Ildefonso, which was on my list, we just weren’t looking for it just then. It’s considered the birthplace of Mexican muralism. Its walls are filled with murals by Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and others. We had the place pretty much to ourselves.

Navigated the crowd barricades to get to Museo de la Secretaría de Hacienda, where you get tickets to the National Palace. Unfortunately the National Palace has been closed to tourists for a while with no plans to reopen :(

Later I realized the Museo is also called Antiguo Palacio del Arzobispada, aka the SHCP Museum of Art, and the SH stands for Secretaria de Hacienda. The SHCP is also on my list to see, and we were right there without knowing it :( We’ll go back there tomorrow.

We headed in the direction of Palacio de Bellas Artes, to check out a couple more places. Along the way we grabbed some excellent street food from taco vendors and some fries.

There were riot police all geared up and staging in the side street we were walking down. They just ignored us and other locals carrying on their business. It made for additional detours though.

We had an espresso and a cake in a Sanborns, which supposedly had great tiles. We had the wrong Sanborns though (they’re about as prevalent as Tim Hortons in Toronto), at least the espresso was good :)

The Palacio Postal was behind barricades and not accessible :( we did find the right Sanborns after extensive detouring. They didn’t mind us not eating and instead just looking at the tiles, just like the Moon guide suggested.

The Palacio de Mineria was also barricaded, so that will have to wait until Thursday as well.

Walked back up to the Zócalo and browsed through some side-street local markets. The police activity was increasing in advance of the protests, so we called it a day. On the way back to the hotel, stopped in at the restaurant I’d booked online for dinner, just to make sure they were actually open tonight. The restaurant is in a complex surrounded by boutique shops so we browsed around.

Our street was barricaded at the Zócalo end, which meant it was now effectively a dead-end street with low foot traffic. That made it easy for us to get through to our hotel.

Later we figured the large police presence and strategically placed barricades act as effective deterrents to crowd violence.

We were also impressed with how fast the feel of the Zócalo changes. One moment there’s 50k people protesting in the square; two hours later we looked outside and the square was empty and clean. When we went for dinner the barricades were still up between our street and the Zócalo; 90 minutes later we came back and they had vanished. It’s crazy how fast the scene changes.

We had dinner at Azul Historica, just around the corner from our hotel. It was traditional Mexican dishes, in a nice atmospheric courtyard.

We were quite full after eating so walked into the Zócalo for a few minutes. It’s nicely illuminated at night. Saw the monumental flag being lowered for the night and then getting carried away by soldiers, which was cool.

Chapultepec, CDMX, Mexico

Today was Inauguration Day in Mexico, a newly-created public holiday. While planning, I had read that the new president, Claudia Sheinbaum, would officially take office today, but hadn’t realized how big a deal it was until we got here.

The official ceremony was held at the Legislative Palace of San Lázaro, about 1.5km east of our hotel.

The Zócalo was the focal point of the people’s celebration. We watched tens of thousands of people stream into the Zócalo starting at 9am. Some wore their traditional clothes and danced up the street, as well as several marching bands. I couldn’t find any news reports on the crowd size, however last Sunday they had over 70k for a rebroadcast of a musical performance, and I’m sure this was more.

The large crowds in and around the Zócalo as well as it now being a public holiday meant we had to rejig our plans for the day. (Having a new holdiay created after I’d checked timeanddate.com for holidays is a new one for me).

We had tried to get into the Cathedral for their 9am daily pipe organ performance, but the Cathedral was barricaded from the public (we’ll try again later this week). I called the National Anthropology Museum (MNA) and they confirmed that they were indeed open today.

After breakfast, we watched a bit more of the incoming crowds from our balcony, and then headed out to the MNA.

We walked about four blocks away from the Zócalo and got an Uber. It was slow going due to temporary road closures for the inauguration. Took about an hour to get to the MNA, which normally would be a 20 minute drive.

The first view after entering the MNA is of El Paraguas, a giant art installation in the middle of the courtyard. It’s become a symbol of the MNA.

Decided to have lunch before seeing the rest of the museum. We’ve had good luck at museum restaurants, and it continued here. It was also fairly quick service.

We then started touring through. It’s a large museum, with 11 archeological rooms grouped by region. Our favourite was the Mexico room (ie city of Mexico), which contains the enormous Aztec Sunstone, and several other large artefacts dug up around Templo Mayor, just off the Zócalo. The Teotihuacán room was also impressive. It’s definitely a museum requiring multiple visits.

After, we caught an Uber back to the Zócalo. Traffic was still a mess so we just asked the driver to get us anywhere within a 20 minute walk. We were walking upstream the whole way back to the hotel, although it was just the last 50m that were squished.

We arrived back in time to catch the latter half of President Sheinbaum’s speech. It was pretty cool to see the size of the crowds, from the comfort of our balcony.

We were pretty much done for the day. Watched the VP debate (Canadians watching a US election debate while in Mexico), had some tacos from across the street, and called it a night. Hopefully no more sound checks tonight!

Teotihuacán, Mexico

Today was our day trip to Teotihuacán! This will be the first ruin complex we’ve seen post-covid, although we did see some castle ruins in Okinawa last year. I'm big into ruins :)

The guidebooks and travel blogs all suggest leaving the city by 8am to beat the crowds at Teotihuacán. Getting up early didn’t seem to be very vacation-ish so we just had a casual morning and left the hotel at 10am.

