Happy New Year from South Africa!

We arrived in Tuesday evening, January 1st after a long journey from Washington DC (via Paris) that included over 17 hours of flying time. After getting a good night's rest in Jo'burg, we drove down to the Northern Drakensberg Mountains, which are about 4 hours south. We stayed at the Amphitheater Backpackers hostel and had a few great day trips. One was a 7 hour hike up to Tugela Falls, which is the highest waterfall in Africa and the second highest in the world, after Angel Falls in Venezuela. On our second day, we took a guided tour of a small village in Lesotho, which is it's own country within South Africa. The people in Lesotho (Leh-soo-too) are referred to as Basuto (Bah-soo-too). We had a rare opportunity to meet the people of the village, see rock paintings by the native San people, visit with a Sangoma (a witch doctor), and sampled the local beer and food. We were amazed by how simply the people lived in such a remote mountainous area with no running water or electricity, and yet they all seemed so happy and the children had radiant smiles! See more photos.