Perla Gutierrez's Blog: Africa, Last Part

This is the last part of my trip to Africa. Before I go ahead, let me tell you a curious thing, last year when I went to Australia; it took me three months to put words and pics for you on the blog. I skipped a lot. Maybe I will return to tell you some anecdotes later. For some reason, it happened that people I know about went to the same place and took spectacular photos in the deep ocean with professional cameras and professional everything. I know the ocean; I have been blessing with countless adventures there. What I gave you was the most positive flare of an utmost interesting place. I was not in the pursuit of the best of anything, I was just exploring. For many reasons, I did not dive in the deep waters at that time; I know I did something good for everybody and for everything, sometimes not doing the extreme is the best thing to do.

For Africa, it has taking several posts and more than half year to put the trip together. It happened because I wanted to picture Africa in a light, sparkling, and candid way as I saw it. I have read so many things in the internet, and magazines, about all the troubles, all the riches, all the rivalry, all the power, all the weakness, sadness, anger and despair. Moreover, powerful and ultra rich people have been there. I cannot refer to the same continent without asking if we can see the magnificent, outstanding, and marvelous places Africa has. Mankind has in their hands an earthly paradise, how are they going to transform or exploit, preserve or destroy, develop or ruin, enhance or mutilate it? There had been so many mistakes done in the name of goodness, “Let’s do business”, “Indoctrination of religion or political views”, or the righteous order; that is pretty scary. How are all nations going to contribute, to take care, and to help to nurture such a hope for humanity?

When you have a place to live, you need among many things, a space for Nature. We have there an International Preserve Park were expert people are living there and taking care of it. I did not even mention two plants, only the famous Baobab they have there. I did not see the pervasive Anthrax or other viruses or bacteria around. I did not carry a microscope, and I cannot identify the flora, like many of us, but is there. To say the least, technology can help to optimize the needs and harmonious coexisting life for everybody; we can contribute with all the knowledge we can give to Africa to accomplish it.

While I am writing this there are about 689,000,000 results I can find in Google that are or were talking about Africa. 650,000,000 about Europe. 1, 500,000,000 about North America. 567,000,000 about Latin America. 1 100,000,000 about China. India and Asia numbers are around the 500 millions. Australia 653 millions. These results are just because the name appeared in the search. So, humanity is occupied about it. That is refreshing! :D

You have seen the photos of some of the animals I saw in Zimbabwe, Botswana and Zambia; still I am showing you here the giraffes, the meerkats, dung beetles hippos, impalas, buffaloes vultures, birds, crocodiles, monkeys…. Whoa!!! All majestic, all impressive.

In this trip I can say over all that the weather was perfect, the landscape beautiful, the people so friendly and fun; the culture, the art, the food was superb.

I tasted so many new things; the ones that I remembered because they were delicious and remained me other exotic places were the worms, toasty squash flower, and the crocodile grilled meat. We have a special drink made out of a special local plant served before meals in one of our party dinners; it was not alcoholic or sedative. It had like the Chamomile effect, but it had a milky aspect, it was tangy, and refreshing. They told us, it was served to us to be in the perfect mood for a celebration, with the feast, music, and dancing.

After dessert, they gave to every person a small drum; I played it until my hands were purple, and I noticed that until the show ended because I felt them so hot and itchy, so I turned to look at them… My palms were so swollen and purple!!! I thought they were going to hurt like for several days, but, no, they didn't. It lasted just for a moment. I was so happy!!!

All my memories now are melting, even when I have thousands of pics to remember them and in the order taken to evoke every single detail. We took the photos of the big 5, in this post you can see the buffalo, the fifth one, an aggressive one, and we cannot take pics of it as close as we did with the other ones. Buffaloes are unapproachable. I do not hunt; I just took pictures of this mega fauna in their real habitat. Curiously I don’t remember seen zebras or ostriches. On the town’s newspaper I saw a photo of wild dogs, very impressive and the article was in a tone were you understood how extraordinary animals they are and how the people just live their daily lives among extraordinary living things. We visited the Victoria Falls again, but now by helicopter, what a beauty!!! We went over the bridge, some of us did the bungee, others the swing, others the straight jump. I think I said it before, but after the shaking adventure over the bridge, a ginormous baboon was after me! Yes, I remember that as the scariest moment, not the lions, or the leopard, or the elephants or the high altitude I was at the swing, or the kind of vertigo you can feel when you look down at the edge of the falls or above them flying by. The fangs of that baboon and its persistent way of following me was appalling, I was alone, just me and the baboon with its family; it only lasted some minutes, but that was more than enough for me…

We saw the baby elephants; one, only days of being born; walking with mom… other elephants taking a mud bath. Ah!!! The sunsets!!! They were perfect. The river!!! I was transported to all the books about the rivers in Africa were incredible adventures took place.

In the end we went around town several times; over there, another spectacular vision was always in front of us. The mastership, the crafts, the sculptures, the paintings, the musical instruments, awesome! The garments, the clothes, the special attires are so fascinating. Oh! The strong, athletic, and amicable people who showed us their native beautiful land, they talked to us; they showed us photos of their families, they told us about all the things that they were doing, their names and the meanings, the schools they were going, the accomplishments they have achieved, their future expectations; and we knew that we have the same dreams. Oh! Yes! Indeed… The places I visited in the southern part of Africa are great!!!