City of Statues, Birds, Flowers and Buildings

Durban, South Africa, celebrates its heroes with stature.  The first we saw was in honor of an 11 year old boy who hiked several hundred miles to get medicine for the city.  He was one of the few who was not too sick to travel.  Next was a man who traveled across an enemy country to warn the British of an impending attack.  The third, in the Botanical Garden, just celebrates children.

Egyptian Goose

The Botanical Garden has plants from all over the world, but what caught my attention were the birds.  The grounds were overrun by Egyptian Geese.  The local people do not like them because they are noisy and they chase away native birds.

Ibis

Spoonbill

And my favorite, the Great Blue Heron.






There was a whole building full of orchids.  Here are a couple of my favorites.

I do not know the name of this tree,
 but it towered over all the others.

One other "garden" was on the roof of a little place near the dock.

Durban has a huge unemployment problem, and with that, street people.  Some were sleeping on the steps of the old government building.







The city market sells everything!

Mosque

This city has the largest Indian community outside of India.










It also has one of the largest malls.














The stadium has a ride which takes you on a track to the top of the stadium and back down the other side.  On one side there are two tracks, but these combine for the other side, representing a divided nation becoming one.

Into the Thousand Hills

A typical "homestead"

Durban is another big city, so I decided to get out into the country to see how the rest of the people live.  During Apartheid, blacks were moved into separate areas called homesteads.  These were usually a ways away from the main city even though the people worked in the city.
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The area is called the Valley of a Thousand Hills.. When you looked down from the village, the hills stretched as far as you could see.

Even the restrooms had a "native" flair

There are also villages where the Zulu people live a more traditional style.  We went to a "model village," a reconstruction of a typical village with dancers displaying the traditional dances.  As an added attraction(?) they kept a reptile collection of Nile Crocodiles, snakes, tortoises and lizards.

Some of the crocodiles liked to fight, so they were kept in separate enclosures.  This fellow lost part of his upper jaw, but the teeth kept on growing, even without an opposing jaw.

A Leopard Tortoise.

A small (10 foot) albino boa

They had  many poisonous snakes, but the one we were allowed to hold was not one of them.  This one was called a Ball Python because when startled it curls up into a ball.

The Welcome Dance

The dancers wore traditional clothing and performed welcome dances, a dance about a young girl rebuking a suitor until he said he had a cow to give her parents, a dance where the boy went to the Medicine Woman to see if this was a good match and a wedding celebration dance.  The final dance, we were later told, was the Gospel story.

The Medicine Woman is on the right.

This dancer stole the show.  He came out with the men and already knew most of the motions.




When we arrived in Durban there was another plaque exchange.  A representative from the Durban Neonatal hospital, the oldest one in Africa, came aboard to receive the remaining 220 baby hats.

Africa, At Last!

Yes, I know that Madagascar is technically a part of Africa, but we are at last on the mainland of Africa. I know we are really in Africa, because our ship is docked by the longest suspension bridge in Africa.












Our tour took us to the major sights in Maputo, Mozambique, on the Indian Ocean just north of South Africa.

The first stop was on the main city square, with the Cathedral on one side, the city hall on another and a statue of the leader, Samora Machel, who fought for independence.

City Hall

The train station is considered to be one of the ten most beautiful stations in the world, but I do not know what criteria they use.  Inside the station they had pictures of all 10, an exhibit of photographs of ordinary people at the station and a couple of the first engines used in the country.

Does the name Eiffel remind you of anything?  Perhaps a tall airy structure in Paris?  Eiffel liked to design using metal, so before he became famous for designing the Eiffel Tower in Paris, he designed an all metal building as a government office building in Maputo.  The only problem was that when it was done and the tropical sun shone on it, it became a huge oven, making it uninhabitable.  The government did not want it, so it was handed off to someone else.  They have added air conditioning and now use it as a museum.

Every city has a fort, and Maputo is no exception.  Most of the cannons have been retired to form a work of art in the main courtyard of the fort.

