Retrospection: An amazing Trip

 

Wow!  Tomorrow, we board our first flight on our homeward journey. Flying times, 8 1/2 hours to São Paulo (two-night stop), then 10 hours to Atlanta, and finally 3 1/2 to Denver.  We have so many memories, more of the people and cultures encountered than the scenery; our understanding of our world has been permanently affected.  One example: we were eating lunch at a restaurant at CapePoint, near the southern most point of Africa. Two men from Germany were at the adjacent table, and we started a conversation. Initially, we spoke of South Africa, but we could all see that the issues here also applied to what is happening in Germany and the USA.  This populism, being ruled by the uninformed majority expecting 'free stuff', is creating a scary world.  Uninformed citizens voting in a powerful government to 'take care' of them breeds corruption.  The government that can do everything for you effectively controls you and all citizens.  Freedom is a high price to pay. We all sensed that despite our different backgrounds.

Would we change our trip in retrospect?  No. Not everything was as expected, but it was all worthwhile. A lot of coordination was needed to pull off this trip.  The problems encountered were initially scary, but it all worked out. One of our shuttle contractors, for the move from Kandy to Hikkaduwa, dropped out at the last moment but I was able to replace them with an alternate contractor quickly.  Leaving Sri Lanka, we were pulled out of line because Dawn had only been granted a two-day visa (a mistake?), and we had been in the country for two weeks.  The fine would be 350 Euros; but with explanation, the fine was dropped.  

Our car rental at Cape Town developed a slow tire leak. Then the A/C failed, and the electronics went wacko.  We were stuck at a parking lot at the Cape of Good Hope with a car that would not start and a cellphone that was out of range for a signal.  I changed the tire (full size spare), got the car started, and drove all the way back to the Cape Town airport, almost two hours, to exchange vehicles.  We lost time that we had hoped to use on hiking the area.

Sao Paulo has turned out to be a disappointment, although we were somewhat forewarned.  I talked to a person who grew up in that area who told us the city of 15 million was rather gritty.  The hotel was very basic, even though rated as one of the better stays.  Most of the staff of this major airport hotel did not speak English.  The neighborhood was semi-industrial.  Reviews of other area hotels indicated that this was not unusual.

Our previous trip, to Sardinia, had included a delayed flight, cancelled flight, lost luggage, bad weather, cancelled car rental, taxi transportation issues, unexpected layover in Amsterdam, wrong information on a ferry service.... out worst trip ever.  On this trip everything went as planned.  When you consider the length and complexity of plans, this has been a wonderful trip.