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Day 4, May 26 – Johannesburg to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
As I type I’m sitting in the Aspire Lounge at JNB – Johannesburg airport, in the international terminal, waiting to board our flight to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. We had a little scare when we got to check-in and realized my duffel bag was missing. Did I really leave it in the car? Did it fall off? Was that security guard who was being helpful really a distraction to steal something? All these thoughts raced through our heads as we made our way back to the rental car to discover an empty trunk. WTF? “Is everything OK?” we were asked. We announced the missing bag. “Is this it?” Somehow – early on – it had fallen off the trolley and we hadn’t noticed it. They picked it up and put it in this little rack at the intersection in the parking garage. Disaster averted.

We both slept 8 hours without interruption and woke up about 5:30am. I got the blog up over coffee in the room, we packed up and went over for breakfast around 7:30am.

They had a fresh waffle station that I had avoided all week but promised myself I would do on the last day. With Chantilly cream and strawberries! It was worth the wait. Ash ordered the smoked salmon scramble again.

And they presented us with a special chocolate mousse to kick off our handfasting anniversary. You can google all about it if you’re interested, but the version we are honoring each year is a simple commitment for “a year and a day” and we decided our tradition would be new rings and in a new location every year.

We left the hotel at 8:30am. It’s now approaching 10:30am and I’m sitting comfortably in the lounge while Ash gets some steps in. At this moment I was the only one there, and a few more came in later.

I wanted to capture a few thoughts about Johannesburg before too much more time passed.
1. I literally had zero expectations about this trip. People would say “you must be so excited” and I’d be like “yeah, sure” because while on some level I was, on other levels I really hadn’t put that much thought into it beyond what to pack. Managing expectations I think, which is my normal habit. So, my statement that I was blown away and expectations were far exceeded is based on that – I was imagining the worst and experienced everything but.
2. The Four Seasons is a world-class 5-star hotel. This was only my 2nd time experiencing that, my first being the Conrad in Istanbul in 2017. If you’ve never done it, I highly recommend it at least once. The quality of the accommodations and the level of service provided will blow your mind. And, in both cases, it was so much sweeter that the stays were done for essentially free. Our bill at the end of 4 nights here was about $300 – which included 3 high end meals, tips for breakfast otherwise included, and laundry service. Chase points to the rescue again! Otherwise, the retail on these rooms is like $800/night.
3. Ash had really downplayed Johannesburg, but I think even he enjoyed it more than his first time here. For a variety of reasons, it’s not first on traveler’s list when it comes to places to go – Cape Town has that reputation, which is where we will end the trip. But for folks like me for whom history is important, it was a great place to start. My experience here explained so much of what had always been confusing to me. (White people governing an African country? What?? How does that happen?) And the people here are So Nice. Everywhere We Went. Seriously. It exceeds our experience in Costa Rica where we experienced something similar, but this was even more than that. Perhaps it’s because freedoms were fought hard for and then the country redesigned to support those freedoms for Everyone ongoing. As an example – South Africa is the only country in Africa where same-sex marriages are legal. In fact, at our next stop in Zimbabwe homosexuality is illegal, with a penalty of 1-10 years imprisonment. Which is still better than other countries where the penalty is death. So, the feel to everything here in SA is, I imagine, entirely different than we would have anywhere else on the continent. No fear about being who we are. Which is sort of the definition of freedom, is it not? We don’t even get that everywhere in the USA.
4. The infrastructure was impressive in some ways and surprisingly lacking in others. Our cell phones connected right up when we landed and have worked everywhere without a problem except maybe some of the remote places we were yesterday. Yet there’s this very normal electric thing here called “load-shedding” – the practice of shutting electricity down in order to keep things from blowing. It happened at the restaurant last night and what was noticeable was how unnoticeable it was – no one gasped or even blink, it was a completely full restaurant, and everyone just kept talking like nothing was happening and then a few second later the lights came back on. This happens several times a day and no one thinks anything of it. There’s even a little card explaining it in the hotel; of course, the Four Seasons has generators that kick in right away, so the experience is even more mild there.
We had an 11:30am flight that was just about 100 minutes in the air, so were surprised that we were served little sandwiches as a snack. And good thing because that was all we had until dinner at 7pm. The plane landed on the tarmac, and we had a little walk to the airport.

Ash said this airport has expanded a lot since he was here the first time in 2015. It was just the portion on the rest, which is now just for domestic flights. We were headed to the far right.

Getting through Zimbabwe customs – for reasons mentioned above – was the thing about this trip I was most worried about. This is Ash celebrating us flying through without any problems.

Here’s a little video you don’t want to miss: Ash joining the little tribal dance that welcomed us as we were leaving the airport.

We met up with 4 others who will be on this safari with us who were on the same flight – two couples from the Houston area and seems like they will be fun. We were taken to our hotel about 20km away in this van.

This is where we are staying for tonight.

This is the main entrance. Love the thatch roof.

We are only here for one night and won’t have time to use the pool but it makes for a nice photo!

There are 2 rooms to each little building, at least in this row. Ash is about to enter ours. That’s Mike and Debbie from Houston, they are in the one next over. You will probably be seeing a lot of them and their friends, Jim and Sheryl.

Pretty nice. When we got back before dinner, they had put mosquito net up all around the bed.

You didn’t think we’d be camping, did you? Nice bathroom above and below.

On the drive over, one of the hotel workers in the van arranged for a helicopter ride over the falls for all 6 of us. We’d gotten to the lodge about 2:15 and were ready to go by 3. Note: this was completely spontaneous, Ash and I had never discussed doing this until it came up in the van ride. I’d never been in a helicopter before, but he did this one when he was here in 2015. (By the way – he says it has grown and improved significantly – the whole area that is, not the helicopter ride…)

This was the helicopter station. We had to get weighed and walked through some do’s and don’ts. And of course, pay. ($175/person if you’re curious. In Vegas or NYC these are like $400/$500 per.)

Ash and I got in this little one. The other 4 went in a bigger one. I sat in front!

Our first good approach of the falls. It’s breathtaking in a way that’s hard to describe.

I can’t believe how well these videos turned out. I took them just with my iPhone. It doesn’t even look real. But we were there! (And I don’t know why WordPress forces all this white space after the video….)

OK so I culled a LOT of the photos and videos I took – although I still did a nice job of balancing capturing it with being present for it. It was a 15-minute ride and we made 3 maybe 4 loops so there were lots of opportunities for both. But I’m just going to post and let them speak for themselves. Words don’t work at times like these anyway.

Make note of that bridge you keep seeing. We walked it later in the afternoon.

The workers at the station took this on my own phone as I was getting out; same with Ash. They’d taken a bunch of videos of us and had a whole presentation at the end – with stock footage of the falls in between – for just $40, but we declined. We didn’t even stay to watch it. We’d seen the one they showed the other 2 couples – who declined also – so knew what we were missing. And knew we had our own good photos and videos!

Ash had the driver pass up the turn to the hotel just to drop us closer to the bridge! We had to get a pass at customs to ensure we could return easy. Victoria Falls is created by the Zambezi River which divides Zimbabwe from Zambia.

It’s a take-all-comer bridge: pedestrians, vehicles, and trains. One of the few in the world.

If you look closely, you can see the double rainbow.

Midway through the bridge you are put on notice that you are entering Zambia. If you actually cross all the way you may have to pay for a Zimbabwe visa to get back in! (We had to pay $60 total at the airport…)

The opening is a little weird (I need to learn to crop video!) but if you hang in there you’ll see 3 rainbows.

We crossed to the other side for a bit just to get the other view. The helicopter pilot said it’s their own little Grand Canyon, runs for 100s of miles.

As we walked back, we encountered some wild monkeys. The ones in the video below are adorable.

Of course, we saw this AFTER taking the video of the monkeys :) At any rate, when the National Geographic leader – Gail – said the hotel wanted us to take a cab to dinner because it will be dark and there could be animals out, we heeded that message. “When people ask, ‘do elephants really walk down the street in Africa?’, HERE the answer is ‘yes, yes they do.’”

We got back to our room around 5:30pm, just enough time for both of us to shower and meet Gail and the rest of the tour group at 6pm. We had a briefing until 6:30pm then ordered some things from some local vendors which we’ll talk about when we get them. For your purposes, the most important thing we learned is that we should have some Wi-Fi access for the first 6 days or so of the trip, but for the 3 days we are in the Okavango Delta towards the end we won’t have any.

We had made dinner reservations at the Victoria Falls hotel because it had nice ratings on TripAdvisor. We figured we’d be spending lots of time with our tour group and wanted to have a final night to ourselves.

The restaurant was called Stanley’s Terrace so of course we were outside. We could hear the falls from here but of course it was too dark to see anything.

