Durban and St. Lucia

Hello I haven’t written in awhile, sorry. But as most of you know I was away. Traveling this beautiful country which I am sure you all wish you could see. Martina, Val, and I set off on a lovely Friday morning in the pursuit of the Indian Ocean. Our first stop is Durban. This is where we spent most of our time chasing crabs and swimming. We also spent time in city center. One of the high lights was when we decide to walk through as Zulu market where we could feast our eyes on objects such as dog heads that are used for voodoo ceremonies. Unfortunately I did not take my camera due to the fact that I would not return home with it, so there are no photos, but there where some amazing sights. The crazy thing about Durban is a pone our arrival we meet a lovely Iowa boy. Devan is his name and biology is his game. He is in South Africa doing an independent research project on game preservation on farm land. He spent the whole time traveling with us and is now some where in Mozambique. Anyway back to Durban, so what do I think of the city. Well it is like Chicago meets Florida. It is a beach front tourist trap. With dirty streets covered in mini buses and people. Although Durban is very dangers I highly enjoyed my stay. Our hostel had a wonderful view of the ocean. It also had its own private beach that we often had bon fires on and like I said before we chased a lot of crabs. I tried to learn to surf. I should have taken lessons but inset I just barrowed a surf bored and paddled my way out into the Indian Ocean. When I tried to stand up I was immediately taken with the wave and rolled, so that was the end of surfing. So the is a quick over view of Durban.
After Durban we headed north up the coast to a small little town called St. Lucia. This was a very cool place. It was tuck in-between a large wet land and the ocean. This is the place to go for watching birds. It was filled with some fabulist wild life. We would watch the hippos lay in the water fallowed by a crocodile floating by and then a Goliath Herron. It is the largest Herron in the world. We went snorkeling and saw the most amazing fish. It was the kind of fish you see in large tanks at a fancy restaurant. Brilliant colors filled the water and I floated along in a school of silver and red fish. We also dared to enter into a game park. Where we drove around for about 4 hr. we saw such animals as the buffalo, elephant, rhino, zebra, giraffe, baboons, and I think that is it. Anyway the buffalo, rhino, and elephant are in the big five. I stood about 200ft. from a buffalo, 300ft from a rhino, and 10ft. from an elephant. The elephant didn’t like the fact that we where so close to her child so she started to charge and we pulled forward. But I thought was a great photo opportunity so I pulled my self out of the car and sat on the window ledge. Well Miss. Elephant didn’t like that idea so much and once again stared to run after our car. But don’t worry mom we didn’t get trampled this was just our warning to not play around when an elephant has a baby right behind her.
Back in Pretoria and I am just taking a break from studying for a test I have tomorrow. So I should get back to that. I hope all is well. Happy Easter everyone, happy b-day Maggie, and rest in peace Mr. Pope you did us well. Peace in the Middle East. Love you all.