 Every city also has seems to have a botanical garden and Viking makes sure that it is included in at least one tour.  In the case of our tour, this meant going into the garden looking around for a minute or two and continuing on the tour to a most important stop -- lunch.  The food was delicious, but I have no idea what it really was.  I think that one of the skewers was chicken and the other shrimp.  The triangular piece was a semosa filled with meat of some kind.  When I asked about the third piece,  neither the owner nor our guide could come up with a word in English.  Whatever it was, it was delicious.

The final stop was at a natural history museum.  We had been warned that many of the pieces were quite old and may not be in the best shape.  I was not prepared for the overwhelming number of animals in natural poses in such proximity.  Many of the animals were shown in action poses doing what they would normally do --running, jumping, attacking other animals or caring for their young.

Each time a ship comes into a port for the first time, city officials come aboard and exchange some sort of plaque or certificate with city officials.  Sometimes these are very low-key events but often the local press is invited and the ceremony is held in the "Atrium", the center of our ship, on the grand stairway.  The screen on the landing with its changeable pictures displays an appropriate work of art or a colorful local postal stamp.  This time the screen displayed some of the knitters with an array of the baby caps we  have done.  All the knitters present were invited to come up and stand on the stairs while we presented a box of hats to the local Red Cross.

Supplies for disaster relief

In addition, Viking Sun donated $50,000 of food and other ship stores such as bedding and cooking supplies to the Red Cross for disaster relief for the large hurricane which had hit the country recently.

The World’s Fourth Largest Island

Do you know the three islands which are larger?  Madagascar is the fourth largest, located two days sail off the coast of Africa.  It is also the third least developed economy in the world.  We have seen poverty in India and Cambodia , but Madagascar is far poorer than anyplace we have ever been.  Gives a new definition of the word poor!

Other places have some developed areas in port cities.  Madagascar has an open air market for all the needs of the inhabitants.  If you live in the city, you go to the market for food, water, haircuts, massages, household goods and anything else you need.  There is no running water in the city.  All water must be hauled from central locations. 

Rice fields

If you live in the countryside, you grow some food or rice.  However, the country does not grow enough rice, the staple food eaten 3 times a day, to feed the growing population. The rice, etc is mostly imported, likely from SE Asia. 

Vegetable farming with wooden tools

In rural areas, it is customary to have six sons and six daughters.  The price of a bride is one cow, or about $100 US.  On the other hand, if you have children before you get married, the price goes up to two cows.  Elementary education is mandatory, but in the rural areas, few of the children we saw were in school.  

Even the youngest toddlers we saw held their hands out for candy or money.  Wherever you stop, women and children try to sell you hand carved figures.  I do not know who makes them. 

Our morning trip took us to a private reserve to see the animals, principally the lemurs.  There are 4 types of lemurs in Madagascar and we saw all of them.  At least that is what the guide said.  Some of them appeared only as large shapes moving in the top of the trees.  

White Lemurs are the most common, followed by ring-tailed, brown and bamboo lemurs that only live in the giant bamboo trees.  These bamboo trees grow to over 100 feet tall.  That would make some cane fishing pole! 

Both the ring-tailed lemurs and the white lemurs were active, jumping from tree to tree and branch to branch.  Some of them posed for us, or so it seemed.  I was surprised at the size of them.  The ring- lemurs had a body about four feet long and a bushy tail longer than their bodies.  The bamboo lemurs were the smallest, about half that size.

The reserve is fenced, so we were not surrounded by people selling or asking for hand-outs, but some boys made money by catching chameleons or baby birds and showing them so you could take a picture and pay them.  It is illegal, so as soon as someone from the park service came near, they ran, only to pop up on another trail. 

We saw a lot of other animals in the area, including a single crocodile in a fenced area.  Once there were three, but the biggest ate the smaller ones so he (she?) now lives a lonely life.

There was also a fence around the tortoises to keep them from wandering too far.  While we were looking at them, a tree boa slid by.  He was small, only about four feet long and about an inch in diameter.  The measurements are approximate since I did not pick him up to measure him.

