El fin del comienzo... (by A)

Decir adios no es fácil y sobre todo cuando has creado amistades y lazos que han cambiado tu vida (Brits & French... estoy hablando de ustedes).

El 16 de Abril partimos de Luanda, Angola hacia Johannesburg, South Africa... con sólo nuestra ropita y algunos que otros aditamentos que nos ayudaran en la acampada.

Llegamos a un hotel bastante simpático, que aunque estando en Johannesburg, el hotel en sí parecía estar escondido... hacía bastante frio y la cama tenía unos bichitos micro micro que no se veían... pero como picaban.

Al día siguiente fuimos a recoger la camioneta / hogar... y ahora si... el fin del comienzo, tenemos que comprar comida y algunas otras cosas para el viaje... pero ya se siente en el ambiente esa emoción de comenzar la aventura.

Tal cual... la primer aventura fue comenzar a manejar del otro lado, ninguno de los dos tenemos mucha experiencia en ese rollo, pero fue divertido.... cada vez que Juan queria prender las direccionales, prendia los limpiadores y de hecho algunas veces, estuvimos a punto de meternos en sentido contrario. La buena noticia es que ya se acostumbró y es más fácil estos días.

Por supuesto, siendo Juan, no podiamos salir sin un GPS ni a la esquina. Aha! el problema fue que el mapa que teníamos en el aparatejo, decía que estábamos una o dos calles arriba / abajo de la calle donde realmente estábamos... y si, es obvio, nos perdimos... no una sino varias veces y no por una sino por varias horas!

En Jo'burg nos quedamos hasta el 22 de Abril afinando los ultimos detalles... ese día salimos hacia Drakensberg, un zona montañosa super bonita, pero eso si... un pinche frio...

Ese fue el fin del comienzo... después de tanta compra y preparanos para el viaje, por fin comenzamos!

Sobonana,

Juan y Analaura


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(Lost in translation)

Saying goodbye is not easy, specially when you have made friends and created bonds that have changed your life (Brits & French I'm talking about you).

On April 16 we left Luanda, Angola to Johannesburg, South Africa with only some clothes and other items that might help us while camping.

We stayed at a quite nice B&B, that although being in Jo'burg, the B&B itself seemed to be secluded. The weather was pretty cold and the bed had tiny tiny insects hard to see, but we surely felt them biting.

The next morning we went to pick up our car / home and this is it... the end of the start, we still had food and other stuff to buy, however, you can feel the excitement of starting the adventure.

In fact, our first adventure was to drive on the "wrong" side of the road. Neither Juan or I have much experience doing so, but it was fun. Every time Juan wanted to signal left / right, he turned on the wipers and sometimes we almost entered the wrong way of the street. The good thing is that now he is used to it and it is so much easier now.

Of course, being Juan, we could not go anywhere without the GPS. Aha! the problem is that the map we had on such device showed that we were one or two streets up / down the street where we really were, and yes, as expected, we got lost... more than one time and for a couple of hours.

We stayed at Jo'burg until the 22 of April, fine tuning the last details. That same day we headed to Drakensberg, a very nice mountain area... but very cold.

That is the end of the start, after some shopping and getting ready for the trip, we finally started our trip.

Sobonana,

Juan & Analaura

Arrgghhh! the packing...

Painful, very very painful... having to pack a house / apartment every 2-3 years is very very painful. Fortunately this time we decided to only bring clothes and other few things, but being human, we accumulate a lot of junk and now we have to pack and send back to Mexico.


We have managed to narrow down the departure date from Angola to Friday 16 or Saturday 17 of April depending on guess what? of course the visas! We are only missing Namibia and hopefully we will be able to get an on arrival visa for Zambia.


What we can say is that today is Juan's last Sunday at Congo and Analaura's last Sunday at Angola... definitely mixed feelings!


Sobonana,


Juan & Analaura