From Vinales, we headed back to Havana then onto Trinidad, about six hours southeast of Havana.  It’s a small colonial town first settled in the 1500’s.  It wasn’t fully until the 19th century when Trinidad was at it’s peak providing sugar to most of Cuba.  Unfortunately, Trinidad did not continue to flourish, and the once beautiful colonial buildings have fallen into disrepair.  Trinidad is also on the tourist path, and live music and dancing takes center stage every evening in the Plaza Mayor.  Here the locals mix with the tourists teaching them how to dance.

We side tripped out of Havana to Vinales, a three hour bus ride southwest.  It’s a small town with one main road, a main square with a church.  There are nearly as many tourists as town people, and most of the Cubans are in the tourist industry.  Groups of people meet you at the bus stop selling a room for the night.  Almost every house off the main road looks identical, and each has been converted into a casa particulare, a room for rent in a house occupied by a Cuban family.  Because there are very few hotels in Cuba, many tourists stay in casas particulares.  We stayed at Casa Rosa, complete with air conditioning to battle the heat.  During the day the temperature was in the 90’s and humid.  Probably the hottest place we’ve been–ever.

The ‘Vinales Tour’ the next day brought us to all the best sights in the area; starting with view point overlooking the valley, a primitive mural of evolution painted on the side of a rock, a visit to a cave, and my favorite, a visit with a local farmer.
The farmer we met ‘owns’ four hectareas of land which has been in the family for four generations.  The farmer is completely self-sustaining with his fields of potatoes, taro, corn, sugar cane, rice.  He also grows avocados, tangerines, oranges, mangos, and coffee beans (which is left out to dry for months, and is very, very  strong coffee).   Lastly, each farmer by law is required to grow a minimum amount of tobacco.  November to April is the only growing season for tabacco, the government buys the dried tobacco leaves for $600 dollars for 3 tons of tobacco (or something insane like that).  Since there is no private industry, the government owns everything, including the tabacco industry which is one of Cuba’s largest money generators.  So, it buys the tabacco from the farmers at a favorable price for itself, barely covering the cost of the labor for the farmers, and sells it’s Cuban cigars for huge profits.

 
About an hour by boat from the Santa Catalina is Coiba Island, a former penal colony between 1919-2004.  Since it’s closure as a prison, the island has been declared a world heritage site, due to its many plants and animals that are endemic to the island.  We spent the day snorkeling with sea turtles, white tipped sharks and other amazing underwater life.  This was some of the best snorkeling we have seen.

We met up with Hedda and Michael in Quito after our Galapagos trip.  From there, the four of us flew to Cartagena, Colombia to explore the old colonial city.  My first impression of Cartagena is that it is HOT and HUMID.  Eventhough it’s a coastal city, it doesn’t get much relief from the winds off the Carribean.  By 9am, it’s 90 degrees with 90% humidity, and by 11am you wish you never left the comforts of your air conditioned room…

 
Much of the old city is undergoing restoration.  New hotels, condos, private homes, etc. marks a sharp contrast between the old and the new.  Although it seems an obvious choice…I´m torn between the dirty charm of the old, and the prefect quaintness of the new.  Every run-down building tells the story of a past splendor when Cartagena was under colonial rule (from 1533-1811).

Twice as high as Niagara Falls, two thousand tons of water per second, 275 waterfalls along 2.7 kilometers, borders Brazil and Argentina. This is the devil’s throat, and it’s beautiful.

Here I am on a microlight flight above Victoria Falls (you can see the mist coming up from the falls behind me). I like this photo because you can see the zig-zag of the Zambezi River, and how deeply the gorge runs through the land.

“The Smoke that Thunders” is the Kololo name for Victoria Falls. We spent 3 days enjoying the falls viewing it from the town of Livingstone on the Zambian-side. We walked to the Knife Edge, which requires us to cross a footbridge and get soaked by the mist. The rains in the north flowing down the Zambezi River kept the waterfalls full and bursting, and a beautiful sight to behold.

