the wild coast

hi everybody just thought id fill you in again on whats goin on. me and amanda just got back from a trip up the wild coast. the wild coast is the eastern coast of south africa. it was sooooo pretty. the original plan for our trip was to spend 3 nights and 2 days in cintsa and than 3 nights and 2 days in coffee bay. unfortunately because these were small towns the buses we were taking didnt go directly to where we were staying. Thankfully the backpackers ran shuttles from the bus stops and the backpacker. so we left monday morning early on got the bus to east london.... this bus ride was quite possibly one of the most miserable of my life, there were 5 seats in a row and the leg room provided made airlines seem generous. in top of that there must have been a mothering convention some where because everybody on the bus had at least 3 children on their laps and at any given moment half of them were crying. anyways we finally got to east london and were picked up by our shuttle on the shuttle we met a cool couple jenny and dave. jenny and dave were traveling together and had already come down the entire west coast of africa and were now working theyre way up the east coast. as such we ended up spending most of the week with them. in cintsa we stayed at the buccaneers backpacker, buccs was super laid back and really accommodating and really beautiful. every day buccs had tons of stuff to do, our first day we took a mountain bike ride through a xhosa (the local peoples) village and stopped and met a craazy old xhosa woman named moma tofu, who showed us her village and talked to us about xhosa culture and life, one of the things we talked about was the xhosa courting practices. she ended this with this statement "though it is good for a man to have many wives, should decided that he just wants to fool around and be a playboy, the gods will strike him down with hiv/aids!! now lets go back outside." like i said she was off her rocker. so after that we finished up learning about xhosa life and than continued our ride, which ended up being like 25 kilometers.. ive yet to figure out the conversion bet kilometers to miles. so we just kinda bummed around the backpackers after that and met some more cool people. the next day we were originally going to go on an elephant back day safari but it was kinda spendy so we opted to do an elephant interaction instead. the elephant interaction was super cool we got to "play" with elephants, now as much as i wanted to i wasnt allowed to go romp with the elephants we did get to feed them pet them and one of them gave elephant kisses. after the elephants we went to a rural school that buccs help sponsor, at the school the kids who go there are in a choir, and they sang for us. i went expecting a lot of out of tune little kids like you usually see at school choir recitals. however the kids blew me away they were amazing. after the choir we went back and hung out and made sure all our stuff was together to leave the next day. the next morning we morning we left for est london to catch our bus to mthatha. so we got to the east london station an hour and a half early and when we checked in at the office they said our bus was going to be an hour and a half late, so me and amanda got some coffee and while she was reading i called the backpacker in coffee bay to let them know that we were going to be late and what we should do. the lady at the backpacker told me not to worry the shuttle would wait for us to get there. so after a while our bus got there and loaded up and headed to mthatha. however once we got to mthatha, there was no shuttle to be found.... and on top of that the sun was starting to set. so i called the backpacker and their answer was, the shuttle left, you guys were late. when i asked them what they expected us to do they told us to find a woman named leslie, she was on your bus and had the same problem. amanda quickly responded that five buses just pulled in and unloaded, it would be impossible to find one person. so they gave us a number of a backpacker to call in mthatha, so when we called it, it didnt work. so we were starting to get a little nervous, the people at the bus stop didnt help, because they were totally inept. anyways about 2 minutes later, it felt like 2hours, the backpacker in coffee bay told us, in a very apolojetic tone that, they got ahold of the backpacker in mthatha and they would come pick us up in a couple of minutes. so we ended up getting picked up a great guy named angus and he took us to the backpacker, which he and his wife ran out of their house. they were amazingly nice, they gave us dinner, and made sure we were doing ok. the next day we went to the nelson mandela museum in mthatha while we waited for the coffee shack to come pick us up. the museum was really cool one half was all about his autobiography, a long walk to freedom, and the other was gifts that people had given him. the gifts were by far the coolest, they ranged for paintings that third graders had made to a gold and jewel encrusted camel saddle from some middle eastern prince. so the coffee shack bus finally came and picked us up, and drove us the two hours into coffee bay. coffee bay was actually very scenic and just as pretty as cintsa. however even putting the whole ride fiasco aside i really didnt enjoy coffee shack, even though its suposed to be one of the best in south africa. it was pretty and all but over all i really didnt like the atmosphere there alot of the people who were working or staying there were pretty stuck up and proud. but we did have travel friends who were there, some of the couples from buccs, including dave and jenny and a dutch couple. but while we were there i was talking with a girl who was california, turns out she grew up in petaluma and went to the JC for three years... talk about small world. so in our full day at coffee shack we were told by friends that we need to hike to hole in the wall. so we did. me, amanda, dave, jenny, and leslie all hiked to hole in the wall. it turned out to be way more than just a hike, basically it was a 3.5 hour trek on cliff side goat paths though xhosa vilages up hills and down valleys till we finally got to hole in the wall, once there we took a much needed swim and lunch and nap break. after about an hour we started our trek back to cofffee shack and grabbed a great free dinner there. the next morning me and amanda were a little worried that the about the shuttle getting us back to mthatha on time to catch our bus home, given that they had been anything but reliable before. so we did end up making it on time and, actually our bus was an hour late. this bus ride was pretty miserable too mostly just cause it was 8 hours long, any who we made it home safe and sound day before yesterday late. not to long after we got back me and amanda both started to feel a little nauseous, we both ended up sick as dogs yesterday but our just fine now. this week we start planning our big trip up to the okavango delta and victoria falls. more on that later though. oh yeah im working on posting pictures from our trip ive got some up but im far from done, its kind of a pain in the ass, but thats life. on smaller notes we are having a going away braii for amandas room mate tonight. but i think thats all the news from me right now, but letme know how you all are doing i love emails and hearing from everybody.

hope to hear from you all

andrew