After two very relaxing weeks with family in Marbella, Spain, we are now off to Africa for six weeks.
We´ve had a fantastic time relaxing in Marbella for the last two weeks. We are staying at my Uncle Bill and Aunt Lolita´s place, which has been a real treat! We´ve had lots of time to spend with my big bro Ben, Bill, Lolita and my cousins Silvia, Victor (her son), Ted, Pepe, Teddy, Guillermo, and Will.
The big news here is that Ben proposed to his girlfriend, Sylvia, while we were here. We were very happy to be here for the excitement, the calls home, and discussing the upcoming wedding plans. They are hoping to have a Spring wedding here in Marbella ... no official date has been set as of yet. We are so excited for them since they are the perfect match! This means that we will end our travels in Marbella in the Spring. As we travel on, it will be nice to have the ¨wedding week¨ to look forward to. I don´t know if Spain is ready to meet the Meloche/Kessels clan from Canada ... it could get nutty!
It will be difficult to leave this resort town of Marbella on Sunday. Over the past two weeks we´ve had time to see some local sites ... Gilbraltar (the Rock), Ronda (old Spanish city), and my cousin Will up the coast in a university town called Almeria. We´ve also had a chance to try more Spanish food with Ted taking us out for fish (pescado), Ben taking us out for tapas, and Aunt Lolita and Silvia taking us out for a true Spanish meal. It´s so nice having other people order for us so we can try new things. I also went to yoga for my first time with Aunt Lolita, which was good fun for both myself and the instructor as he watched me try to figure out the moves in Spanish.
We´ve been able to spend a lot of time with Ben and Sylvia. They´ve had us over to their place for great meals and relaxing nights. Tomorrow we´re heading to the casino, where we will meet Sylvia´s father, who is a manager there. We´ve also seen Ben almost daily during siesta (lunch hour). We´ve filled our bellies and had many laughs in the several restaurants he calls his favourites across town. They are now our favourites. We also managed to work off a gelato cone or two on the mountain walk he took us on today. Ben is so much fun to be with ... always laughing and we always have very interesting conversations. It has been so nice to see him for an extended period of time. He´s trying to convince us to stay a month when we come back for the wedding, but by then I´m sure we´ll be very excited about heading back to Canada.
On Sunday morning, we head to Madrid in order to catch our flight to Nairobi, Kenya on Monday. We will arrive on Tuesday and Cailin´s friend, Jamshed, will be picking us up. On Wednesday, we meet our group for our five week camping safari through Kenya, Tanzania (Zanzibar), Malawi, and Zambia (Victoria Falls). The safari is from November 26th to January 3rd. There will be 15 of us in a big truck trapsing across these four countries. As you can well imagine, we are super pumped to see the animals in the Serengetti!
If you´re interested in learning more about our trip, check it out online.
On Jan 3rd we fly to Cape Town, South Africa, for six days before flying to Thailand to start our South East Asia adventure.
We´re not sure what type of Internet access we will have while in Africa. If we get online, we´ll definitely try to update the site, otherwise, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.
Until Africa!
Jill
Off we go... am I pumped or what!?! Lions, tigers, giraffes, elephants, rhinos, hyppo´s... bring it on!! The camera´s will be clicking and the heart will be ticking! Then, a nice relaxing 6 days in cape town to relax and recuperate until we leave for south east asia...
So, from now, like Jilly said, email access maybe few and far between... but if there is and we have time we will definitely stop to let those of you back home in on just what exactly we have been doing! Merry Christmas, Happy Hanuhka (sp?), Happy New Year and for some, Happy Birthday!!
Now the fingers are crossed until we get our Visa´s for Kenya and Tanzania... until then, adios!
Bow.