Walked out of the pedestrian area to catch an Uber. Our driver suggested a flat rate to go there and back, which we agreed to as it just made logistics simpler. We also agreed to take the toll highway which cut travel time in half!

And so we arrived at Teotihuacán a little after 11am. Paid our entrance fees (95 MXN each, about 6.50 CAD), took a pic of our driver’s car to remember it, and then we were off!

Sat on some steps in front of Pyramid of the Sun and read the Moon Guide overview of Teotihuacán. Then we walked down Avenue of the Dead towards the Pyramid of the Moon. When I backpacked through in 1997 it was still possible to climb both pyramids, however all the ruins are now off-limits to protect them. Probably we shouldn’t have been climbing them back in the 90s either, although the number of tourists was far lower.

Near the Pyramid of the Moon is the Palace of Quetzalpapaloti. I didn’t remember the excavated palace from my first visit; it was cool to see. Also we lucked out with the timing, in a lull between tour groups. Teotihuacán is huge and can absorb a lot of people, although it didn’t seem very crowded while we were there. The small enclosed spaces in the palace can get busy though.

Next was the 2km walk down to the other end of Avenue of the Dead, to see the Temple of Quetzalcóatl and stone carvings of serpents’ heads lining a staircase. Along the way took a million pics because the lighting was great over the pyramids.

It took us just under two hours to see the main attractions in Teotihuacán, with lots of time spent stopping for pics. For me, the most impressive thing about Teotihuacán is its size. The ruins aren’t as artistic as others but it is massive.

Our driver was waiting for us at the exit, and we took off back to the city.

Had lunch at the very busy taco place across from the hotel. Every time we’ve looked out from our balcony there’s been a line-up, mostly with locals, always a good sign. Shared the special of five tacos and a Coke for 65 MXN (4.50 CAD). They were yummy and hit the spot.

Cause we used the tolls roads, we still had the afternoon for more touristing. Started with the Metropolitan Cathedral in the Zócalo. The cathedral itself is quite amazing, with two enormous pipe organs.

Somehow we found our way inside the pipe organ room in the middle of the cathedral, and were able to see them up close. It’s a 30 MXN ticket to enter, and after we were inside, the ticket person closed the door to further entrants. Still not sure how we made the cut but oh well. There’s a free daily performance of the pipe organs at 9am; we may try to see this tomorrow before breakfast.

Next checked out the interior of the Gran Hotel de la Ciudad, to see the Tiffany glass ceiling. It was pretty cool.

We were heading back to our hotel when we realized the lighting in the Zócalo was perfect, with the low sun highlighting the large Mexican flag against a dark grey sky. So we took another million pics.

Finally made it back to the hotel, just before it started raining at 5pm as forecast.

For dinner we finally ventured off campus, and ate at Limosneros. It’s a modern take on Mexican classics. We really enjoyed it.

Saw the preparations for Inauguration Day tomorrow. There’s a very loud sound system set up in the Zócalo. Last night they were doing sound checks at midnight! The sound system does have excellent bass though - it totally shook the doors to our balcony last night.

Alameda Central, CDMX, Mexico

We felt much better this morning, having had a day to acclimatize to the elevation. Had French toast for breakfast which was excellent. I always find literal translations of odd English food names funny, like perros caliente (hot dog) or in this case, pan frances.

We had tickets for the Symphony Orchestra at Palacio de Bellas Artes for their 12:15 performance. It’s only on Sundays that they have a mid-day performance, which we prefer.

It was about a ten minute walk down the pedestrian-only Av Francisco I. Madero. The police barricades had been taken down overnight so it made it easier to navigate the historic centre.

Every 2nd building we walked by was some amazing looking historical building that had some gallery or museum. We could easily spend another week here :)

The police barricades were still up around the Palacio de Bellas Artes so we walked 180° around to enter the grounds, and then back 270° to get to the Palacio entrance. Good thing we were way early!

Most institutions are free to the public on Sundays so it was pretty crowded inside. It was still easy though to get a good view of the floor-to-ceiling murals on the 2nd and 3rd floor. These alone were worth the visit!

It was about noon so we lined up to enter for the symphony. I had bought tickets months ago to get front row in the balcony, just to see the Tiffany glass curtain behind the stage. The only way to see the glass curtain is by going to a performance, so here we were :)

Unfortunately, for Symphony Orchestra performances, they back the stage with wood panels (I’m assuming for the acoustics?) and so there was no view to be had :( oh well

The symphony was quite good. We had a lot of things we wanted to see before the forecasted rain started at 3pm so we left at the intermission, or half time as I called it accidentally.

Unfortunately the forecast was wrong at the rain had already started :(

We tried to get into the 8th floor cafeteria in the Sears department store across the street for the classic pic of Palacio de Bellas Artes. There was a long wait that we didn’t care for. Then I realized it’s not just the cafeteria that has the great views, it’s every floor! So went to the 9th floor and leaned over some boxes of merchandise to get my pics.

Walked through Alameda Central to Museo Mural Diego Rivera, which houses just a single massive mural, Dream of a Sunday Afternoon on the Almeda Central. We had a bit of trouble finding the building, finally resorting to Google maps.

Due to the rain, there were only a handful of other visitors, so we were able to get great people-free pics. Spent about 15 minutes observing all the details in the mural.

