Cradle of Humankind

Cradle of Humankind is a world heritage location where some the very first "human" remains have been found. Human is in quotes as some of the remains are before are current species' time. While you cam visit the caves where the remains were found we were told there wasn't much to see. The museum however does a great job of tracing the history and displaying some of the fossils. The area is about 45 min outside of JoBurg.

Cheetah Reserve

Today was cheetah reserve day. About 2 hours north just outside Pretoria is a park where they rehabilitate cheetahs and do research.


On the day we went we were fortunate that they were also running the cheetahs. They had the cheetahs running free chasing a lure for about 200m just 5 feet away from us. Then we were able to pet one that was lying on a table!


After that the normal tour started where we saw more cheetah, ostrich, hyena, vultures, wild dogs.


Albino Honey Beaver



Ostrich about 2 feet from our faces!


Wild dogs eating - we looked for Pablo and Kibbe!


Cheetahs being fed


Monkeys eating extra feed

We finished the day by driving into Pretoria and watching some soccer games.

Soccer matches

Spain vs Honduras- we had great seats 5 rows back just beyond the penalty box and was fun being so close to the action.


Ellis Park is an older stadium in the city and the seats are smaller and facilloties


not quite as nice as Soccer City but you are closer to the field.

Germany vs Ghana - a fun game with all Africans rooting for Ghana as the African team with a chance to advance. We were at the very last row top deck bit still had a good view of the game. Germany won it was an exciting game and based on Serbia vs Australia result Ghana still advanced so everyone was happy at the end.

Italy vs Slovakia - We had great seat at midfield and the game was surprising. Italy had the most fans by far and needed at least a tie to advance. However they came out flat and Slovakia had a 1-0 lead at half which increases to 2-0. With 10 min to go Italy finally woke up And the scoring as follows: 2-1, 3-1, then 3-2. Italy and France (last world cup finalists) both packed their bags.

Alexandra Township

Our tour today was with Abby and his driver, Lucky. He took the four of us on a tour of his township, Alexandra.




One of our first stops was to buy some worms to eat. Cristina's face says all you need to know.




Here you see some of the illegal shacks that go up. Some people are friendly to white people some are very suspicous still.






Here is where Nelson Mandela first lived on his own before Soweto.







Here is our guide and his children.






FIFA has made a big effort to reach out to the townships with soccer clinics and tickets to the games.






School children in uniforms.






What cut of meat did you say you wanted?






Our guides






We finished with lunch with the locals.

USA vs Slovenia

The USA game was great. There was tons of US fans, it was great to see such strong supportfor our soccer team - great costumes and everything. We get to the games 2-3 hours in advance tostart celebrating. Fortunately South Africa hasn't learned from the US that you can sell food and beer for twice as much and half the volume- so all is quite cheap.






There were a good number of enthusiastic Slovenia fans as well.



The South Africans joined us in the fun and wanted photos with us (or at least Cristina!)


We had great seats about 15 rows up in front of the penalty area. Unfortunately all the goals were scored at the other end.





Good time, decent result, lots of fun!

Too little time 2 blog

These r the days after car rental! We just keep seeing new, cool things AND people have been fabulous!!! Try 2 guess where each pic is from! Hint: Soccer City is where we saw Argentina win 4-1 over S Korea... More 2 come...

Futball schedule

These are the matches we will be attending:
June 17: Argentina vs S Korea
June 18: USA vs Slovenia
June 20: Brazil vs Ivory Coast
June 21: Spain vs Honduras
June 22: Germany vs Ghana
June 24: Italy vs Slovakia
June 27: Round of 16: Argentina vs Mexico poss.
June 28: Round of 16: Netherlands vs Paraguay poss.
June 29: Round of 16: no idea hard to predict
July 2: Quarterfinals

Rental car savior

We finished the day by renting a car for the week- an absolute neccisty for JoBurg. Our sightseeing options are now vast. It didn't hurt to be upgraded from a Toyota Yaris to a BMW 320! Now we just have to remember to stay on the left side of the road!

Apatheid Museum

We were able to find a driver to take us to the museum and pick us up. The museum is an absolute must for any visit. It is a very thorough history lesson on South Africa. While we had a general background the museum gave us greater understanding of the culture. The coverage of the oppression since the 40's was enlightening. There was alot of news footage that we had never seen before. It was also Youth Day, which until the museum I thought was just a nice recognition of young people similar to Mother's Day. During the visit we realized it is a memorial to the youth slaughtered in Soweto while protesting.

First day getting about

We started with ambitious plans for the day- catch a "black taxi" into Sandton.(these taxis are not black- the black people ride in them). This was our easiest, and least expensive leg of transport of the day. We got to Innes Free Park where a huge viewing party was shaping up and we tried to find a bus to the aparthied museum. We were not successful. We ended up getting into town, walking in a few circles trying to learn the transportation game. We learned that the areas around Joberg are somewhat overwhelmed and confused with the crowds of people everywhere. After a couple of hours we gave up and our goals turned to food and game watching. We ended up at Mandela Square shopping mall at a wonderful Italian restaurant/bar where we watched the Portugal - Ivory Coast match, finally ate some food, and drank MANY karaf of sangria. then it was time to find our way back to our flat- this time we found better help and only spent 30 minutes figuring it out. Long day- tomoro we rent a car!!

Tour of London

We took the express into London for our 8 hour layover. Saw Westminister Alley Buckingham palace the Thames in A quick tour. We are now watching Ghana vs Serbia before we head back to Heathrow.

USA vs England

Fortunately USA only tied England and we were still welcome in London pubs. We'll be at the next USA game

Stopover in dallas

I was exicted to stop in Dallas on the way to London for TX BBQ and Mexican martini, however 1 step off the reminded me why we live in CA!

Getting ready for our big trip

Cristina and I are starting our packing for our big trip.  It's a long flight as we fly via London with a 8 hour layover there.  We hope to get out to London for 4 hours or so and see some sights and hopefully relish the USA victory over the brits.  We fly out on June 12th and will arrive in Johannesburg on June 14th!!