We started with several different kinds of breads and spreads. We agreed the hummus on the far right was our favorite, although the green one next to it was a close 2nd for me.

I had a chilled avocado soup with garlic and cream. It was terrific.

Ash had a salmon teriyaki salad which he said was incredible.

It was a beautiful hotel – this was from the back yard which butt up against the Falls.

Ash had a white fish he’d never had before – we don’t recall the name – which he said was good but not great. The vegetables were excellent though.

I had steak again which was great, and the baked potato that was sliced thin and crispy on the outside was amazing.

We had a lovely conversation reviewing the last year – what we liked, what we would change; and about the year coming up.

And renewed our commitment for another year and a day, and exchanged new rings shown above. Note: this has nothing to do with our legal marriage, it’s just something we want to build a tradition around. We’ll see where we end up for it next year!

We shared a simple dessert of a brownie with candied cashews and vanilla ice cream. A classic ending to an incredible day.

We got back to our room around 9pm and I decided to post the blog tonight. We have an early start tomorrow and I may not have any other time. Gail said to expect early and full days so my writing may get a little sketchy from here on out. We’ll just see how it all goes.

But you have to admit, this one was amazing, right? This is why we travel.
May 26, 2023
Day 3, May 25 – Cradle of Humankind, Hartbeespoort Aerial Cableway

My jet lag continued into the 3rd night, being wide awake again after just 3 hours. I was able to finally go back to sleep after an hour for another 4 so that was better. As of this moment – waking up after the 4th night – I feel great: 8 hours without interruption, waking up at a reasonable 5:30am. So hopefully I’m good for the rest of the trip. Ash adjusted as soon as he got here for the most part. He’d been in Paris for 4 weeks and then DC for just one before coming back to the same time zone Paris is in.

Having lost Monday to travel I keep forgetting what day it is. Yesterday was Thursday, May 25. We got our earliest start yet. I had the blog up by 7am and we made it over to breakfast about 7:45.

I just had food from the hot buffet: scrambled eggs, mushrooms and pork-n-beans – which I only seem to eat when I travel – and saugage and bacon.

Ash ordered a frittata off the menu which he couldn’t fiinish for the most surprising reason: the chilies they used were too hot for him. And he likes hot!

We split a couple of pastries and I had that yogurt and muesli mix.

We left about 9am and made our way to the Cradle of Humankind, about an hour northwest of Joburg. I’d heard of this before but didn’t realize it was this close until we were at the Apartheid Museum the day before and it was mentioned in the first exhibit – that walk with all the mirrors. We decided then we were going to do it. It’s both a museum and a region that’s rich with fossil finds of the earliest homo sapiens and the versions that came before, homo habilis and Australopithecus, that latter of which dates back over 3 million years ago. It is believed that homo ergaster (pre homo sapien, which is us), moved out of Africa and into Europe and Asia around 1.5 million years ago – hence the birthplace of humankind.

And completely by accident, we stumbled across a celebration of May 25 being Africa Day, which is celebrated across the continent and had a special gathering at this location today – including a visit from the South Africa President. We encountered this little parade which started at the museum and then into parking lots where tents were set up with a stage, TV cameras, booths for food and selling of wares, etc, were all set up.

We stood here and watched as all of these different representations of different African regions came by in full costume.

More parade above, and a little video of it below courtesy of Ash.

We followed the parade up util the point where you had to be wearing a wristband to get in. We’d thought it was strange how many police we kept seeing as we approached the entrance, and then they stopped our car at a registration desk and then finally waived us on when they learned we were just visiting the museum. But we had no idea what was going on at that point so it finally all made sense later. We ran into these lovely women as we started to make our way back to the museum and they allowed a photo.

This is the museum, much of it below ground level. This region also has caves which have some of the earliest drawings ever discovered which we’d also planned on but they were closed due to flooding.

The museum is definitely designed to be kid-friendly – both in display and tone, which makes total sense. And for most of our visit we were following a group of local students, maybe 8 years old. They were loud :) Ash, above, participating in one of the exhibits.

This is a skeleton of Australopithecus which I’d mentioned earlier. I’ll admit that if I’d heard all these names before, they didn’t sound familar. But I found this pretty interesting. Notice how long the arms are. These guys were tree climbers.

There was a little boat ride through a tunnel that neither of us could figure out the point of exactly other than the kids probably enjoyed it.

The rest of the museum was pretty dark and didn’t photograph well, and was lots and lots more of tracing roots and elaborating on progression humans made through fire, tools, agriculture, language, etc. And pointing out how the species evolved with the brain size increasing through each version which facilitated the more complex thinking.

When we exited, we were treated to this beautiful vista, which was a nice change after an hour in darkness.

Along the way to our next stop, Ash pulled over to get a fresh charcoal roasted corn cob.

This is a norm in India as well. It was good!

We made our way to Hartbeespoort, a town that’s built around a lake and has lots of recreational things to do. We opted for the aeiral cablecar that took us about 6000 feet up. The mountain range here is called Magaliesburg.

The lake is pretty dry at this point as the rainy season is June to August so it will fill up again soon. But still beautiful from up here.

Awful requisite selfie with the sun directly in my eyes. I don’t know why I didn’t have my sunglasses on!

A loop went around the top of the mountain and little panels explained what you could be seeing (if it wasn’t so hazy) out in the distance. Lots of little towns and interesting facts here and there.

There were a couple of different restaurants and lots of different indoor and outdoor seating options.

We shared a pizza – margherita with mushrooms added. It was pretty tasty and hit the spot.

This building housed the cable car, a restaurant there behind the windows, and a day spa below. We were headed there to see if they had pedicures. They did, and at a ridiculous price – what turned out to be less than $50 including tip for both of us, which is less than we pay at home. (And significantly less than what the Four Seasons wanted, which was more than double what we pay at home!)

So with that we were here until just after 4pm and made our way back to Joburg. We hit some traffic and got in about 5:30pm. We confirmed that we would go out again for dinner, made reservations and left again by 6pm.

We went to an Indian restaurant, Ghazal, which was #2 on TripAdvisor’s list of restaurants in Joburg. [I’m slightly amused that WordPress recognizes Joburg – how Johannesburg is referred to by the locals; I was expecting a spellcheck for sure but no red underline!]

We ordered what we normally would get at home to compare. It was good, although probably our favorite place in San Francisco is a little better. I kept commenting on how the entire restaurant was filled with white people – Ash was the only Indian in the place – so that tells you something. But Joburg has a fairly large Indian population so we thought it would be pretty good. And it was: chicken tikka masala and aloo ghobi – cauliflower and potatoes. And of course, garlic naan

And that ends the Joburg portion of our adventure. We will head to the airport today about 8:30am to catch our 11:30am flight to Victoria Falls, where we pick up the National Geographic 10 day safari. We were looking at the accommodations last night and they look pretty nice, but still don’t have any idea whether or not Wi-Fi will be available. So, we will see you when we see you. Either way I’ll be sure to return with lots of photos.

May 25, 2023
Day 2, May 24 – Johannesburg: Apartheid Museum, Constitution Hill, Victoria Yards

Tuesday night was the 2nd night here and that’s traditionally the worst from a jet lag perspective. The first night I’m usually so tired I can sleep through easily. The 2nd is the struggle and from there it gets pretty normal. Well this was the night. I woke up once feeling like I’d been asleep for hours. It was just 11pm, and I’d gone to bed at 9:30. So when I woke up again I felt rested and thought for sure it was like 6am. Nope. 2am. Oh well. Having realized it was night 2 and this was normal, I leaned into it. I did some reading, listened to my audio book (Conversation with Good, Book 2, Neale Donald Walsch), played games on my phone, did some yoga and meditation, and by about 4am started on the blog. All on just water. By 6:15pm I decided I didn’t care if I woke up Ash, I was making coffee. And that Nespresso machine is Loud. Oh well again. Coffee was just what I needed.

At about 6:50am I caught this beautiful sunrise over the hills and through the trees.

I was done with the blog and moved to the balcony to do my final proof from my phone – another ritual. It was about 50 degrees so crisp but beautiful. Fall is lovely here.

This is the view from the far end of the balcony to my left. That glass tower is essentially an elevator, taking you to the 2 restaurants I mentioned in the prior entry. You can see just how close it is to our room. Literally around the corner.

Ash got up about 7:30 and we made our way out to breakfast about 8:15am. I started with some fruit and what I thought was yogurt when I picked it up. Turns out it was a fruit smoothie, which explains the huge straw.

Ash ordered a salmon benedict off the menu.

I ordered what they called a South African breakfast. When in Rome. It was incredible. Underneath those eggs are a hunk of steak, same quality as I had at dinner the other night; a very crispy hash brown patty, some pork-n-beans, and mushrooms. With avocado on the side. It was terrific.