Next up was lunch. We were in the heart of busiest tourist attractions on a Sunday and so every restaurant had a long wait. Found a busy local restaurant on a side street and had their comida corrida, a very typical 3-course meal served for lunch (chicken soup, rice, and then a choice of main). (2nd day in a row I’ve used an Oxford comma). Lunch was quite tasty!

It was pouring rain when we finished lunch, so we skipped the last couple items on the list for today (Palacio de Mineria for some more murals plus four meteorites, and Sanborn’s for the tiles) and just headed home.

We dried off a bit and then went down to the hotel restaurant for a double espresso and split a dessert. Chatted with the manager about the best way to get to Teotihuacan tomorrow (Uber). Also asked about the Pink Panther exhibition currently showing in the gallery part of the hotel. He offered us a VIP tour as guests (so we didn’t have to go with a group). The exhibition turned out to be by various prominent Mexican artists and their take on the Pink Panther. It was pretty cool, and not at all what I was expecting!

Coyoacán, CDMX, Mexico

Our flight from Toronto to Ciudad de Mexico (CDMX) yesterday evening was really smooth, considering we flew over the hurricane. Immigration was fully automated - scanned our passports, took a pic and we were in Mexico! Customs just waved tourists through the Nothing to Declare line.

We were a bit rusty with our travel and took a taxi not from the official taxi line up. Oh well. The price was similar to what I read it should be. Our driver was friendly, apologizing when he hit a pothole.

Our hotel was just off the Zócalo (the main square in the historical centre), accessible via a pedestrian-only road. There were police checkpoints due to the recent protests against the government, and we had to show our hotel reservation to enter the street. Normally we won’t be getting back to the hotel at midnight so probably won’t need to again.

This morning, we were feeling the effects of being at an altitude. CDMX is at an elevation of 2,240m, enough to wind us after climbing the stairs to our room on the 3rd floor.

The hotel manager gave us a warm greeting when we went down for breakfast. (I’d been corresponding a bit with Emanuel while planning the trip.) Breakfast was excellent, Heather was able to practice her Spanish.

We had reservations at the Frida Kahlo museum for timed entry at 1:30pm. Took an Uber and had about an hour to kill so wandered up to Jardín del Arte Allende. There was some really good quality art, we ended up buying a print. The artist, Enrique Mañón, doesn’t title his art but instead asks the buyer to name them. We called ours Mujer Pensada, which was our maybe incorrect translation of Woman Thinking.

Across the street was Coyoacán Market so we checked it out. Bought a couple items on my list for the key stand - a molinillo (used to whisk hot chocolate) and a couple Otomi dolls (dolls made from fabric ends).

We still had some time before our entry to Frida Kahlo so tried the squeeze in a quick bite at a coffee shop. Their coffee was quite good (so were our cappuccinos at breakfast) but we had to eat our food quickly, and if you know how slow we eat, you can guess it didn’t end well. Had about half a sandwich each and then rushed over to Frida Kahlo’s.

The museum was excellent. My favourite was where they showed pieces from around her house and how they were inspiration in some of her art.

There were some very dark clouds in the distance but my iPhone said it wouldn’t rain until 6pm so we walked over to Díaz de Cossio Experimental Ceramics Workshop but it closed at 2pm so we just caught another Uber back to the centro.

Walked in the last 20 minutes cause the traffic was really bad. There’s lots of street food, I tried a popular taco stand which was amazing. We passed by another hole in the wall (literally, it was sandwiched between two buildings and about the size of a broom closet) which smelled amazing and was super popular. Anyways looks like we’ll have no shortage of food options on this trip.

Walked through the Zócalo to get to our hotel. Some access points were blockaded in case of protests and so we took a circuitous route back. It had just started to rain so we pulled out our umbrellas. We were lucky with the weather today - we got to do everything we wanted under beautiful sunny skies. A pretty successful start to our little vacation!

Toronto, Canada

We're almost off on our next vacation, this time a week to Mexico City. Oddly, this is the first time Heather will be traveling to Mexico! I backpacked through Mexico on my longer trips in the mid-90's (from San Diego through to Belize, eventually down to Panama City). It's also our first time back to a Spanish-speaking country since 2011, so my Spanish is definitely rusty! Heather's been studying on Duolingo and has picked up quite a bit.

We're flying Air Canada and so were glad when the labour dispute settled. There's also a hurricane sort of in between Toronto and Mexico City. I checked on FlightAware this morning and it showed the flight path taking a bit of a detour west. Maybe I'll skip the hot beverages on this flight in case of turbulence.

Mexico City is somewhat like Rome -- there are ruins right in the heart of the city, and lots of museums and art galleries and history. We've pre-booked just a couple things: our visit to the Frida Kahlo Museum (it's timed entry), and the Sunday morning performance of the Symphonic Orchestra at the Palacio de Bellas Artes. The rest will depend on the weather.

We're off to the airport shortly, ¡hablamos luego!

Toronto, Canada

Dominica was a nice place to go for a week. It's the first time we've traveled in the same time zone, which was nice. There was enough variety between hiking, snorkeling and birdwatching to keep it interesting. Staying in two locations allowed us to see the north and the south end of the island, without having to spend too much time driving around.

