THIS IS AFRICA

Well Team,

this is it...

the last report from the great continent, from the great adventure. (I hope I didn't get to wordy :)

How did it all go down? What was the big finale?

It started with some dancing, some Re-meets, and some Mopeds.

After the Spice Tour, we met a bunch of people at the fish market for some wonderful fresh fish and Tanzanian Pizza. There was a big group of people gathering from different tours. People I had met on safari. People I just said "Jambo" to in the Market. We ate, we chatted, we sat at a beach bar drinking Kilimanjaro Beers asking questions and having some good laughs.

Then Victoria, Katrin, Patrick and I hit the disco. A large outdoor place on the roof of a hotel with a swimming pool in the middle of it. The pool was HUGE, 12 feet deep, and empty! A perfect place for some drunk folks to dance! And we did dance, although the music we seemed to like to dance to was less popular than the raeggaeton and Sean Paul and such that the African's enjoyed. Funny but fun. And to think, I was only approached by one hooker while I was there!

She said "Hello, what's your name?"

I Said "John"

"I like you John"

"that's nice. Have a good night"

she seemed very confused that I walked away so easily.

The next day was the first of the MoPed days!

Katrin, Patrick and I rented Mopeds (you have to have a temporary license for Zanzibar). We were taken to a soccer field to practice (good thing), and then were off on the roads of Zanzibar. It took us 2 hours to reach the east coast, with only one minor wipeout along the way. Patrick hit a bump and fell down, but was okay.

It was HOT, but the Indian ocean breezes hit us and we stopped at some bungalows and swam in the beautiful turquoise seas, with the perfect white sand beaches, and the perfect water as the sun went behind the trees and the full moon rose over the ocean. We ate fish fish and more fish! with green curry and bananas. (that's for you Rachel and Dave!). Yummy.

The sun set and I was off riding to Nungwi in the north, while Katrin and Patrick headed back to Stone Town.

Tangent: Did I talk about how awesome Stone town is? A literal maze of buildings, alleys, streets, twisty turney coolness. You can literally just wander around and be surprised at every turn. A shop. A Mosque. People playing Karem (basically pool with disks on a board.) I joined them for a game. I wasn't very good.

In fact in Stone town there is a Church built on the site of the former Slave Market, and Across the street is a Mosque. And between them is a white pillar with the words "May Peace Prevail on Earth". And here it does. Christians are invited over for the end of Ramadan celebration. Prayers are conducted, greetings are exchanged. Next door to this is a Hindu temple. It would be good for those who don't think the religions of the world are all meant to be here in harmony, it would be good for them to go to Zanzibar and take a look around. They might learn something about what every religion really teaches...

Tangent done, back to adventure:

MoPed. Dark roads. Confusing streets.

2 hours later I pull into Nungwi. Land of dozens of resorts both big and small, cheap ($20 a night) and astronomically expensive ($1200 a night!!!!). I'll let you guess which one I stayed at. :)

Problem was, at night its just darkness and rough roads and no clear idea where to go or what to do. Eventually I found someone to ask and they took me to the place I wanted to stay at. Right next to the water. A nice beach. A little restraunt and bar. About 5 budget places all next to each other.

I was so tired I hit the hay.

Up at 6:30am the next morning, walk on the beach. The tides here are HUGE. It's at least 150-200 feet difference between low and high tide. At low you can walk along the beach under the bungalows and balconies. At high tide the waves hit the rocks beneath them. There's no way past but to swim. The locals go out at low tide and walk amongst the rocks and corals in search of shell fish and clams and such. Hundreds of people. It's cool.

I ended up jumping on with a last minute scuba trip to the Mnemba Atoll. I haven't been in 2 years, but it all came back right away and I had a couple nice dives with thousands of fish in huge schools and a cool sea turtle. I love breathing underwater, especially turning on my back and looking at the bottom of the surface glistening in the sun above. Light streaming through. You really owe it to yourself to get certified, just to see it. Its amazing.

Got a little sunburned, but felt good, and then overheard 2 gals talking about the "FULL MOON PARTAY!"

That's right team, tonight is the full f-in moon partay!

So a nap was had, there was a Re-meet of the awesome Phia and Markus (whom I had met on Safari in Tanzania), and a group of us walked along the beach to find the partay. We heard what we thought was Karaoke on the way, but alas it was merely live music. (So no, 5 weeks, and no karaoke in Africa. In truth I never even saw a place that had karaoke and most people had no idea what I was talking about when I asked. :)

The partay was good. Basically a crowded beach bar with a cool acrobat show and then 4 hours of dancing. The full moon was bright. Some of the music was great, some was not. It was what I expected every bar in Nungwi to be like, but this is a much more chilled out place than Ko Phan Ngan, Thailand (home of the 20,000 person full moon partay I went to in 2005!). Still a good time.

