May 24- South West Africa May 24 & 25 Seadays Because we changed the itinerary from going through the Suez Canal to going around Africa, we have much more distance to travel, so we have more sea days than usual.  May 26 We arrived at the port of Luanda, the capital city of Angola, with a total population of 38 million.  The country has had a rough history, including a civil war from 1975 to 2002, but it is rich in natural resources, including gold, diamonds, and petroleum. However, the leaders are corrupt, spending millions on the presidential palace while the population faces high unemployment and deplorable living conditions.  Wages are in the region of $100 per month US, and hunger is commonplace. The port of Luanda has a population of 9 million and is where much of the slave trade originated, much of it to Brazil, the last country to abolish slavery.  Angola has a one-party system with no term limit.  The previous president was in pow...

  May 16 Safari On the way to our resort, we got a sample of the park seeing some impalas next to the dirt road.   At 3:30 we had afternoon tea and snacks accompanied by Vervet Monkeys, then our first game drive at 4pm.       We were assigned a driver guide, game tracker and jeep, six to the jeep comfortable seated in three rows, each one higher than the other so everyone has a great view.  Access to the jeep was via a nice set of steps, like a loading dock.  The goal of the game drive is to see the ‘Big Five” Lion, Leopard, Elephant, Cape Buffalo and Rino.  These are revered as they are the hardest to find and the most likely to kill you if they get a chance.  We only wanted to shoot them with the camera.   Kruger National Park has over 500 species of birds and almost 150 mammal species, totaling hundreds of thousands of individual animals in the park measuring 220 miles north to south and 40 miles wide.  We would be...