The highlights included:

• Snorkeling in Soufriere Bay and seeing turtles, squid and octopi 
• Birdwatching with Dr Birdy in Syndicate Nature Trail
• Lunches at local snackettes and restaurants
• View from Manicou River Resort

It's not that easy to get to Dominica, which is probably why we enjoyed it so much. They don't have an airport that can handle larger jets, so you either need to take a ferry or fly from a neighbouring island. Dominica was listed in a recent Conde Nast article on how new airports will make it easier to reach bucket list places, so we were lucky to get there before the airport gets built.

It was pretty easy to avoid the cruise ship crowds. Aside from seeing the 18-deck cruise ships in the distance, docked at Roseau, we wouldn't even have known when the cruise ships were in port. (Also I had googled when planning the trip so knew exactly when ships were in port, and how large, it was in our itinerary). I always find it odd how the most popular sites are super-crowded yet equivalent sites are empty. For example, Champagne Beach is a very popular destination with cruise ship folks because of the bubbles that come up from underwater geothermal activity. Bubbles Beach, five minutes down the road from Champagne Beach, with the same geothermal activity, was completely empty. Anyways it worked for us, as we saw turtles and an octopus at Bubbles Beach.

A few other random observations: We used snorkel hoods for the first time, and they were great! Kept our hair out of our eyes, and protected our heads and back of necks from the sun. We picked these up at MEC. The road conditions weren't too bad, the internet had suggested otherwise. Mosquitoes weren't an issue either -- maybe it was too windy.

On the flight from Dominica to Port of Spain we had a great cloudless view of a number of other Caribbean islands, which got us thinking about future trips. Most of them are on the cruise ship circuit, and almost all have decent road infrastructure (also, they are mostly flatter than Dominica) so there's not really any off-the-beaten path places on these other islands, although it's all relative.

Overall it was an excellent week-long vacation!

Trincity, Trinidad & Barbados

The only thing with taking our own snorkeling gear is that we have pack all our snorkeling gear. Fins & masks in containers are bulky. I did a better job fitting everything around the fins yesterday evening compared to when we left Toronto. The suitcases zipped up rather easily :)

We had breakfast, checked out from Jungle Bay and were on the road a little after 9am. The route to the airport took us back through Roseau before cutting northeast to Douglas Charles Airport near Marigot. I had set our destination in Google maps for the Rubis gas station in Marigot so we could fill up the rental before returning it.

First we had to get through Roseau. The AIDAperla was in port with 3286 passengers disembarking for their excursions. It wasn’t too bad though, I think they had just opened the gates (or whatever the cruise ship term is).

Outside Roseau we passed by locals dressed in their Sunday best, heading to mass with their palms (it’s Palm Sunday today). I guess in tropical climates it’s BYO palms :)

The road from Roseau to the airport looks like it was recently rebuilt. It was a full two car-width wide so no worries about passing cars in the other direction on blind corners. It’s a really scenic drive through the mountains, with the occasional rum shack and snackette. We also passed by Spanny Falls, which I had on the itinerary, but we didn’t want to get all sweaty and dirty so just continued on the airport.

The road to the airport passes through Pagua Bay on the east coast. We pulled over for a couple minutes to watch the waves crashing on the shore. I had looked at staying at Pagua Bay House when we were planning the trip. It looked like it would have been a good option, with different scenery than the two spots we stayed at.

The Rubis gas station in Marigot was closed (not sure just for Sunday, or semi-permanently?) There’s not many gas stations in Dominica so we just carried on to the airport. We were supposed to return it with 3/4 tank (presumably having filled up in Roseau) and the needle was just below that so figured on taking our chances.

The Courtesy Car folks were on-site in the car rental office. The guy just did a quick walk around, checked the gas level, said we were close enough, and good to go :) I don't even think he got off his phone the whole time. Very different from the car rental in Yasawa which ended with a 89 point inspection.

Douglas Charles is a small international airport, when we checked in they just took our suitcases right onto the cart that drove onto the tarmac. Our luggage was only checked through to Trinidad, so we'd have access to it while in transit.

Had a small lunch at the airport restaurant (we were still a bit full from breakfast) and then went through security. The departure area was larger than I had thought with two gates, two gift shops and a small coffee shop. They had three departures today! Bought some waters to fill our water bottles and spend our remaining EC.

Our plane arrived (the flight goes from Antigua - Dominica - Trinidad, it’s the same flight we took to get here). All the passengers boarding in Dominica were checked in so we boarded early. I forgot my water bottle at the gate and only realized after we were seated. Luckily one of the ground agents walked on the plane looking for the owner (me). He seemed pretty pleased to have rescued my water bottle :)

We had great views of Martinique, St Lucia and St Vincent & the Grenadines as we flew south. In particular the pilot said it’s unusual to have a cloud-free view of La Soufriere, a volcanic cone at the north end of St Vincent.

It was strange to see Port of Spain as we approached. We hadn’t seen that many houses or such a big flat area in a week :)

We were seated near the front but we exited from the rear of the aircraft so we were last in line for immigration. But it turned out we were two of the maybe five foreigners on the flight so had our own line up anyways. Everyone else just zipped through the nationals line.

The taxi drivers were very helpful and low key sales pitch. One driver suggested we go to the Tourist Info booth and ask them to call our hotel for the courtesy shuttle; another pointed out where we should stand to meet it.

On the way out passed by the local food court that my friend Ram recommended we stop for dinner. (Trinidad is also a common layover when flying from Guyana to Toronto). It was too early though so we just went to our hotel (Holiday Inn Express).

Later we went for dinner at Popeye’s next door. Neither of us had ever eaten at a Popeye’s before. It wasn’t too bad.