I finished off with a couple of pastries. That pecan cinnamon roll was maybe the best I’ve ever had.

The day before was very cloudy most of the day, and Wednesday everything looked very different. This was a view we passed between the elevator and the restaurant every time, but it’s been dark (sun sets at like 5:30pm) or gloomy so this really caught my attention.

We were pretty lazy this morning really feeling the jet lag and finally got on with our day around 10:30am.

First stop, the Apartheid Museum. Ash kept saying “I can’t believe you didn’t know about this.” Me: “I was pretty much drunk in the 80s and wasn’t paying attention to much of anything.” I mean, I had a vague understanding of who Nelson Mandela was, but certainly didn’t understand the details. So just in case, like me, you haven’t paid a bunch of attention to international news in your life for whatever reason, I’ll start with a little history.

Remember the Dutch colonists I talked about in the prior entry, from the Voortrekkers Monument? I had an uneasy feeling about all of it the entire time we were there, and it was hard to put my finger on. I have mostly caught up on overviews of international politics since I’ve been sober, at least enough to recognize that there was something about the tour guide’s pitch that, as informative as it was, felt it a little off. I never really got the sense that she had a sense that there was anything wrong with what they did. By the time that monument was completed in 1949, the Dutch colonists, now known here as Afrikaners, had come into minority power and instituted Apartheid: a system of radical segregation to keep non-whites separate from whites and ultimately to ensure that they would never have any power because the Afrikaners knew that, if non-whites could vote for example, the numbers would be so large the white minority would never have any power again.

The parallels I kept seeing between this history and what’s going on at home were quite disturbing.

At any rate, this museum tells the story of the period of Apartheid, from 1948 until 1990 when Nelson Mandela, a resistance leader, was released from prison as one who had been imprisoned for no other reason than breaking laws related to apartheid (as opposed to theft, rape, murder, etc). There was still lots of unrest – the period from 1990 to 1994 saw more deaths in the struggle than in all the years before it combined – until he was elected President during the first fully democratic election in 1994.

With that background, on with the show.

Four pillars, some covered by trees, but each with one word on them: Democracy, Equality (you can just see the shadow of it really), Reconciliation, Diversity.

Three more pillars: Responsibility, Respect, Freedom. One of the first things you see upon entering the museum is a sign labeled “Pillars of the Constitution” and you understand what you just saw in the parking lot. This constitution “contains guarantees of equality more extensive than anywhere else in the world.” I believe it. Ash and I keep talking about how you can feel it in the people. Everyone here is so happy, friendly, and easy to be with. We have been thoroughly welcomed everywhere we go.

“To be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” Nelson Mandela.

Boy, we could use some more of that attitude back in the States, eh?

The tickets you received randomly came out as White or Non-white and the entrance was labeled that way as well. Apartheid was law from 1948 – 1990 and they wanted you to get a feel for how it was. So, the first 75 feet or so of the exhibit segregated you and you had a different experience on the other side. Ash took the white and I took the non-white. When we talked about it after there wasn’t a ton of difference in the exhibits themsevles, the curators are just making a point. And we got it.

This first part of the exhibit was all outside, had these interesting figures in mirrors, and little exhibits inside the brick walls on the right that sort of gave the history of humankind, reminding you that we all come from the African ancestors. It gave a very short synopsis of the African experience once European colonists started to arrive, and the struggles that ensued as everyone fought for the same resources: land and water.

The mirrors were trippy. Here you could see everything behind you from the mirror. But on the other side you saw the front of this woman.

At the end of this walk was a panoramic view of downtown Johannesburg, as a reminder of how much of the struggle occurred here. They pointed out that Soweto – an acronym for southwest townships – was behind us, a neighborhood that had a significant role in apartheid for several reasons, including being the one-time home of Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu.

From here you finally entered the museum itself. Photos weren’t allowed in the museum, both a blessing and a curse. We were there about 2.5 hours I think, I wasn’t paying close attention to the time. It was very impactful and we had interesting conversations throughout. There were a couple of movies that we really enjoyed. One was just 15 minutes and it did a sweep of history from about 2500 years ago until 1948 when Apartheid began, to give you an understanding of how it all came to be. That was just as you entered. Another much later in the exhibit covered the struggles from the 80s which is when things really started to turn.

And how things started to turn is very much related to Soweto. The schools there taught history as it actually was and encouraged political activism in the students. In 1976, the government instituted a policy requiring that all education be delivered in Afrikaans (what the Dutch Afrikaners spoke) rather than native languages. This led to the Soweto Uprising, protests in this township on June 16, 1976, that were heard around the world. This was the moment the proverbial genie was out of the bottle and couldn’t be put back in.

We drove to Soweto with the intention of seeing the Mandela and Tutu houses and maybe have a little lunch. We entered an area of abject poverty the likes of which we don’t really see in the US. If you’ve seen the movie Slumdog Millionaire, it was just like that. As we approached the street that had everything on it, we encountered a bunch of young men trying to scam you for parking and who knows what else, very reminiscent of our experience at the national park in Costa Rica in November. While we didn’t feel unsafe exactly, it did sort of take the wind out of us and we ended up just driving around the neighborhood a bit and then moved on. We headed into downtown.

Random goats stopping traffic.

These guys had just crossed the street and their buddy in the prior photo couldn’t decide what he wanted to do I guess!

A little bit of downtown. It’s actually pretty big, probably 3-4x what you see here.

We were headed to Constitution Hill. This is an old fort and prison which was established in the late 1800s by the Dutch and used, among other things, to protect against the British, then later turned into a government facility and, most famously, being where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned in 1962.

It has since been turned into a complex of museums, restaurants and other activities. The inscription at the bottom of this large statue of a little girl is a Mandela quote: “Our children are the rock on which our future will be built. Our greatest asset as a nation will be the leaders of our country, the creators of our national wealth who will care for and protect our people.”

This sign indicates all of the different exhibits spread over the complex. We were really just interested in food at the moment so moved in the direction of the Food, I Love You Kitchen.

Our path took us through some barracks type buildings. What we didn’t know at the moment we entered was the building on the right was where Mandela was housed.

The entrance to the kitchen at the end of that path. As we were walking I’d noticed what looked like a security guard standing at the top of the wall – see the red circle – although I thought the uniform looked strange compared to what we’d been seeing. As I got closer, I realized it was just a silhouette of one. But for me at least it landed the creepy factor I assume was intended.

This little restaurant is done in the old prison kitchen. Holy repurposing, Batman!

The sign stated that this was the only place where black and white prisoners met, but they were treated differently. Black prisoners didn’t receive milk, bread or jam, and were given roughly 140g of protein four times a week. White prisoners got about 200g of meat every day, and of course milk, bread and jam.

Meet Timba, who greeted us at the door and took care of us while we were here.

Lunch is essentially an “all you can eat” buffet paid for by the pound.

It wasn’t very big but was comfortable.

We had a quinoa spinach salad, fresh tomato salsa, charred green beans with a little spicy red pepper which was amazing, and cauliflower roasted in turmeric. Everything was very fresh and tasted great.

And a tiny loaf of banana bread!

From there we went to Victora Yards about 10 minutes away, a collection of artisan shops and restaurants in old warehouse looking buildings. As you can see from the list it’s huge, we entered top left and saw about 1/3 of it, mostly along the bottom of this map.

Throughout the complex in between the buildings were herb and vegetable gardens which were well cared for.

We stopped in this African art shop (is that redundant?) and bought a couple of things to take home: an egg for Ash (if you’ve been in our dining room you know he collects these) and a pillow case, something that’s become a bit of a tradition for us.

There was a huge vegetable garden in the back.

We made our way back to the hotel and decided, once again, to stay there for dinner. But we did promise ourselves it would be the last time. We’ll see if we stick to that tonight!

We walked over to the restaurant so Ash could give them a hard time about being out of salmon the prior two nights. They indicated that, once again, they would be out, but said they’d try to make something special for us. While Ash was kibitzing with them, I took advantage of the daylight – it was about 4pm and the sun would set around 5:30 – and finally got some photos of the rest of the restaurant that’s always in the dark. I don’t think I realized you could see downtown from here.

This section of the restaurant hasn’t been used in the evening despite all the set tables.

A little infinity pool underneath the deck.

We went back to the room. I worked on the blog and Ash got caught up on phone calls. He’s got people helping him with all of the Airbnb work while he’s traveling so he can have a teeny sense of vacation – he never really gets a day off – but it’s still helpful to check in here and there.

We went back for dinner around 6:45. They put us in a different – and quieter – section of the restaurant that we liked better than where we’d been the prior 2 nights.