We had no intention of spending more than one night in Zimbabwe(which we did at the Holiday Inn at Mutare), but then at the last minute we decided to detour to Mana Pools National Park, where there are no fences between you and the animals. It’s noted for it’s great beauty, and therefore a UNESCO World Heritage site. The park is off the main highway and one of the last stops before the border of Zambia. We arrived at the park office around 5:30pm, and received approval to head to the gate and into the park (the gate usually closes at 3:30pm). Once we arrived at the gate, we were told it was another 30km on a potholed dirt road to the checkpoint. After an hour we arrived, and were told to continue on another 45km to the campsite. Looking at the fuel gauge, we figured we had enough to get to the campsite and back with just a little to spare.
By this time it’s dark out with still the last 20km to go, we run into an elephant bull in the middle of the road side. Rather than move back into the bush, the elephant decides to walk towards us, and keep walking towards us. Mike backs the car up, but he keeps following us. His ears are flapping, and is aggressively shaking his trunk. He backs us up about 1km, and by this time we decide we need to take action, as this elephant won’t give up. At one point, the elephant is slightly off to the side of the road and we decide this is our chance to get past. As we inch forward, the rogue elephant moves its body back into the road. Mike guns the engine, but forgets to shift gears, so the engine is roaring, and the elephant rears on its hind legs and jumps right into the bush. We were scared,and so was the elephant who went tearing into the bush. (It was kind of funny in the end, and I felt sorry for the elephant, too).
Initially we planned to camp, as they said there were no cabins available, but when we arrived, it was pitch black(and not possible to make camp), so we were offered lodging in a chalet. The guide told us the price, but said for us he would give the South African rate (which was half price). The way he gave us the offer Mike and I both knew he planned to pocket the money. It’s off-season at Mana Pools, and we were the only guests in the entire park. Eventhough we had a thatched chalet, the accommodations were rundown — the door was a gate, the windows had no glass, only chicken wire and a screen. Giant spiders lived inside. No running water. I slept in a twin bed, suffocating from the heat of the night with the mosquito net tucked under the mattress. All night we heard an orchestra of sounds– peacocks cackling, monkeys calling each other, hippos grunting, and an elephant trumpeting.
The next morning we woke up to birds chirping softly and viewed the beauty of Mana Pools, so different during the day than at night.

We just barely made it out alive from the shark attack, but since then, each day we’ve had an incident, or so to speak…After diving in Scottburgh, we went to St. Lucia Estuary for turtle viewing. Between November and February each year, the loggerhead and leatherback turtles come to the shores of St. Lucia to lay their eggs. We eagerly signed up for a tour, but did not see any turtles. Instead, we had a white rhino, take notice of us, and charge us. I guess we were infringing on his space, and he wanted us to know who is boss. These beasts mean business when they charge. First off they weigh up to 5000lbs., and they can get up to 25 miles an hour. Lucky for us, our tour guide backed us out of the situation, and the white rhino had it’s territory, thus its honor restored.

Drakensburg National Park is 243000acres, which means when you are in the park, as far as the eye can see in any direction, you are surrounded by the beauty of it. There are endless peaks and valleys. It’s green and lush, and wild. Before crossing into Lesotho, we decided to stay at the bottom of the Sani Pass and do a morning hike in Drakensburg. The trail was a 5 hour hike, which took us past a few nice waterfalls, and fresh water pools. The following day, we drove the Sani Pass into Lesotho. Years ago the Basotho people would travel on horseback from their country of Lesotho into South Africa to buy/trade supplies. The typical trip would take one week from Mokhotlong(in Lesotho) to the bottom of the pass. The road conditions are much better than in the past, which isn’t saying much. Only 4×4 vehicles are permitted to drive up the Sani Pass. It takes about 4 hours, which includes border control and a stop at the highest bar in Africa, the Sani Top Chalet.

This is the Dome of the Rock, the third most holy site in the world for Muslims after Mecca and Medina. This is where Muhammad is believed to have ascended to heaven accompanied by the angel Gabriel. Inside, there is in fact, a rock, that is supposed to have an indentation of both his foot and his winged steed, Buraq, as the angel pulled him up to heaven.