The reserve was only 10 -12 kilometers from the ship, but it took over an hour to get there.  Part of the way was on roads paved by the mining company so they could export a mineral used to make titanium.  The company has helped build the piers and other infrastructure needed for their operations.  Once you left that road, the track was wide enough, but so rocky, rutted and uneven that it took a 4-wheel drive vehicle to navigate them.  Even so, our truck bottomed out twice, scraping the bottom of the engine.  We feared that it would breakdown and strand us.  That would not happen unless we were the last vehicle, since there were several vehicles carrying people to the reserve. 

We had to go around small herds of cattle and goats, but I have no idea where they were going.  Some people were working on large piles of rocks making gravel and building blocks with a hammer and chisel.  As we drove by the houses, people stared and many waved.  Young children ran alongside the vehicles begging.  

Women carry large bundles or baskets on their heads, and men carry packages on sticks balanced on their shoulders.  Laundry is done in a large pan in the yard and hung on fences or bushes to dry.  Many of the children wore t-shirts supporting one political party or another.

The picture is straight.  The house is not.

Houses and fences are usually made of the fronds of the traveler palm.  The trunk is cut into boards to make a framework and the walls are sticks or vertical boards.  The roofs are tin or palm fronds.  Cooking is done over an open fire, either charcoal or sticks.  

Viking had collected used clothing from the passengers to donate along with $50,0000 worth of supplies like linens and food.  Each time a Viking ship comes into a port that Viking has not visited before, the Captain and officers present a plaque to the town and in return receive one from the local officials.  At this ceremony, Viking presented the goods, clothing and 75 baby hats that Sue's knitters have made since we left Miami.

Turtles, Big and Old

Mauritius is a blend of people whose ancestors came from many parts of the world and brought their   As we were driving we saw Christian, Buddhist, Hindu and Shinto places of worship.  Each ethnic group brought its own holidays, and everyone celebrates all of them.  This is a country where people seem to get along and respect each other.  Besides, with all those holidays to celebrate, who could complain?

The island is far from everything, so it has some unique animals.  The most famous is the dodo, which has been extinct for a few hundred years. 

Its ancestors were pigeons who flew, probably aided by monsoon winds, to this remote island.  There were no predators on the island which allowed them to grow big and fat and lose their ability to fly.  Enter the Europeans.  They saw these 50 pound birds waddling around without any fear and the first thought must have been –Dinner!  Within a few years there were no more dodos.

Several other birds, animals and plants are endemic to Mauritius, meaning that they are not found anywhere else.  Unfortunately, modern civilization has threatened the habitat of several of these.  Fortunately, conservation efforts have brought several species back from the edge of extinction.  

Iles Aux Aigrettes is a nature preserve where some of the endangered species have been introduced.  There once were 2 different species of tortoise on this island, but, sadly, they are now extinct.  Instead, another endangered species with a shell up to 2.5 feet in diameter, has been introduced.  They rescue eggs as they are hatching and raise them until they are several months old, paint a number on the shell so they can keep track of them, then return most of them to other locations.  There are many of the adults on the island.  One of them is 106 years old.

We rode for over an hour to reach the area and took a small boat to the island.  Since there were 39 people on the bus and the boat only held 13 passengers, it took 3 trips to get everyone to the island.  Unfortunately there were several tourists in the group.  Our cruise director defines a tourist as one who goes to a foreign country and expects everything to be just like the USA.  A traveler looks at things and sees the differences and understands that we travel to see and understand the area and people.  

The tourists in the group complained that it took so long to get there.  They complained that everyone could not go to the island at once.  They complained that the boat was so small and difficult to get into.  I am sure that they wore flip flops and then complained that the trail was not paved, even though all these were mentioned in the Port Talk which they probably did not attend.

Darrell went to the botanical garden which highlights not only local plants, but others from around the world.  One of the most spectacular is the giant water lily.