Although tempted to get the springbok carpaccio again, I decided on something different: bone marrow. Once they brought it out I’d remembered I have had it before although don’t remember where. There’s not much to it really, certainly won’t fill you up, but it’s interesting and tastes great. Ash had the lobster bisque again.

And a surprise: somewhat encouraged by Ash’s prompting, they made a special trip out to find salmon for that evening. So of course, that’s what Ash had.

I had the same steak I had the first night and it was just as good.

For dessert we split a chocolate torte, very dense, with some Nutella gelato.

And that was our day. Very full but we had a great time. Today will be another full day, our last in Johannesburg. Mostly we will be outside of it, planning on seeing some things outside the city. You’ll have to come back to see how it goes!

May 24, 2023
2023 Africa: Day 1, May 23 – Pretoria

We both slept well into Tuesday morning, getting up around 7:30am. That was a good 9 hours for me which is very unusual and a little more for Ash. We had coffee in the room – good coffee! – and Ash went to the gym while I continued with the good coffee and got the blog up. He got back just as I posted it and we went down for breakfast.

The restaurant we had dinner at is just around the corner from our building. This hotel is set up as a complex of smaller buildings as opposed to one big one. At any rate, it’s an easy walk and breakfast is served in a different place just above the dinner restaurant.

Ash is at the waffle station although neither of us got one. This area also had cereals, fruit, pastries, yogurt, cold cuts, etc. To my right was all the hot food with eggs, hash browns, and several kinds of meat.

Ash got those hash browns along with grilled tomatoes, nuts, cheese, cherries, and crackers.

I had scrambled eggs, 3 kinds of sausage (chicken, pork, beef), hash browns. That’s a lemon croissant and, much to my surprise, was filled with a lemon creme. It was almost too sweet for dessert; when I picked it up I thought the lemon was just on the outside. And a simple scone.

Ash also had them make him something off the menu – scrambled eggs with salmon, and came with a bit of caviar.

This was our view for breakfast. You can see the Fall in the trees. In May. Trippy.

We ventured out about 10:30. Our first stop was a shopping center Ash had learned about that had a jewelry store he wanted to check out.

It was called Oriental Plaza although here I think that word has a different context.

We came across Sheraz Jewellers right away, tucked away in that corner. We found what we were looking for quickly, Ash haggled the guy until he got the price he wanted – a process that always makes me a little uncomfortable but I’m getting used to it.

We walked around a bit but didn’t see much we needed to look at. In general, we’re not big shoppers unless there’s something specific we already have in mind.

From there we went to Pretoria, about a 40 minute drive north. Pretoria is the administrative capital of South Africa, serving as the seat of the executive branch of government, and host to all foreign embassies. Population is about 750k.

We started at Freedom Park, a cultural institution which has a museum and memorial dedicated to chronicling and honoring all who contributed to South Africa’s liberation. We bought tickets at the museum, the worker there encourage us to drive a bit and catch a guided tour that had just started, which we did. The park is pretty big and there are quite a few outdoor exhibits in addition to the museum, which we never made it back to! We met up with the tour – just the guide and 3 others, all family members – here, at an exhibit called Eternal Flame. You can’t really see it in this photo – the yellowish dot in the dark under the roof past the water feature. At any rate, it commemorates all those who died in the years of struggle for South African liberation.

This was what was behind me from the shot above it, almost like concrete bleachers built into the hillside.

This exhibit was called Isivivane, which in Zulu literally means piles of stones. It’s an African concept that promotes the spirit of togetherness among people in society. This particular exhibit is “a spiritual place for those who sacrificed their lives during the struggles for freedom and humanity in South Africa, inclusive of all faiths, religions and belief systems, all South Africans are invited to celebrate their shared spirituality and heritage here.”

The guide gave us lots of info about the meaning behind this exhibit. There are 11 boulders: 1 for each of the 9 provinces, 1 representing indigenous South Africans, and one representing help from other nations. I bet he talked about this for at least 15 minutes but that’s about as much as I remember!

Same but from a different angle. It’s a beautiful spot. That tree is an acacia, and way in the back you can see a waterfall coming over a wall.

We were on a hill and looking out over it was this building, something we’d seen from the highway. It was so interesting looking we looked it up: It’s the University of South Africa. That would explain Nelson Mandela’s face on the wall.

Ash didn’t want to take off his shoes, which was required to walk around by the exhibit. When I was done I found him relaxing above another pretty water feature.

From there the guide took us to another spot built for the purpose of reflection. It had a beautiful enclosed pool with an interesting sculpture in it. Ash sitting on a rock pretending to meditate.

From there we went to the walls of names – many, many names of folks who have died in some conflict or another, dating back to the early 1700’s.

You can see the walls here on the right, in the middle, on the left – and some further out and behind me not shown. LOTS of names. It was a little overwhelming.

We were there about 90 minutes without even going into the museum and decided that was enough. We were offered a beuatiful view of downtown Pretoria on the way back to the car.

From there we went to Voortrekkers Monument which was essentially across the freeway from where we were. Voortrekkers is the name given to a large group of Dutch colonists who left the Cape Colony – what eventually would become Cape Town – during the first half of the 1800’s to flee the British. The Dutch had been there since the 1652 via colonization by the Dutch East India company. The British moved in and started taking over around 1802, and by 1836 “the great trek” began, with the Dutch moving north.

It was about 2:30pm at this point and we got a bite to eat at a little place in this complex. Notice the language, which is Afrikaans, a somewhat native language that evolved from Dutch. It’s spoken by about 20 million people in South Africa, Botswana and other neighboring countries.

The nice boys who worked there translated everything on the menu for us! I ended up with chicken, mayo and cheese toasted in these bread pockets. It was way better than it had any right to be – like a hot chicken salad sandwich. And those French fries were delicious – crispy and soft in all the right places.

Ash had what they called chicken strips, but they were grilled not deep fried, in something resembling a bbq sauce.

Above and below are some gardens around the parking lot that I thought were especially pretty.

There were quit a few steps up to the monument. You can see Ash up at the top in his Rocky pose.

Requisite selfie.

I asked Ash to go stand in front of it for perspective. Without him standing there you might think that statue was life-sized but no, it’s pretty big. The whole building is essentially a cube of 40 meters.

This hall is where you enter and where we spent most of our time. The point of it is are the sculptures that line it all along the walls. The guide there walked us through each panel, which details the history of the trekkers. It was quite a story, with quite a bit of death as you can imagine, and conflicts with local tribes, especially the Matabele and Zulu. It’s a bit ironic to me that they were fleeing British rule (who didn’t?) but no sense of acknowledgement that perhaps this wasn’t where they were supposed to be. Which is not at all different from what happened in America, either. Anyway, it gives you a lot to think about, or it did me, anyway. This photo, by the way, was taken after we walked the 196 steps to the top.

And were treated with another lovely view of Pretoria, this time with Freedom Park in it – that’s the hill right of center.

The sub level was a museum of sorts with some artifacts from the trek. The block in the middle – which you could see from the very top as well – represents a tomb but no one is buried there; just a way of acknowledging all those who died along the way.

This huge bible was included in her story, 100s of years old. That’s Ash’s fist to try to give it some perspective but it didn’t really work – its size it not quite captured here.

There were also many beautiful paintings done by local artists – and they were for sale – most of African landscapes and animals. Examples above and below.

It was about 4:15pm and we were done.

We made our own trek back to our hotel and were happy that rush hour traffic was all headed in the opposite direction, as reflected above.

Ash went to the gym again to get more steps in while I started on the blog. We met up about 6:15 in the steam room and relaxed there a bit before heading to dinner.

We were lazy and the prior night’s dinner at the hotel restaurant was so good we decided to just go back rather than venture out again. They presented the same break basket, although this time the hummus mixture was with beets not carrots. Still yummy, maybe moreso.

I enjoyed the springbok carpaccio so much I got it again.

Ash had the lobster bisque, which they had been out of the night before. He’d been counting on this all day so I’m glad they had it. He said it was the best he’s ever had.

I had pork belly, that red sauce is like a bbq sauce. Over spicy bok choy and fried rice with eggs and mushrooms.

Ash had chicken and truffles with mashed potatoes.

He’d asked them to substitue the mashed potatoes for the potatoes I had last night but they brought him a whole side of them instead. I had one of these; just as good as the night before, maybe the best way I’ve ever had potatoes prepared. I’m generally not a huge potato fan (French fries aside) but this preparation is pretty special.

We split a “crunchie creme brulee.” The crunchy was this odd cookie like thing that really tasted like burnt marshmallow. But there was also some chocolate and ice cream and fruit of some kind and a flower. Lots going on here! It was a fun dish.