Unfortunately for Jewish people, this is also believed to be the Temple Mount, the site of the 1st and 2nd temples and thus the Holy of Holies. That very same rock is not only thought to be the location of Jacob’s dream of a ladder to heaven, the place where Abraham was going to sacrifice Isaac, and pretty much where any other rock-related story in the old testament happened, it’s also supposed to be the foundation stone for the creation of the Earth! Needless to say, a lot of people want this rock.

These days, the ball (or rock) is in the Muslim’s court. In fact the site is off limits to non-Muslims since there’s been quite a few conflicts inside over the years. (Somehow they can always tell we’re not Muslim when we try to go into these sites.) In fact, even if it was open, strict Jewish people are not supposed to enter because no one but the high priest was supposed to enter the Holy of Holies, and not knowing exactly where that was, it’s best to play it safe and keep out of the whole area. So instead they worship at the Western Wall. The Western, or Wailing Wall is believed to be the only remaining remnant of the 2nd Temple and thus the closest Jewish people can get to the holiest site in Jerusalem.

When you walk through the old city in Jerusalem you feel like you are walking through history… or at least the Epcot Center version of it. Pretty much every single event in the Bible is accounted for here. You can visit where Jesus stayed the night in the olive garden of Gesthemane before his death, and then later, where He was imprisoned, now a Greek Orthodox shrine. But then you walk down the street a little more and there’s a sign for a different place called Jesus’ prison, this one run by the Armenians. Hmmm…

You can visit the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which encloses Golgatha, the hill of Calvary where Jesus was crucified as well as the cave where He was buried. But hold on…there’s another spot a little outside of the city walls that also claims to be the spot where these events took place, that one run by the Protestants. Want to walk the Stations of the Cross? You can do that too, but keep in mind they’ve changed that path around numerous times over the years to accommodate the construction and traffic flow.

So what gives? Basically, all of the holy sites were set up by the first Christian Emperor Constatine’s mother Helena, who built churches 300 years after Christ’s death where many of the events in the Bible were believed to have taken place. These were pretty much all destroyed by the Persians, rebuilt by the crusaders, destroyed by the Ottomans, rebuilt, destroyed etc.. In modern times, all of the different denominations have bought, sold, and renovated the sites and run shrines there. There’s really not much to see, other than a church built on the place they say something important happened. The city was rebuilt so many times, that the current city is built some 50 feet on top of the remains of anything from Jesus’ time. So basically you take everything with a grain of salt. Things may not have happened exactly where they say it did, but it is still interesting to walk around knowing that a lot of those events happened somewhere nearby, and with a little imagination, you can still enjoy walking at least somewhat close to history.

In the heart of the old city in Damascus is the Omayad Mosque, built in 705ad. The mosque is visited by Muslims and Christians who come to visit the tomb of John the Baptist. Before I could enter the mosque to check it out, I had to put on “special clothes.” The mosque was quite large, and had beautiful gold mosaics depicting paradise.

This was one of those magical travel moments. We were basically alone at the monastery on top of Petra. A young Bedouin girl had just gone and sat inside the monastery and started whistling. The echo reverberated all over the cliffs and all of a sudden there were goats everywhere responding to her call. It was time for them to come home. We stumbled upon this little baby goat which was so playful and followed us around. Then out of nowhere comes this guy (who we would later meet down the hill) singing and playing oud.

We crossed the border from Egypt into Jordan by ferry to get to Petra, one of the new seven wonders of the world. It took us all day to get here. We took a taxi from Mt. Sinai to Nuweiba, then boarded a ferry(which left 3 hours later than scheduled) to Aqaba and finally, took a shared taxi to Petra.

We started out the next morning, through the siq, which is the only entrance/exit into Petra. The siq is a long and narrow gorge that opens up into a valley. Because the siq is 240 feet high and more than half a mile long, the Nabataeans who lived here more than 2200 years ago could easily defend their land against attacks, and could monitor those who entered Petra for trade.