On the walk back we saw some birds in the trees on the hotel property (some kind of dove, and a couple Saffron finches). We then had an ice cream and a drink in the hotel lobby. So, birdwatching, a sundowner, it was just like we were on vacation:)

Set our alarms for 4am *gasp* and went bed.

Cacacrou, Dominica

We wanted to do a trek of some sort on our last day here. We decided to walk from the hotel to the top of Cacacrou and back, a round trip of about two hours.

We left around 8:45am, it was really pleasant out. Plus the walk starts by heading downhill to sea level. We walked through Soufriere and then along the boardwalk around Soufriere Bay to Scotts Head. At the isthmus we paid the marine park fee (5 EC each, about 2 USD). There’s a road all the way up to the cell phone tower, lined with cacti and snake plants. From the tower, it’s about 50m up a dirt path to the top. It was really windy at the top, we stayed away from the edge cause we thought we might get blown over. There’s actually a ridge going up another 10m or so but that seemed dangerous.

I had read that you could easily see where the Atlantic met the Caribbean, but there wasn’t much of a distinction.

We headed back down, I took a bunch of pics of the fishing boats and colourful buildings in Scotts Head. We stopped for a local juice at Chez Wen, and then carried on back to the hotel. It was closer to noon by now and it felt really hot. Our phones said the UV was 12, the highest we’ve seen.

We could see the Enchanted Princess in port down in Roseau, with 3,660 passengers. The large cruise ships do overwhelm the most popular tourist sites, but it was pretty tourist-free around Soufriere Bay.

We spent a few minutes cooling down in our villa. We then drove back down to Chez Wen for lunch. They have a nice set up with their patio in the shade, overlooking the bay. I had the ribs and Heather the coconut shrimp. Both were excellent.

On the way back we stopped off at Weefee’s Bar. Weefee was our snorkeling guide, he also owns a bar on the waterfront, which looks to be his true calling. We had a beverage under the shade of an almond tree, and then got back to the hotel.

The heat from the day wiped us out, and we napped most of the afternoon.

We got a head start on our packing before we went down for dinner. We’re not sure if our luggage will be checked all the way through to Toronto so we planned our carry-on for the layover in Port of Spain.

We weren’t really hungry for dinner after our big lunch. I tried the rabbit provençale, just cause I was impressed that they had that on the menu. Heather had the blackened catch of the day, which here generally is mahi mahi. Both were really good.

And that was it for the official part of the vacation! We have a couple transit days to get home.

Soufriere, Dominica

Another day of snorkeling! Had a filling breakfast, watching the cloud cover over Scotts Head and Cacacrou, where we were snorkeling this morning. My iPhone forecasted the clouds to clear at 9am just in time for our excursion.

It’s a short 10 minute drive to the isthmus separating Cacacrou from Scotts Head on the mainland. We stored our towels etc on a ledge and then backed into the water.

The cloud cover was starting to break over us, although we could see it pouring rain over the resort.

Almost immediately we saw some baby squid! Another good start to a snorkeling day! We swam out to the drop off and then followed that to the edge of Cacacrou. The lighting was amazing especially in the shallow water near the edge. I thought there might be waves or currents dashing us against the rocks but there was nothing at all. It’s one of the smoothest bodies of water to snorkel in ever.

We came close to the Atlantic side of Cacacrou where the water became choppier, so we turned around.

On the way back we came across dozens of reef squid, about 20cm each in length. They were all in a row, facing the slight current so they could filter for food. It was really cool. We were too busy to watching the squid to notice that our guide was calling us. We finally heard him, and swam over.

Our guide (Weefee) had spotted a reef octopus which had scurried under a rock. He explained that it was just watching us, and after it got comfortable it would swim out.

So we waited about five minutes, treading water, watching the octopus. Finally it came out, moving itself along the bottom sort of half swimming / crawling. This was cool!

We followed it for about 3-4 minutes, before it disappeared under another rock. I got a few pics, although none with all eight arms. It changes colour to blend into the background so the pics aren’t that picturesque - just beige over beige. But still, an octopus!

That ended another successful snorkeling excursion. We were glad we had booked a guide rather than just heading out our own, as we would have missed the squid and octopus.

We stopped in at the same snackette in Soufriere for a chicken roti and then drove back to the hotel.

The rest of the day was similar to yesterday, relaxing, watching the birds etc.

Soufriere, Dominica

We woke up from the sunrise before our 7am alarm. The hummingbirds were busy flitting about the flowering trees around our front deck. We had a snorkeling excursion this morning though so had no time to birdwatch and instead got cleaned up and headed to the restaurant for breakfast.

The restaurant was pretty empty except for other guests who also had morning excursions. We were seated by the window with a great view of Soufriere Bay where we were snorkeling later this morning. There was a nice breeze coming in from the ocean. (There’s no actual glass window, just wooden louvres).

It’s a buffet breakfast, with mostly local Dominica / Creole options such as saltfish, smoked herring and callaloo, as well as fresh fruit from their gardens: passionfruit, guava, soursop, bananas, pineapple, papaya and custard apple. They also had scrambled eggs for my provincial breakfast tastes :) the coffee was the same local Dominica coffee that we had yesterday afternoon! Although I stuck with my black tea (Liptons).