So, remember when we got here they had given us a bottle of wine? When we were being seated at the restaurant we walked by the bar and that reminded Ash about it. He mentioned it to the hostess, who later came back and asked if it was OK to enter our room. Of course. So, when we got back the wine had been replaced with a bottle of sparkling grape juice. We decided that would make a nice photo with the new rings we bought this morning, if you remember our stop at the jewelers. One of the reasons for the timing of this trip is it will be time for our “handfasting” commitment. It’s based on an old Celtic tradition where a couple commits to each other for “a year and a day” and then, according to the tradition, you could choose to part ways with no questions asked. We first did that on May 24, 2021. And again, in Salbris, France, last year on May 25. This year we will do it on May 26 in Victoria Falls. We decided that each year we’d do it in a new place with new rings. Last year’s rings we bought in Paris. And these are the rings we bought for this year. So far total on all 4 rings we’ve spent less than $200 so nothing extravagant about any of them. We just like the ritual and baking it into our love for travel.

Here’s a little memory from last year:

It’s now about 7am Wednesday morning; I’ve been up since 2am. It’s the traditional 2nd-night-of-the-trip-is-the-worst jet lag experience. So hopefully tonight will be better. Today we are going to the Apartheid Museum and to Soweto.

May 23, 2023
2023 Africa: Sacramento to Johannesburg via NYC

I left my house in Sacramento at 6:30pm Pacific time on Saturday and made it to Johannesburg at 6:30pm in that time zone on Monday evening. Minus the 9-hour time change that’s 39 hours, but a 14-hour layover in New York City made it all worthwhile.

I had a quick hop from Sacramento to SFO, a short layover, and then a direct flight to Newark. After collecting my bag and getting to the hotel shuttle, I made it to the Renaissance Hotel at the Newark airport where I met up with Ash by about 9:30am. This was the first time we’d seen each other since April 16. He’d been in Paris for 4 weeks – just hanging out with friends – and then in DC for the week before. #Zeusthetinylab was with him the whole time but will stay with friends in DC while we’re in Africa.

The hotel buffet was still open, so we got a little something to eat, I showered, we dropped our luggage at the front desk and made our way into NYC via Lyft.

We were meeting friends for brunch at a diner in Hell’s Kitchen. Traffic was gross and we told our Lyft driver to just pull over and we walked the last couple of blocks much faster. Turns out there was a street market happening which may have caused some of that traffic – a few blocks of 9th Ave starting at 42nd Street were closed for it.

This is Jonthan on the right, his spouse DeWayne on the left. If you’ve been following for a while, you met them in each of our last two NYC blogs, we make a point to connect with them whenever we’re in the city. Jonathan and I met at a conference in 2019 and have stayed friends ever since. They picked the spot, Westway Diner on 9th Ave between 43rd and 44th. This is an old school diner that serves it up just as you’d expect.

Photos of each couple that we took of each other while sitting there, above and below.

Ash had his standard, lox and bagel.

I had corned beef eggs benedict which was really good. The quality of the meat was just what I’d expect in a classic NYC diner.

The requisite photo of myself and Jonathan which DeWayne took…

…and snapped a selfie of him and Ash while he was at it.

We stopped by a CVS then said our goodbyes, each couple having a 3pm show to catch.

Ash and I were seeing Kimberly Akimbo at the Booth Theater on 45th Street between 7th and 8th Aves. We’d always regretted not seeing it on the January trip so were happy to make up for it. We bought tickets just before it was nominated for 8 Tony awards so also glad we got them cheaper than they are now! We were in the last top row, but as often occurs at these Broadway theaters, they’re so small that there really isn’t a bad seat in the house. The show is about a 16 year old girl with that rare aging disorder which has a left expectancy of 15-20 years. Original, thought-provoking, very funny with fun music and lyrics, we really enjoyed it and definitely recommend.

After the show we took an Uber back to the hotel to grab our luggage, and had the driver wait to then drop us at the airport. We had a little trouble checking me in because I’ve updated my passport since we got married – we took each other’s last names as middle names – but we made these plane reservations before that even and my ticket was in the old name. I had both passports with me – anticipating some trouble – so it all worked out was just a teeny bit stressful in the process. We made it to the lounge around 7pm and had time to grab something to eat before boarding for our 9pm flight to Johannesburg.

For a 15-hour flight in economy-plus, it was pretty comfortable and completely uneventful. We were both able to sleep some, me about 6 hours and Ash maybe 7 or 8. We landed around 6:30pm Johannesburg time.

The season here in the southern hemisphere is Fall with the cooler temps to prove it. It was 57 when we landed, is 46 degrees right now Tuesday morning. We leave on Friday so if the forecast holds it won’t get above 70 while we are here.

This was at the airport – I think after customs but before luggage. Printed on the platforms which the elephants are standing on were words encouraging photos so we couldn’t pass it up!

We got our luggage and our car, a Hyundai small SUV, without any problems.

I was initially surprised at first about the car having the steering wheel on the right side, until I remembered the history of British colonization here. It’s a manual transmission as well which Ash loves. Me not so much. Guess he’ll get to do all the driving. Darn.

We decided to use our Chase points for this trip and are staying at The Four Seasons. This is also an anniversary of sorts for us – 2 years – which I’ll talk more about later on the trip. And Ash had arranged for a special surprise around that. Yes, those are actual rose petals on the bed.

And on the coffee table along with a framed photo of us at our favorite coffee shop in Sacramento.

A bottle of wine which of course we won’t drink, but with a yummy tray of macaroons and other sweets with “Happy Anniversary” written on it in chocolate. We skipped dessert at dinner knowing we had this to come back to!

Sparking water, fresh fruit, and a hand-written card welcoming and congratulating “Mr. Gupta and Mr. Gupta”. Yet when I texted them with a question about Wi-Fi, they knew it was “Mr. Haas” somehow.

More rose petals all over the floor – it was the first thing I noticed when I walked in – even in the bathroom, and some in the tub, too! An impressive welcome for sure.

Being very tired at this point we just had dinner at the hotel restaurant. We sat indoor….

…but it has really nice outdoor seating as well.

A breadbasket to start, with a hummus and carrot spread, and a butter spread that was salted and included some kind of herb I couldn’t place but tasted great.

I had my first “when in Rome” dish of the trip: Springbok carpaccio. Spingbok is from the antelope family. This was a beautiful red meat that had a flavor all its own. If I had to pick its taste was closer to beef than deer but wasn’t gamey at all. Served with fresh greens, red sprouts that were spicy, a couple of types of baby mushrooms, and parmesan crisps. Every bite was super flavorful. A great start to the trip!

Ash had a grilled shrimp dish with an avocado salad.

Ash had sea bass for him main.

I had a rib-eye from locally grown grass-fed cows. This was one of the best pieces of beef I’ve had in a long time, perfectly cooked. But the star of the plate were those potatoes – what looks like a cube. Many thin layers of cooked potatoes somehow put together and fried crispy on the outside while remaining soft on the inside.

We were back to the room by about 9:30pm – a very late dinner for us – and in bed by 10:30pm probably.

We have 3 full days in Johannesburg before leaving for our safari and not a single thing on the calendar. So rare and so lovely to have such unstructured time. Johannesburg is the largest city in South Africa with about 15 million people so I’m guessing there’s one or two things to do. We just haven’t looked into it much yet. Will see what we come up with!

May 22, 2023
Africa: Botswana & Zimbabwe Safari – Pre-Departure
2023 marks my 11th year of travel blogging, with 25 trips that have made it to the blog (not counting the miscellaneous ones under the “Life in Northern California” category). As I enter my 2nd decade of travel writing, it seems fitting to hit a new continent: Africa.

The last big trip we did – and by big I mean at least 2 weeks – was in France last year about the same time: last week of May, first week of June. This one will be 3 weeks, which I haven’t done since 2014. We leave on May 21 and return on June 9. Many of you know that Ash has been in Paris for the last 4 weeks. He’s had four different friends join him on that trip at different times and looks like they all had a great time. Some people think it’s weird that he goes without me but it works on a number of levels. As long as I have a “job”, I just won’t get to travel as much as he wants to and I have no reason to get in the way of him going. Although he’s sweet about asking first, in case it’s someplace I don’t want him to go without me. For the most part there aren’t any because those trips are scouting trips for him so he’ll have a better idea of what we can do when we go together.

Him going without me also helps manage the differences between his extreme extroversion and my extreme introversion. We hadn’t been apart for a significant period of time since he’d gone to Paris last year 3 weeks ahead of me joining him. When he left this year on May 16, I admit I Couldn’t Wait for him – and #zeusthetinylab – to be gone. I described that first week alone to some friends as “healing.” (Sshhh – don’t tell Ash I said that!) But by the beginning of week 4 I was like “Ok, 5 weeks is a Really Long Time to be apart.” So I can say I actually miss him, which is unusual for me but there you have it. So it makes this upcoming adventure that much more exciting.