The Nabataeans built dams to keep the valley from flooding. They carved temples, tombs and monasteries into the sandstone rocks. And the Romans who came after them built theatres and columned streets. In modern times, the Bedouin lived in the caves that were left behind by previous occupants. It wasn’t until the mid 1980’s that the Bedouin were relocated to a nearby housing project. And although it became forbidden to live in Petra, the Bedouin still work in Petra offering horse, mule and camel rides. They own shops selling souvenirs and jewelry, and have cafes and restaurants.

Towards the end of the day, Mike and I climbed up to see the Monastery and to check out the spectacular views from above. We were invited to watch the sunset on the Monastery with Abed who’s family owns the shop opposite the Monastery. He played the oud and sang traditional Bedouin songs while we sipped sweet mint tea. Watching the color of the sandstone change on the Monastery as the sun went down was beautiful and serene.

Once the sunset, Abed suggested we head down the before there was no light to lead our way. Although the hike up to the Monastery was not difficult, it did take about 30 minutes, so I wasn’t thrilled at the prospect of heading down in the dark. Fortunately, Abed’s cousin was heading down at the same time, so he led the way, otherwise I’m quite certain we may have gotten lost on the way down.

Aside from the lights casting out from a few shops along the way, it was pure darkness with only the stars shining so bright above us. We didn’t have a flashlight, instead we used the light from our mobile phones to lead the way back to the entrance of the siq, which took about 45 minutes. It was fantastic to walk through Petra at night, as we had the whole place to ourselves.

We saw this too.

We’re visiting the Giza Pyramids today.

A quick visit to the Blue Mosque, now it’s raining and we’re off to the hamam to wait it out.

Turkey is the size of Texas, and getting around the country means taking long bus rides. After our last overnight bus experience, we said never again… but we ended up taking another one. From Marmaris in the southwest to Goreme in central Turkey, the trip took 12 hours. The region is called Cappadocia, and is known for its unusual landscape, houses and churches carved from rock, and underground cities.

.

.
.

These are called the fairy chimney, which get its shape from erosion. The lower lighter colored rock is softer and erodes faster than the darker layer on top, leaving you astonished by nature.

.

.

.

.

This group of fairy chimneys are referred to as “the family.”
.

.

.

.

.
.

.

.

Although Cappadocia dates as far back as 1800BC, the early Christians between the 4th-11 centuries used the unique landscape to hide from religious persecution. Christianity flourished in this area, as they built clever stone houses and churches both into the mountainside and underground in an effort to conceal themselves from the Romans.

.

.

There are up to 36 underground cities in the region of Cappadocia, many of them yet to be excavated. We went to Derinkuyu and to Kaymakli. Here’s Mike in the underground city of Kaymakli, which goes down 8 stories deep. Standing straight up is not possible in all rooms or passageways.

There are two entrances to Pammukale, one is a two kilometer walk to the site, and the other one is only 250 meters. We decided to take the shorter south entrance, which somehow is less frequently used.  Right when you enter, there are man-made pools of water, but as you continue upwards there are more and more natural travertines; some filled with water and some are completely empty.  The stalactites and travertine pools are made from calcium carbonate deposits that come from the hot spring water as it cools.

The entire time we were climbing up, I kept saying to Mike, I don’t get it, how can they let people just walk all over these, don’t they know it will destroy the natural formation of the calcium deposits??

As far back as the Roman times, Pammukale, with its natural hot springs was considered therapeutic and was believed to have restorative powers.  By the 1980’s the hot springs started to dry up due to the hotels using the springs to fill their swimming pools.  In an effort to preserve the site, the hotels have been demolished, and a walkway has been created for the tourists.  Even now, the water flow is still minimal by comparison to what it originally was.

So it turns out we were supposed to walk along a path, which we didn’t see, and there was no one there to tell us.  And while we were enjoying ourselves taking pictures, wondering why more measures weren’t taken to preserve this beautiful site, we were trampling all over it.  I feel awful about this, especially because it’s one of my favorite things I’ve seen.  It was so pretty.  The ridge-like texture of the calcium deposits are so organic and tactile.  And nothing compares to the pale blue water reflecting off the white calcium deposits.