We got back to our room and got our snorkeling gear together. Luckily we were in one of the closest rooms to the main lodge - otherwise it’s up to a 10 minute walk or a wait for the golf cart shuttle.

We met up with Weefee, our snorkeling guide, right at 9am. We loaded our gear into the hotel van for the short five minute drive into Soufriere.

We were about to gear up when I realized I’d forgotten my camera in the van. So sort of ran back best I could in my dive boots to get it. On my way back I ran into one of the local characters who chatted me up for a few minutes. Heather and Weefee were wondering what was taking me so long, until me and my new friend rounded the corner and Weefee figured it out.

Anyways we entered the water from the shore at Bubble Beach. Soufriere Bay is a submerged volcano from which geothermal activity still bubbles to the top. The bubbles are more prevalent at the nearby Champagne Beach, but so are the cruise ship tourists.

Weefee led us around the bay, generally heading north. Almost immediately we spotted a couple leatherback turtles, and stingray, and some other type of ray. Not a bad start at all!

We turned back towards land and snorkeled alongside a wall where the rocky outcrop drops straight down into the water. Soufrière Bay has the calmest water in which I’ve ever snorkeled - perfect for taking pictures. Unfortunately it was an overcast day so the lighting wasn’t that great.

Towards the end, we saw an octopus! Neither of us had seen an octopus previously. It was really cool.

Just before we got back to shore, we warmed up by snorkeling through the bubbles. Haven’t done that before either :)

We had been out in the water for over 90 minutes and worked up an appetite. Weefee stopped in at a snackette in town for freshly made chicken roti, and then to another place for a local juice.

We drove back to the resort and had a very tasty lunch :)

That was it for our day, the rest of the afternoon we relaxed in our lodge, had a local coffee and ice cream, watched the birds closer to sunset.

For dinner I had the stewed goat and Heather had a plantain lasagna. Both were quite good. We’re preferring the a là carte menus here as opposed to the three-course set menu at Manicou River which was too much food for us. They also have Kubuli on tap (the local beer) so I had a couple :)

Mero Beach, Dominica

It was warmer this morning at Manicou River cause the winds had died down. We were glad we were moving to a place with a/c for the next few days.

We had breakfast, packed up and drove down the steep driveway one last time.

The road south follows the coast, about 90 minutes from tip to tip. The road was in pretty good condition and well-marked. It gets a bit of traffic, as you might expect between the two largest towns in the country.

We stopped for lunch in Mero Beach, based on a recommendation from Kayola, our host at Manicou River. Mero Beach is a cute little beach community, hidden from the main road. We parked at the first place we saw, Vena’s Snackette. Snackettes are typically take-out places, but Vena’s had a few tables in the shade. Got our food (fried chicken, plantain and a deep fried dough) and asked Vena what she had for drinks. She asked us if we wanted a local juice, sure! She ran over to her home across the street and got us two cherry drinks, made from cherries from the tree in her front yard. Later we figured out ‘local’ means homemade.

Anyways the food and local juice were excellent. Washed our hands using the tap on the street, and paid up. For some reason, Vena gave Heather a free package of cashews :)

Got back on the road continuing south. It got progressively busier as we approached the capital, Roseau. Google maps showed some of our route as red! This is normal in a capital, just a bit of a shock compared to the north.

The stop-and-go traffic in the heart of Roseau allowed me to sightsee from the car. It’s a very lively city, with brightly painted colonial buildings and busy sidewalks.

The road becomes narrower about 10 minutes south of Roseau, no longer a major thoroughfare. We passed through Loubière and Pointe Michel (cute little communities) before cutting inland, winding up and down a rocky outcrop. Finally we reached Jungle Bay! It was about 90 minutes driving time from Portsmouth, just as Google maps had predicted.

We checked in, and sorted out our snorkeling excursions over the next couple days. We had originally tried to book with Nature Island Dive, but they were swamped with divers. It was easier all around for us to just organize with the hotel. So they texted Simon at Nature Island and it was all good.

Our room was available so we got ourselves situated and relaxed for a bit. Caught up on laundry. Manicou River is a truer eco lodge and had a limited water supply based on rainfall, so we held off on doing our laundry there. We could have got laundry service but we’re nervous about our dryfit and merino wool stuff getting shrunk.

We went down to the restaurant in the main building for a coffee around 3pm. They had local Dominica coffee on the menu, from beans in nearby Giraudel. It was slightly muddy and excellent.

There’s lots of birds in the trees outside our front deck. I took a lot of pics. I started tracking our sightings in the Merlin app. We recognized a few based on our birdwatching excursion a couple days ago.

Later we went down for dinner. It was packed in the restaurant, with a lot of groups chit chatting away. Quite a difference from the last place where we were the only guests!

We went to bed early-ish. We heard some wings flapping in the dark and thought maybe a bird had flown in earlier. When it flew around it sounded like a bat. Turned out to be a black witch moth, with a wing span of 7" (!) Set up the mosquito net to keep it away from us.

The a/c was nice :)

Calibishie, Dominica

We finally had a day to sleep in, so of course we were up shortly after sunrise at 6:11. We’re west of Tete Montagne (301m) and Morne Balvine (303m) so the sun doesn’t hit Portsmouth until an hour later, and almost 8am before our hotel was in the sun. It was really pleasant in the shade.

We had a leisurely breakfast, including oatmeal which was really good. We then packed up for our day’s excursion to the north east of Dominica, in and around Calibishie.