The problem was I somehow was there after the music stopped and everyone had cleared out and there was no way to walk back (tide was in). So I went up to grab a cab, thinking others would be going back... but everyone was gone. So I had to negotiate with these cabbies who wanted 15,000 shillings ($13) for a 5 minute cab ride. Really? So a person I'd been chatting with said "go with those guys. It's 3000"

"who are those guys?"

"Friends. They're cool"

so I jumped in with 8 Rasta guys, jammin' the Reggae -- and smoking joints all around.

This'll be interesting.

Sure enough, we were stopped at the Police checkpoint for 10 minutes as I'm sure the driver had to pay some bribes. I mean, duh, the checkpoint is a permanent set up blocking the road to Nungwi. Did they really think the cops wouldn't be out on the full moon partay? :)

My final day was perfect.

I moved to a $23 room right on the beach. I ate a relaxed lunch with these two awesome folks from Belgian that I had been hanging out with. I went for a 2 1/2 hour walk/swim up the beach, through seaweed, crashing waves and white sand. I took a moped ride around town, where at least 300 folks were watching a football (soccer) match. I got a little sherbet cone for 100 shillings. I rode along the paved road for 20 minutes as the sun got low. I made it back to the beach for sunset, amazing sunset over the water. I took a sunset swim, and sat there as it got dark thinking about this absolutely fantastic trip I have gone on. I thanks my wonderful grandma for leaving me the inheritance which I used for this trip. Even though I have the money from work, I like to think that thanks to her I was given the chance to take this fantastic journey. I thanked my Mom for watching over me on my travels. It was perfect.

I ate a candle lit dinner on the beach under the full moon. The "menu" was to take me to the table and point out the different fish I could eat. Kingfish was had. It was good.

I then hung out with friends I had made at the beaches until midnight.

I feel good. Relaxed, and in truth ready to travel some more. :)

And travel I did... 45 hours from the time I jumped on my Moped in Nungwi, Zanzibar until I arrived at my front door half the world away in Los Angeles, California. I took a moped through the rain. Walked. Rode the ferry for 2 hours in crazy salt spray. Took a taxi (not getting ripped off for any of it going this direction). Took 3 plane flights: 1 where my seat had been given away. 1 where I had an emergency slide blocking half my leg room. 1 where I had space and could watch whatever movies I wanted! (Semi-Pro and The Wackness were the ones I watched). I even read 100 pages of the book I brought. (up to this point I'd read 10 pages the entire trip).

And now I'm home...

Los Angeles.

A world away from Africa.

A world away, but is it the real world?

Not really.

Africa is just as real as America to me now. Not that I'm planning on moving there or anything (I drank from the first water fountain I found when I got back! Hallelujah!), but Africa is no longer just something in books and pictures and movies. Africa is real. It's an amazing place full of wonderful people, fantastic scenery, animals, mountains. It's a place that tested me and rewarded me. It was a grand adventure, and one that I can't entirely process right now. When I look back at the pictures, It seems like a million years ago that the Gorilla touched me. Yet it feels like yesterday.

I've come back to the USA, and everything is mostly the same. Some good things have happened (Jared finished his album!, Scott and Lauren got engaged!), some bad things (the economy went to shit, fires burn southern California), but really it is mostly the same. As it is, things change slowly in daily life.

Africa.

It Fricking rules. :)

You owe yourself a trip there. Don't be afraid of it. Don't think it's all the horrors and sadness you see in the news. Sure, unfortunately there are places that are like that, but just because there is a crime somewhere doesn't mean the whole country, or continent!, is bad. It's not bad at all. It's amazing.

If I could tell you how I feel right now I would... but it's to much to explain.

Go see for yourself.

Get out there and live it, don't just trust me.

Get out there and travel... to Africa, or Asia, or to the mountains outside your home town.

Whatever you do, get out of your routine. Get out of the rut of daily life. Make your life the adventure you want it to be. Don't waste it. It's to precious. To amazing. This world is full of things that will take your breath away and blow your mind, and you can't get it from reading about it or watching it on TV. Go ahead, stand on the side of Kilimanjaro at sunset, have a Gorilla touch you, watch 10,000 wildebeest stampede across the plains, hear the sounds of children laughing and singing and dancing in the rain.

Don't miss it.

And though I thank you for reading all of these emails, trust me: It is so much more than these words can ever capture.

This is just the surface.

This is just a glimpse.

This isn't Africa...

But I've seen it.

And I'm so lucky.

This is Craig Ouellette,

last surviving member of the Nostromo

Signing off.