Ash is always asking me if I’m excited about some upcoming trip, and I never am until it’s about a week away. Well that day is today. I’ve had a completely unstructured day today which is very unusual, and have gotten a lot done, including doing some prep for this trip putting the backyard in order. I noticed this morning when I was watering that it wasn’t very inviting to our Airbnb guests so after a 5 mile walk I cleaned it up quite a bit. And now I’m enjoying it myself, sitting out here writing this entry.

Next Saturday evening I take a redeye flight to Newark where I will meet up with Ash. He leaves Paris tomorrow and will spend the week in Washington, DC, where he will leave Zeus with friends for our trip to Africa. I have a 12-hour layover in Newark so we’ve arranged to have lunch with our friends Jonathan & DeWayne in NYC, who you’ve met on each of our last trips there. We have 3pm tickets to see Kimberly Akimbo and afterwards we head back to the Newark airport to catch our direct flight to Johannesburg, South Africa.

We will be there for 4 nights and then fly to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, where we pick up the 10-day Botswana & Zimbabwe Safari led by National Geographic.

This is the map of the adventure from the official itinerary page. While “African Safari” was somewhere on my bucket list, I can’t say it’s what I would’ve done next if it wasn’t for Ash. It was high on his list, specifically going to the Okavango Delta which is “home to some of the world’s most endangered species of large mammal, such as the cheetah, white rhinoceros, black rhinoceros, African wild dog and lion” according to UNESCO. Climate change is causing the delta to shrink so Ash wants to make sure we see it before it disappears. No time like the present.

Above is the map I drew in Google just to give you a broader sense of where we will be. We end in Maun, and from there go to Cape Town on the southern tip of the continent. We will stay there about 5 days and the head home.

This trip hits a number of “firsts” for me:
1. First time in Africa
2. First time south of the equator (it will be Fall-heading-into-Winter there)
3. First time I’ve been required to get “emergency medical, evacuation, and repatriation insurance” (at $200,000 per person no less)
4. First time I’ll be on this kind of guided tour, where lodging and most meals are covered
5. First time I’ve been required to significantly limit the weight of luggage (15kg or 33lbs)
6. First time that Wi-Fi isn’t guaranteed – National Geographic has been very noncommittal about that (and other things); so if I’m not able to blog every day – which would be another First! – that’s likely why (as opposed to being eaten by a rhino…)
7. First time I had to talk with healthcare professionals about yellow fever and malaria risks (thankfully low in this part of the continent)
Some of this will be a first for Ash, as well. He has been to Johannesburg and Cape Town, but the rest will be new.

We are very excited and of course look forward to you joining us on what will be perhaps the most amazing adventure yet.
May 14, 2023
2023 PVR: Day 3 (2/15) – still sick but made it to our best meal yet at Cafe des Artistes

I woke up feeling a little better but not great; and Ash got sick during the night. But we have different symptoms. Mine seems to be more cold/flu/sinus like, and his centered in his stomach. Both have had body aches, chills and fever on an off. We’ve made like 3 trips to the pharmacy now for various things.

We didn’t have much planned. We went to Azul again for breakfast, but sat inside because it was chilly and not feeling good made that worse. We had exactly the same thing we had the day before. Afterwards we went for a walk. I took him down to the Blue Chairs area, which is the official gay beach section of town, so he could see what all that was about. Neither of us are really beach people so the appeal just isn’t there, but it’s worth checking out. We did find a nice restaurant we said we could go to for breakfast this morning so we’ll see if that plays out.

I had a 10am massage appointment at Acqua around the corner from our condo. And then Ash joined at 11am and we both got Turkish baths. Ash wasn’t all that impressed but I really like this place. It’s kinda upscale, completely legit, very comfortable environment.

After, we got a bite to eat at a place I’ve been several times, Mariscos Cisneros. Ash doesn’t eat beef or pork which a lot of food here is based on, so I wanted to bring him to a seafood place.

This is a cozy family place that started as a taco stand – and the stand is still there and operating out front.

We had marlin tacos and a shrimp quesadilla. He really liked the marlin tacos.

We got back to our condo about 1pm and rested until 4:30pm. By this time, we had cancelled our plans with Jon for today because we wanted to give him plenty of notice. He had this lunch planned that required a 45-minute boat ride, and was at least 2 hours there, and then back of course. That just seemed like a lot given we’d spent the better part of 2 afternoons resting. We had him on alert for dinner tonight but after a two-hour nap, Ash was feeling better and decided he wanted to go.

He doesn’t look sick, does he? We walked along the river island to this bridge that takes you into a neighborhood called Gringo Gulch.

This is the famous bridge that connects the houses Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton lived while he was here filming Night of the Iguana in 1963. They carried on a torrid affair while married to other people, and it put Puerta Vallarta on the map. One of these is now a hotel, the other a restaurant.

Above and below: the view from Jon’s rooftop terrace at his condo.

We walked over to Cafe des Artistes where we had 5:30 dinner reservations. This was my Valentine’s present to Ash, but they had a prefixed menu for that day which was super pricey, so we decided to come the next day. We were on a prefixed menu today, but it was not a “special” one and more reasonably priced.

I’d been here once before with Jon in 2019. That time we weren’t able to sit in the garden but this time we made it. Above was the first to my right….

…and this was the view to my left. This place is huge. The garden area oddly is upstairs, and it has several other areas that break off to my left and right, and there’s a whole floor of regular table seating on the first floor.

The meal started with an amuse bouche of salmon.

I like seeing the restrooms in places like this, they’re usually pretty special. And I was not disappointed.

The art installation behind me from the first photo.

This was a very interesting dish of cactus and avocado that Jon and I enjoyed.

Ash had a tomato salad.

Ash and Jon had this green risotto.

I had roasted Asian cabbage. It had a similar taste and texture to turnip, and I liked it.

This was probably my favorite bite of the evening, and the only thing I remembered from the last time I was here: broiled octopus. Served with a pea creme, roasted golden beets – our favorite – and this stuff inside the bone that tasted like Lipton’s onion soup – and I don’t mean that in a bad way. I’d dove into it before I remembered to take a photo. Jon had this, too, and enjoyed it.

The first of 2 kinds of sea bass Ash had.

Crispy pork belly for me, with a cauliflower sauce. Asd a truffle foam which I ignored. But the meat was excellent.

Ash’s second sea bass dish. They made this just for him since he didn’t want either of the options for one of the courses.

Jon had lamb which he really liked.

For the palette cleanser course, Ash got cheese. That’s with a cranberry sorbet.

Jon and I got this Fois gras creme brulee which I was very nervous about. Creme brulee is one of my favorite things, foie gras is one of my least favorite things, so I couldn’t imagine them together. But it was definitely Fois gras with a crispy top like you’d expect, with this same cranberry sorbet. The sorbet helped cut the fattiness of the foie gras and it ended up being Ok, but I was a little sick to my stomach at the end.

The lights came on in the garden as it got darker but a lovely setting.

For dessert, we had got a dark chocolate taco. The shell was made with dark chocolate and there was more chocolate in it and other things I don’t remember. I couldn’t even finish it, it was so rich, especially after the Foie gras, so Ash did!

And the final bite: a warm pastry of some kind – had a pretty doughy texture but was tasty.

It is now about 7:30am Thursday. Neither one of us got much sleep last night. Ash was up and down all night with his stomach problems which had returned full force after dinner. I took some nighttime flu capsules that ended up wiring me and I tossed and turned all night between that and listening to Ash. When we left Jon last night, we said “no” to the other plans we had for this evening, to see a drag show at Act2PV. My abs hurt so bad from coughing I don’t think going to a comedy would be a good idea!

Since I don’t think we’re going to do much today except tend to ourselves, and we go home tomorrow, I decided to make this the last entry of the trip. Despite being sick, it’s been a great trip and I’m thrilled that Ash has enjoyed it as much as he has. So much he spent a good portion of the last 2 days planning the next one at Thanksgiving. So we will definitely be back and hopefully we won’t get sick then!

The next big trip is Africa for 3 weeks in May-June so you won’t want to miss that. See you then!

February 15, 2023
2023 PVR: Day 2 (2/14) – a bit of a sick day; back to Trio for V-Day dinner

I went to bed on Monday not feeling great and woke up on Tuesday feeling worse, although I managed to sleep about 8 hours. My lingering cold was starting to feel like a sinus infection, and I could tell I had a fever as well. We stopped by a pharmacy before breakfast. There’s a pharmacy on every block it seems. I commented at some point that I don’t understand how they all stay in business. Ash says it’s because they sell Viagra, Cialis, poppers and steroids. He noticed the signage when we’d stopped in the one this morning. Well Ok then. They know their audience.