The road from Portsmouth to Calibishie cuts through the mountains and is constant blind turns and narrow roads. It’s not for inexperienced drivers, that’s for sure. It does get very scenic once the road gets back to oceanside - driving through Bense and Calibishie is really atmospheric, one of the prettiest drives I’ve done. The buildings are painted a mishmash of bright colours, with hand painted signs for grocery stores and restaurants and the like.

Our first activity for the day was a trek to Chaudiere Pool. Various blogs had described it either as a 15 min walk, or a 45 min trek, depending on how far you drove in. We chose the 45 min trek, parking where the paved road ended. We were glad we did as the dirt road is in terrible shape, I’m not sure our little RAV4 would have made it. Also I could enjoy the view atop the ridge as we walked instead of focusing on the road.

There were a few friendly goats along the way, munching on grass. It took us about 30 minutes to walk to the cutoff to Chaudiere Pool, it’s well marked.

From the cutoff it’s a somewhat steep descent down for about 10 minutes. There was vehicle parked at the bottom, probably a guided tour & local driver. It’s then about a 5 minute walk through the forest over a maintained path to Hampstead River, where the crossing on big rocks is marked with painted arrows.

At first we thought we had to cross the 2nd half of the river as well, but the pool is just 50m further upstream. It’s a nice little destination. Most people have a swim in the pool, but we were just in it for the walk and the view.

It’s not busy at all at Chaudiere Pool. We ran into less than 10 people in total, including a couple with a driver/guide who were the ones with the vehicle we’d seen at the bottom. On our way out we saw a solo traveler who had also driven all the way in.

On the walk out along the ridge, the couple and guide passed by in their vehicle. One the goats had crossed the road with their rope around their neck, blocking the road. Heather had to help herd the goat back across so the vehicle could pass. The goat gave Heather a nice friendly look after.

We made it back to our car, about 1h30 walking in total. We weren’t quite hungry yet so headed for Red Rocks. As you might guess from the name, these are rock formations in varying shades of red, eroded by the ocean and rain. There’s lots of signage but still a bit confusing to get to. It’s a 5 EC (about 2 USD) per person to enter, as the access path cuts through private property.

It’s cool to see, different from the other sights here. The red rocks contrast nicely with the blue ocean. We ran into the same couple & guide from Chaudiere Pool.

We then headed back into Calibishie for lunch. We had planned to eat at Unique Seaview which gets great reviews, but it wasn’t open for lunch :( so we went next door to Coral Reef, which has a restaurant tucked in behind their grocery store. It has great views of the ocean, and is literally right beside Unique View, which makes me wonder about their name.

Anyways it got really busy just after we ordered, including our favourite couple and guide. It’s a common itinerary so it’s not unusual to run into the same people again and again.

Our food came out very quickly, and it was excellent. The restaurant was mostly filled with locals, which was nice. Calibishie is probably the furthest you can get away from the cruise ship port, and so one of the least touristed areas in Dominica.

For dessert we drove back towards Red Rock, to visit Pointe Baptiste Chocolate Factory. The tour itself (20 EC / 10 CAD for a group) was short yet informative, and covered from cocao pods to grinding the nibs to packaging. We got multiple samples cause we were just a group of two; my favourite was the chocolate with lemon grass (it’s commonly seen growing here). We bought a bar for later.

Last on our itinerary for the day was Batibou Beach. They charged 5 USD per person to access it and we just wanted a quick view, so instead called it a day and drove back to Manicou River.

Back at the hotel, we cooled down as best we could without a/c. It was less windy today and felt warmer. The forecast called for low winds the rest of the week so good thing we were moving south to Jungle Bay for the rest of the week.

We had dinner enjoying the view one last time, and then called it a night.

Syndicate Nature Trail, Dominica

The temperature was really pleasant in our cottage from about 4am onwards, after we turned on the fan. It’s an open cottage (there’s no walls on the front half facing the ocean) and it was really windy, so I didn’t think we’d need the fan, but it made a difference.

Unfortunately we had to get up at 7am for our birdwatching trek today. (We’ll finally get to sleep in tomorrow for the first time on this vacation). Breakfast was super quick - we had fresh fruit, yoghurt, scrambled eggs and toast in about 30 minutes. It helped that we were the only guests.

We drove down the steep driveway which didn’t seem as scary today, now that we knew what to expect. We were meeting Dr Birdy at the Rubis gas station near the National Bank, a typical small-town direction. The bank is in the centre of Portsmouth which was lively at 9am. The popular Indian River cruise departs nearby and the parking folks tried to flag us into their parking lot.

Dr Birdy arrived a couple minutes after us. We followed his car to get out of Portsmouth, and then parked and joined him in his vehicle, along with a couple other folks on our excursion. Shane and Nya were from Florida and Shane was a serious birder.

We drove towards Syndicate National Trail. Once we turned off the main north-south road, Dr Birdy lowered the windows so he could hear the bird calls. We stopped a few times along the way to spot an endemic species or two.

Dr Birdy’s real name is Bertrand, and he is the foremost expert on birds in Dominica. He’s like royalty here - other guides would stop their car to get out and say hello to him. He’s super knowledgeable - we were lucky he had availability for the time we were here.

It was cool spotting the hummingbirds and other species. I was able to get some good pics, and then my battery died from all the zooming in. My spare was also dead :( I had charged the spares about a month ago but they tend to lose their charge over time even when not in use. Oh well. I could at least enjoy the birds without trying to take pics too.

