Where in the World are Dave and Elizabeth?

 Our first stop in Namibia was Lüderitz. You probably know that the country is almost all desert. One side of the town faces the ocean and has a little bit of greenery.  The top of the main hill in the town has a breeze and a few palm trees, and the eastern edge of Lüderitz leads into barren dunes.  The town was charming.  The streets were wide and clean. It was a Sunday, so most people seemed to be in the. historic churches or at home.  The shops closed at noon. Dave got a haircut, and the barber walked us up the main hill to a lovely restaurant. The windows of the restaurant were open and a breeze from the sea swept through it.  From there. We sailed to Walvis Bay.  We stopped by a beach to see the many flamingos that live there.  We drove into the desert.   This plant is a Welwitschia Mirabilis. While this one is about 200 years old, they generally live to be about 1,000 years old.  It’s thought that a few might even have lived to be 2,000 years old. They are found only in the Namib

 This is our last port before home, which is bittersweet. (I still have some catch up blogging to do, including pictures of the centuries old plant in Namibia’s desert.) We didn’t arrive in port until 2:00 PM or so. We took a late afternoon bus excursion to visit a few of San Juan’s sights. Despite the fact that everyone speaks Spanish, We can tell we are back in the States; there are Walgreen’s here. Lol.  The KFC we passed as we rode around town is no evidence.  As I mentioned in an earlier post, that chain is everywhere in the world. Across from the capitol building in San Juan, there are statues of American presidents who have visited San Juan in office.  This is a likeness of President Obama. The statue with the raised hand is Eisenhower. This is one of the few beaches in San Juan with public access. Historic cemetery next to the sixteenth century Fort San  Filipe del Morro (El Morro) El Morro was built to protect San Juan from attacks by sea. This second fort, Castillo San Cristo

 I finally have a chance to blog about Cape Town, South Africa. It’s impossible to pick just one place as the most beautiful in the world, but, if you could, the areas along the Chapman’s Peak route from Cape Town to Africa’s tip would have to be a contender.  The day after Dave and I rejoined the ship (after the safari to Thanda), we climbed on a bus for a day exploring the Cape Point, the Cape of Good Hope, a beach where penguins live, and Cape Town’s Botanical Garden.   It took us about an hour to an hour and a half to reach Cape Point. (Along the way, we passed Michael Jackson’s  former mansion.)  At Cape Point, we took a funicular train to the top of a mountain to see an old lighthouse.  The view of the mountains and the sea was amazing.  From Cape Point, we went on to Cape of Good Hope.  We traveled to Boulder’s Beach and surrounding beaches to eat lunch and view everyone’s favorite tuxedo wearing birds. It was interesting to see native palm trees and a native species of penguins