However, you can get antibiotics without a prescription and for that I am grateful. For 250 pesos, or about $13, we walked out with a course of amoxicillin and a strong cough syrup. I went back to the condo to take my first round and then met the guys for breakfast.

Across the street from our condo is Azul, a restaurant I discovered and enjoyed on my 2022 trip. Fred met us there at 8am and Jon joined just to visit on his way to a meeting.

Between not feeling great and still “chipped out” from the day before, I went for fruit, yogurt and granola, with a fruit smoothie instead of coffee. Ash had a salmon bagel. I’d ordered the side of bacon, but by the time we got our food Jon had left. The woman said “where’s Jon? I put extra bacon for him.” He’s a regular here.

After breakfast Ash went to join Jon at the meeting. I went back to rest. I decided to take advantage of the great weather and went up to the rooftop. This was my view for the next hour but mostly my eyes were closed. It was lovely.

Ash and Jon returned a little after 10am. We visited some then went to make massage appointments for today at a place I like that’s literally around the corner from our condo – one block down, one block over. Jon went on to meet a friend for a walk, and we walked over to the barber he recommended. We each got haircuts, wet shaves, trimmed eyebrows, waxed ears and nose for 1000 pesos or about $54. Total. Including tips. Back home it would have been more than that for just one of us.

I took Ash to the river area since we hadn’t been there yet. There’s an island in the river that has a lot of arts and crafts vendors, plus a beautiful park on the east end, which is where we ended up. A guy was playing with his dogs, above, and Ash went over to say “hi.” He’s missing Zeus.

We attempted lunch at a place I’ve been to before but it’s closed on Tuesdays, so we went instead to another place at our intersection, Fredy’s Tucan. I’ve passed by it probably hundreds of times but have never ventured in.

It’s actually very big. This is the front, there’s a huge section to my left in the back.

I ordered a juice drink again and tortilla soup sounded good because of the way I was feeling. In my head somehow it was a cup so was surprised when this huge bowl showed up. I also got a chicken salad. Ended up eating all the soup and took most of the salad to go. Ash had a shrimp salad. The food was good, the staff super nice, and reasonably priced. We’d come back.

We got back to the condo around 1:45 and didn’t leave again for about 3 hours, literally laying down and resting the whole time. I don’t think I actually slept, but that I remained horizontal and didn’t even have the energy to read or watch TV tells you something. But I was starting to feel better. Ash said we could cancel dinner but I was like “well, we still have to eat.”

The things you find when you’re looking for photos on Ash’s phone. He took this in the elevator going down for dinner and I didn’t realize it.

If you’re wearing a shirt with a collar, you’re dressed up. That works for us.

We went back to Trio, where we had been Sunday night. The original plan for Valentine’s was to go to Cafe des Artistes, but they had a prefixed menu that we didn’t want to do so are going Wednesday (tonight) instead. Then we decided we’d just leave it open and maybe eat at home because it would be crowded everywhere we went. When we were seated at breakfast, Ash decided it would be good to have a reservation somewhere and got the last table at Trio.

Notice the first balcony, which is where we sat on Sunday. When we walked in Ash asked about balcony seating and the guy laughed. “You just made a reservation this morning, some of these were made months ago. You’re on the roof.” Uh-oh. The way he said it didn’t sound good. If you look closely in the photo you can barely see there’s another balcony.

Turns out the rooftop seating was beautiful, as shown above.

They had us at this table that required you to literally squeeze through these iron poles to get to it; a few pounds heavier and we might not have made it! But we got our balcony seats and in some ways it was better than Sunday.

They had a prefixed menu as well – 4 courses, just a few options each, one price. Our total here was about $140. Overall, we weren’t as impressed with this meal as the one we had Sunday, but it was still good and a value at that price. Ash had a shrimp salad to start…

and I had the carpaccio again. Prepared a little different than the last one, still great tasting.

Ash had a Thai soup….

…I had a veal ravioli. As soon as they set it down, I smelled truffles, something I’m not a fan of. I didn’t notice that in the description. The veal ravioli was great but otherwise it confirmed I’m still not a truffles fan.

I had the filet mignon, but gave Ash the eggplant! I hadn’t noticed that either but it probably wouldn’t have changed my mind.

Ash had sea bass.

Dessert was the best course of the meal. Ash had the black forest cake. The waiter had this whole story about how it’s a favorite and was taken off the menu at some point but then put back on because of complaints of the patrons. It was very good.

I had a passion fruit cake with coconut ice cream and raspberries. Delicious.

This is Jose Luis, our super handsome waiter. I asked Ash “would it be creepy to ask for a photo of him?” Ash says “yes” but does it anyway :)> He didn’t seem to mind. I’d commented how all of the wait staff at this restaurant were men. We had this whole discussion at dinner where I realized that in all my trips here, I don’t ever consciously remember having a female waiter. Certainly not on this trip. I’ll have to start paying attention. Maybe it’s just another “they know their audience” thing (did we tell you that PV is super gay?) and probably nothing illegal about it here.

After dinner, we walked along the Malecon a bit to catch the sunset.

A perfectly timed shot above and below: a little boat sailing in front of the setting sun.

And that was our night. We were going to watch something streaming when we got back but nothing seems to be working in Mexico, although we had no problems in Costa Rica. Ash said we need a VPN or something. A problem to solve for another time. I got the photos uploaded here and we were in bed before 9pm.

Ash woke up this morning not feeling great so maybe he now has what I do. I’m feeling better but still not 100%. Will see how all that plays out today.

February 14, 2023
2023 PVR: Day 1 (2/13) – Hanging with friends, and fun show in the evening

On Monday, I got up a little before 5am, clocking over 7 hours of sleep which is a lot for me. Ash got up not too long after. I didn’t have much of a blog entry so got it up pretty quickly and we went for a walk, taking coffee we’d made in the condo. We headed back over to Centro, the neighborhood across the river, to do the walk we’d skipped the night before.

Our Lady of Guadalupe, with a silhouette of Ash at the bottom. This is on Calle Hidalgo, the street I stayed on my first three times here.

It’s a beautiful church. The angle is funny because there was a guy kneeling, praying to my right and it felt weird to get him in the photo.

We walked up the street a few more blocks so I could show Ash other personal landmarks, then took a left and walked the couple of blocks to the Malecon – the boardwalk in PV. He enjoyed posing with the art.

Other than the church, arguably the most famous PV landmark.

His sandals go with her dress.

We ended up at a Starbucks (I know, I know) to get some more coffee and use the restroom because we weren’t ready to go back. Jon somehow guessed we would be there and joined us. We visited for a bit then went down the street – Basilio Badillo – to the Alano Club for their 9am AA meeting. Although I have to say, that latte I got at Starbucks was maybe one of the best I’ve ever had. The milk was so rich, I couldn’t believe it.

After the meeting we went to Los Molcajetes for a bite to eat, which is essentially across the street from our condo, again on Basilio Badillo.

One of the things I love about PV is how colorful everything is.

I had chilaquiles, which is chips in an enchilada-type sauce and other things, in this case eggs.

Ash had an eggs benedict with salmon.

Jon got machaca, a dish of dried beef that’s surprisingly good, with eggs. This was my other choice; I’ll get it next time! I don’t think I’ve ever seen this in the states so try to eat it when I’m here.

From there we said goodbye to Jon, Ash and I went back to the condo for quick showers then went to our 11:30am appointment at Blue Massage on Olas Altas. They only had one person doing pedicures, so I went first while Ash got his massage and then we switched. My experience was great on both counts, as always. I typically come here at least once and usually twice on each trip. I was thrilled to hear when I got out of my massage that Ash was very happy with his pedicure. He has a troublesome big toe that can be tricky to work on but he was very happy with her work, and with his massage. Yay! I have one other place to take him for massages so will see how that one goes, maybe today or tomorrow. Oh: and both massages and pedicures including tips was like $135. Crazy. But why it’s not unusual for me to get several while I’m here.

Ash wanted “a snack” when we got done about 1:30pm. I took us left out of the massage place up Olas Altas, another strip you end up on a lot when here. I didn’t have a specific destination in mind but when we came across Tacos Revolucion a couple of blocks up I suggested we try this. I’ve been here a couple of times and have really liked it.

They just had one 2-top open so it was perfect, amidst requests for patience as they were completely full and only one waiter. We were fine.

Every restaurant here boasts their own salsas – in this case a mild avocado, a medium tomato, and a super-hot pineapple and habanero. We added quacamole just to had some heft. Between this and the chilaquiles I think I’m chipped out for the week. (Although hard to pass up…) Ash got a cucumber lime aqua fresca, I got horchata.

Ash had shrimp tacos….