We arrived at the trail head for Syndicate where there was a check for our passes (all four of us had a weekly pass). You need a pass to enter some of the National Parks here ($5 per park, or $12 for a weekly pass) but they’re not always sold at the checkpoints. If you know about the passes, it’s easy to buy beforehand (our hotel sold them for example).

Dr Birdy knew all the places to spot the various species. We had seen three of the four hummingbirds found in Dominica, and he knew where to stop to see the blue-headed hummingbird. Right on cue, and exactly where he had pointed his scope, a blue-headed hummingbird appeared. Dr Birdy said it’s its favourite perch after feeding on nectar. Shane was pleased to check that off his list.

We made our way further into the park, and to a viewpoint across a valley. We saw several red-necked amazon parrots fly by. We waited for about hour trying to spot the rarer imperial amazon parrot but to no avail. I think Shane would have waited out the afternoon, as any self-respecting serious birder would. The rest of us were more interested in lunch, and so eventually he gave in. An excuse for another trip he said.

We made our way back out, with both Dr Birdy and Shane on the lookout for a ruddy quail-dove which tend to scurry along the forest ground. Over the course of the morning we spotted 34 species of birds (at least Shane saw that many, our total could be lower).

It was about 2:30pm, and most lunch places recommended by Dr Birdy had closed, except for Infinity Restaurant so that’s where we headed. It appeared closed but the person outside said it was indeed open. So we parked and made our way into the restaurant. It was a nice setting overlooking a river. We both ordered a shrimp dish which came out almost immediately, and both were excellent!

Drove back to our hotel. Yesterday we had figured out how to cool the cottage down - lowering the blinds and opening the door for a cross-breeze. We also had a cool shower. Much better than our arrival yesterday!

Towards sunset we made our way down to the restaurant for a sundowner, followed by too much dinner :)

Portsmouth, Dominica

Breakfast was pretty slow at our hotel in Antigua, enough so that Heather left to finish packing up while waiting for our food.

There was another guest (Nik) also waiting for a taxi at 10am, turned out he was on our flight to Dominica! We were both surprised as not many people travel there.

Our Caribbean Airlines flight was full, although it continued on to Trinidad where we figure was where most people were headed. (It’s actually the same leg we’ll be taking at the end of our trip).

It was really hot in the plane while we waited to depart. The flight attendant was using the safety instructions as a fan. The flight itself was only 45 minutes, with a great view of Dominica as we approached for landing. It’s completely covered in trees and volcanic peaks, Jurassic-park like.

It’s one of the smallest international airports we’ve flown through, smaller even than Sāo Tomé. (The population of Dominica is only 72,000).

For those trivia buffs out there, Dominica is one of four countries in the world with purple in their flag.

Immigration was straightforward, and then we waited for our luggage. They showed up on the conveyor before the AirTags could register (maybe not enough iOS devices around).

The car rental booths were a couple minute walk down from the airport. Our rental place (Courtesy Cars) was waiting for us. It took a bit longer than I expected cause they had to fill out the paperwork to issue a temporary local drivers license for me.

And so we were off in our Toyota RAV4, an hour drive to our hotel, Manicou River Resort. I had booked a standard but we ended up with an automatic :( and a rather beaten up one at that. At least we won’t have to worry about any minor nicks or bumps!

We had read poor reviews of the road conditions in Dominica. I didn’t find it that bad, about like Troödos Mountains in Cyprus, narrow roads, blind corners and steep drop offs.

We took about an hour to get close to the hotel, just as Google maps predicted. But there was no signage for the cutoff to the private road up the hill. We made a u-turn and on the way back asked someone for directions (across a small bridge and then turn left. Or maybe before the bridge). We took a left after the bridge, and from there I guessed directions based on satellite view in Google maps. The road sometimes disappeared in the tree coverage so guessing was involved.

The road was extremely steep, we couldn’t see the road in front of us at points. It was also single car width, fortunately no cars were going in the other direction as I’m not sure how we would have passed each other.

Finally we saw a sign, Entrance by invitation only, and we knew we were on the right track.

It was a little confusing as we arrived, as one of the hotel folks said to just park in the driveway and then helped us with our luggage. The mystery cleared up when we found out we were the only guests tonight (only three cottages survived the hurricane in 2017) so they were expecting us.

It’s an off the grid eco-lodge, solar powered and the like. (But with wifi in each cottage, lol). It’s built on the side of a 45* hill, with the downslope side of the lodge completely open. It was also facing the sun in the afternoon, and the combo direct sun and reflected sun from the ocean made it very hot. The overall effect was a bit more rustic than we’d prefer. But the view is amazing and it’s one of the top rated hotels on the north side of the island (the lesser touristed half). (Spoiler alert, we figured out how to keep it cooler the next day).

We showered and then headed over for dinner. There was a table of five other guests (just here for dinner) so it made for a livelier restaurant. We had a sundowner, watching the sun set beside Cabrits National Park, with lights from yachts in Prince Rupert Bay dotting the horizon. Very atmospheric.

We were really hungry when dinner was served, as we had missed lunch and didn’t want to mess with the access road again today to get into town for food. It was tasty, grilled chicken and a smorgasbord of other stuff. There were no bugs at all, which was surprising to us and also made it very pleasant out. It was still very hot in the room and it took us a while to fall asleep.