The Rest of Vacation

After Cintsa, we went to Port St. Johns, where we stayed at Amapondo, a great backpackers on the beach which had a very relaxed atmosphere. Every day they do some sort of excursion, and on Christmas Eve we went on their "Mystery Hike." First we went to the Blow Hole, a natural phenomenon where waves crashing against rocks look like a whale's blow hole. To get to the Blow Hole, you must first walk down a steep, rocky path; then climb down a ladder; then climb across a narrow ladder; then up another ladder to another cliff; then finally down from the cliff to a slightly smaller cliff next to it. Before doing this, they show you the memorial stones of people who have died there and tell you stories about tourists who met their end at the Blow Hole in the last few years. Since it was also an incredibly windy day and even from the top I felt like I was going to be blown away, I decided not to go so far as to venture any the ladders and therefore, survived. The view was still pretty great.

Next we went to a traditional Xhosa spa, for lack of a better name. They covered us in clay and then mud (there are pictures on the Picasa album). It's supposed to be very good for the skin. Getting to each part--the clay cave, the mud pool, etc.--involved climbing barefoot up a steep, rocky wall, but yet again I narrowly avoided death. The next stop was a restaurant for lunch, where we were exiled to the porch seating so that we didn't shed clay all over the indoor seating. Finally, we had to jump in the river--the day was so windy that we were forbidden from going into the ocean--to get off the clay so that the backpackers' drainage system wasn't permanently ruined by the clay. That evening there was a seven course dinner to celebrate the holiday.

We spent the rest of the time in Port St Johns going to the beach and other idyllic places with great views. Afterwards I made my way to Coffee Bay to meet up with some other PCVs. Coffee isn't the prettiest beach I'd been to in South Africa, but it probably had the best swimming. One day we went on the hike from Coffee Bay to the Hole in the Wall, about 10k. It had a lot of climbing and a lot of steep precipices, plus I wasn't wearing the right kind of shoes, but I managed to complete it by going barefoot for about half the hike. The gorgeous pictures from the hike that are posted on Picasa are courtesy of Kim, who borrowed my camera for the occasion. It was the best of all worlds, as I don't particularly enjoy taking pictures but I do like having them afterwards.

On New Year's Eve we had a game marathon that included rummy, Balderdash, telephone pictionary, and 30 Seconds (kind of like Catchphrase--but the South African edition). We'd met some PCVs from Mozambique by then, so they joined our motley crew and I think I might have played enough board games to satisfy me for the next year or so. The last day there, I took a surfing lesson. No, really. The water was pretty choppy and it was definitely pretty tough on me, but also a lot of fun. It was early in the morning, so I spent the rest of the day lying down, aching from being tossed about by the waves.

Getting back was about as painless as you can expect from two solid days of travel, including an overnight bus. I kept falling asleep in the taxis at inappropriate moments, but I made it back, to the welcome of my village and my family.

And, I've done several loads of laundry now, so I am very settled in. I start back at the office on the 15th. Happy post-holidays, everyone!