I got a pastor quesadilla, complete with pineapple inside, as it is usually done here (apparently the way it’s supposed to be).

From here we just walked around so Ash could see more of the town. We went back to the condo a little after 3pm and rested until it was time to go out again about 4:30pm.

Remember the Peet’s gang in SF I mentioned yesterday? One of them, Eric, moved here about 3 years ago. Another, Fred, happens to be visiting here now, too. We met them for a show at Act2PV, an entertainment venue just a couple of blocks up – where? – Basilio Badillo (are you getting why I wanted to stay close to it?). I’ve heard good things about it but had never been. They have several stages and put on a variety of Broadway type shows, cabarets, drag, etc. This was my first time meeting Eric. I’d met Fred briefly in Las Vegas, where he lives. We were there for one night in October and he found us at the restaurant where we had dinner to say hello.

We met Eric and Fred in the lounge of the theater and visited until the staff told us to be seated at about 5:30pm. Given the early time we were the youngest people in the audience. And it wasn’t crowded- we were 3rd row right and there wasn’t anyone behind us. This was a “Best of Broadway” show which included 2 guys and 2 girls doing a revue of sorts of a bunch of show tunes. I knew all of them but a couple. They were actually pretty talented. And attempted some tough stuff, including Defying Gravity, Memory, and the “One Day More” chorale from Les Misérables which was pretty impressive. Maybe not ready for Broadway but definitely above community theater. Whenever I’m in a live production I somehow always think about their rehearsals, and these kids – all seemed to be like 25-30 – clearly had to rehearse a lot. The staging, choreography and costumes were simple but there were a lot of changes. So, to find out at the end that each of them in is at least one other show at the same time – the most talented in 2 others, one opera, the other Linda Ronstadt, I was pretty impressed. It was a fun show with enthusiastic performers, and we had a great time.

After the show, Eric took us to his condo so we could check it out. It was a nice 1-bedroom that had a great west view over the town and Banderas Bay. This was taken from the rooftop pool. We went in search of dinner after, but everything was super crowded. We finally ended up at an Italian place on Olas Altas. It was good but nothing to write home about. It never even occurred to me to take pictures.

We stopped at Lix for ice cream after. As we made our way back to our condos – Eric’s is on the same street as ours! – Ash was attempting a selfie when a passerby offered to take it. That’s Eric next to Ash, and Fred next to him.

We were super tired when we got home, much more tired than it seemed we should’ve been given how little we did. I had a pretty bad cold a couple of weekends ago which is still lingering, and I think that’s wearing me out faster than usual. Oh well. Good thing we decided on a relaxing week. For today, we are on a mission to get haircuts and that’s as much as we’ve planned. Come back tomorrow to see what else we came up with.

February 13, 2023
2023 PVR: 2/12 – Departure

I’ve been looking forward to this trip for a while. Although it’s my 5th time to Puerto Vallarta, it will be Ash’s first and I’m pretty excited about that. It’s weird to me that he’s never been here. How is it that you’ve been to Sri Lanka but never PV? (Or Santa Cruz, for that matter, which he’d never been to until our first road trip 2 years ago.) It’s always fun to see a place through someone else’s eyes for their first time. And we’ve very intentionally “not planned” this trip: outside of dinner reservations at 2 restaurants I wanted to make sure we hit, we’ve got nothing planned for the not-quite 5 days we will be on the ground.

2023 got off to a wild start with a tree on our roof from a storm (which we are still dealing with those effects) and lots of work for both of us in our respective roles. So the timing of this break is perfect, and about the same time I’ve gone in prior years. We started early Friday morning, with a drive to San Franscisco where we would fly out of. I worked all day from our home there, and Ash had lots of stuff to do, as he always does, including getting Zeus connected with friends who are keeping him at their place in Guerneville. We’ve already got pics of him frolicking in the Russian River with new dog friends, so I have a feeling he’s just fine.

Ash suggested I start the blog early and capture some of our San Francisco life so here we are. We went to Eric’s for dinner, our favorite Chinese restaurant. The first time I ate their food was Christmas Day 2020 (to go, of course), our first Christmas together.

And it is very good. I won’t include every dish but this seemed unique enough to talk about: a mango salad which is a little spicy and a lot tangy.

When we are in San Francisco, we have a standing 5:30am coffee date at the Peet’s on Market. Ash has been meeting the same group of guys there every morning for 10 years. When we conclude that ritual, we take the dog for a walk, usually ending up at Dolores Park. We had no dog but still went for the walk, which includes a walk by what’s probably the best-known Safeway in Northern California.

We decided to change our route up a little bit and made our way back up Duboce. While we were walking through the Safeway parking lot, we both commented on how neither one of us really knew the name of the church across the street. In certain circles it’s referred to as “Our Lady of Safeway” and that’s how we know it. (It’s St. Francis Lutheran.)

We had breakfast at a place in Cole Valley that Ash likes (I’d never been), got massages at Noon, and headed to the ballet for which we had 2pm tickets.

LIke opera, I’d never been to a ballet until Ash. This is my 2nd season and I’m enjoying it more than opera. Three of the shows are “festivals” of 3 acts each, each 20-35 minutes long with 20 minute intermissions so they go down easy. And this season they are all new, as the visual above suggests.

The first act was the most classic (with tutus and everything) although the style definitely had modern mixed in. It was probably my favorite. After, we had lunch there – a seafood salad for Ash and chicken cobb for me.

The last act started with a tribute to a principal dancer by the name of Tiit Helimuts. This was his last performance after 18 years with the SF Ballet Company. His ovation at the end was one of the longest and most moving I’ve seen – including all the flowers being thrown on stage.

We had dinner with our friends Greg & Karl at their house and played Cards Against Humanity. I had heard of it but never played before. The sickening laughter was welcome.

Ash took this Sunday morning from our front door as we left to get in the Lyft to the airport.

We ate breakfast at SFO (free because we are Priority Pass members through our Chase card) then walked around the airport a bit. We are both the same in that we don’t mind getting to the airport early just in case we encounter something unexpected. Between Terminals 2 and 3 there is a new art installation that plays tribute to older transgender people. It’s beautiful and worth a stop in the in the neighborhood.

Ash got a beautiful shot of the Gulf of California from the plane. That’s the Baja peninsula at the top.

We had an uneventful flight and made it out of the airport in less than an hour, which is very good for PV. Jon picked us up and we made our way to the condo we found on AirBnb. We are excited about the beautiful weather we should have while we are here.

The last 4 times I came I stayed in Centro, the neighborhood where Jon lives which is just north of Zona Romantica, which is the heart of the city. This year I wanted to stay in ZR and we are in a condo just off of Basilio Badillo if you’re familiar with the area. This is the atribum in the middle of the building.

Other than the lack of windows – there’s just one in the living room – this is a very nice place and we’re pretty happy with it. Ash has already said “we should book it for next year!” Living room above, bedroom below. There’s a 2nd bathroom to the right of the living room, too.

Jon came up to see the place and walked around with us a little bit after. it’s good to have him here: I missed him on last year’s trip because he was in LA having open heart surgery. He’s recovered well as you can see!

There’s a pool on the rooftop.

We changed clothes and went across the street for coffees, and made our way over to Blue Massage to make appointments for Monday. Jon left us at that point, we got cash at an ATM and I wanted Ash to see a bit of the town on our way to dinner. Ash was on a mission to buy a hat, and as we walked towards the beach he passed a guy selling them on the street.

Ash is a relentless haggler and got hats for each of us for the price the guy wanted for just his.

I’ve never been much of a hat person, generally not liking the way they look or feel, although I can see the value in keeping the sun out of my eyes. What do you think?

We made our way over to Trio, which is in Centro, one of the two reservations we’d made before we left. I neglected to get a photo of the outside, sorry! We were welcomed with fresh warm bread and two whipped butters.

They sat us on the balcony so we enjoyed the great weather.

We shared a lovely calamari dish to start, cooked in a rich, spicy tomato broth.

Ash had an iceberg wedge shrimp salad. I had a beef carpaccio with arugula, parmesan, olive oil and balsamic vinegar, each flavor distinct and perfectly balanced.

Ash had yellow fin tuna which was great…

…I had the rabbit, also great, despite Ash’s comments about eating Thumper.

The balcony provided an even cozier ambiance as it got dark.

Although it was still early California time (we are 2 hours ahead here) we were super tired and skipped the walk we’d had planned after dinner. We found an Oxxo on the way back to the condo (not hard since they’re on every other block it seems) and picked up some basics for the condo.

We stopped by the same place across the street where we’d gotten coffees earlier for some dessert to go: tres leches with fresh fruit. As good as it looks.

We’ve got nothing planned today but massages and pedicures at 11:30am. I’m sure we’ll come up with something.

February 12, 2023

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