First Day in Capetown

Oh my!!!  Not much time to write tonight, but what a great introduction to a place that's more beautiful than you can believe. Jenny's cousin John and his wife Veda have been supreme hosts, putting us up in their sweet house nestled between mountains in a valley full of vineyards, driving us through the city and around the local coast.  Highlights:  every single bay, with interesting homes scattered down the steep slopes to perfect wild beaches;  fresh local food and wine;  visiting a girl from the townships of Joburg, now at U of Capetown, one of 18 that J&V are helping adjust to a radically different life; looking at the ever-changing light and clouds on Table Mountain...
No time to write much because there's so much to see and do, but here are a few pics from a memorable day:

The Stunning Sahara

As I write (on our little tablet - what a handy tool!), we're high above what has to be one of the world's most stunning landscapes.  We got our first glimpse of Africa over the Mediterranean coast of Libya, surprisingly built up for the first bit - cities, intense agriculture and lots of roads.  Rolling green hills surprised - I pictured dry, dusty and flat. These gave way to rockier mountains, maybe the Atlas range, deeply fissured, harder to navigate, and therefore less people. Further south these met a sand desert, and for a while there were irrigated circles dotting the encroaching sand.
Then... Nothing! Just vastness, first an ocean of sand dunes, each ogne and each group uniquely and exquisitely sculpted by wind.  Then black rock escarpments, rippled stone with huge canyons and cliffs, looking giant even from 30,000 feet. And I was constantly struck by the scale and the emptiness of it, almost an hour of flying with no sign of humans, not even a track.  Maybe there are nomadic people somewhere down there; if so, they must be adapted in some brilliant way.

I shot these pics above the border of Algeria and Niger, missing the dunes and the best mountains, but even through the very hazy plane window you might get a sense of the extraordinary colours: ochres, blacks, pinks, browns, and fantastic patterns. If you know my strange habit of exploring landscapes in Google Earth, you can imagine my joy in seeing a whole continent roll by live!

Wild mountains in Zambia...

 A tropical storm a hundred miles east of us in northern Namibia...

Monteverde Cloud Forest

Tonight is our last night in Costa Rica, in the cool forests of Monteverde - first time we've needed blankets to sleep!  A beautiful drive to get here, stopping in the village of Garza to touch the Pacific one last time, then the city of  Nicoya to get money and watch the action in the town square at lunch, especially the teens in their school ubi forms, hanging out much like their Canadian peers.  The drive from Las Juntas up to Monteverde climbs about 6000 feet through steep-sloped farmland and forest, shades of Greece, California and other hot mountainous beautiful places. The road, as advertised, was dusty, stony , rutted and bad, except where it was terrible. But once again, the destination proved worth it. Monteverde was setteled by American Quakers in 1950, escaping persecution for their pacifism, and they carved out farms at high altitude, building a successful cheese industry. Today it's all ecotourists, coming to enjoy the rich diversity of life in the cloud forests.  Trade winds from the Caribbean guarantee fog and rain on windward slopes almost daily, so it's moist, temperate and very lush. We hiked to the continental divide this morning, bathed in greenery, spotting odd birds such as the orange-banded trogon and the emerald toucan.  Then we got techno and did a 15 segment zipline, longest span a whole kilometer - a blast, and a unique perspective on the canopy whizzing by!  I also did a Tarzan swing - me who turns green on swings in the park...
So that's it from Costa Rica, although I hope to get back to write about the amazing SEED project I mentioned in Cahuita.  Love from Jen and me, and stay tuned for Africa in about 10 days!