April 2014

Hank: South Luangwa and Lower Zambezi National Parks, Zambia

I FOUND MY NEW HOME WHEN I AM A MILLIONAIRE. I am going to live in the South Luangwa National Park in Zambia where I will serve as an apprentice to our guide, Manda. I can be the guy who walks around carrying the tea and cookies for the guests when they go on walks and driving safaris. We stayed at Mfwue Lodge, which is located inside the park. You could actually see many different kinds of animals from the cabin.

We had the coolest guides ever! The first guide’s name was Kelvin. But we only had him for the first day. The rest of the time our guide was named Manda. He was great. He knew all of the scientific and normal person names for the animals that we saw. He had been guiding for 16 years. He showed me how to identify many different kinds of tracks and let me shine the spot light around from the land rover at night. I was the spotter and I spotted lots of animals.

Next we went to a lodge called Sausage Tree in Lower Zambezi National Park. We saw a lot of lions there. We also went fishing for tiger fish. The biggest one we caught was 8 pounds but we also caught a 7 pounder and some smaller ones. They fight really hard! It was way harder than any 8 pound fish you could catch in Texas except for maybe a tarpon. Of course I have never caught a tarpon so I don’t really know. If any body reads this who has caught a tarpon and a tiger fish then please comment on this blog and tell me which one fights harder. This is the 8 pounder.

Nadine: Lower Zambezi National Park, Zambia

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Tents, no. Rough, no. Tents and rough is what I thought when my parents said we were going to a bush camp. But when we got there we had giant cabins and two pools. One of the coolest things was fishing for tiger fish. It was so fun and the people were extremely nice. For the first day I was having a great time. Then they introduced me to the scorpions and milipeads. After that I did not like it as much, but I still thought it was amazing. Our guide’s name was Prisly. He took us fishing almost every day. First he would take his to a spot to catch bait fish with little worms he had trapped the day before. Then he would cut the bate into filets and we would move to a spot to catch tiger fish. It was so cool. There were elephants all around us. There was even a hippo that really liked the camp and his name was Dexter. There were more hippos in the water and all around the camp. We also saw an awesome pride of lions. There were a lot of little lions that would play with each other while the mothers would hunt. We had an amazing time looking at all of the animals and talking to the staff. One of the staff members taught me how to set a table with all of the things in the right place. We had a really good time and I can’t wait to go back.

Nadine: South Luangwa National Park, Zambia

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Elephants, and crocodiles, and leopards, oh my! That is what I thought while we were in South Luangua. We stayed at a lodge called Mfuwe Lodge. It was extremely cool and our guide was awesome. The guide’s name was Manda. He kind of resembled a nature book; he knew all of the scientific names for the animals that we saw from the baboons to the birds. The food at the lodge was also great. My favorite was the BBQ chicken that we had the first day. Some days we would be driving around and the lodge would set up a giant picnic with tables and fires that they make the food on. Our joke about the food was that we would leave looking like a warthog. The two animals we saw the most of were impala and puku. They were kind of like deer. The impala were white, tan, and black, whereas the puku were tan and white. Manda said there were a lot of crocodiles in the water that would drag other things into the water to eat. We saw 27 elephants next to a salt block once. We also saw a pride of twelve lions. Both things were kind of scary, but really exciting. We went to a bush camp for two nights and it was amazing because we were the only ones there. They had tasty drinks and I emptied the stock of ginger beer single handedly. The safari rides were fun and we saw a lot of baboons. We also saw a leopard with two of its cubs. It was great and I can’t wait to go back.

Hank: Mallorca, Spain

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We went to an island south east of Spain called Mallorca. Oddly, they speak Spanish there! Can you believe it? The land is SO beautiful there. Most of it is dry – stack walls terracing the hillsides with olive and fruit trees all around you. Nice beaches make up much of the coastline and where they don’t, cliffs dropping straight to the water from hundreds of feet up make for unbelievable ocean view and picture taking sights. Tall Mountains and low valleys like a giant’s cereal bowl make up the center of the island. These beautiful peaks and bowls boast amazing hiking trails and breath taking lookout points.

This island is not a volcanic island Unlike Hawaii.

We stayed in Palma (the capital of Mallorca) for the first couple of days. We were supposed to leave after that but the Lufthansa air line pilots went on strike that day which turned out to be a pretty good thing in my opinion because when that happened we went and stayed in a small mountain town on Mallorca called Soller. In Soller we went hiking twice on two absurdly beautiful hiking trails. The first was probably my favorite because at the top there was a restaurant and hotel that looked out over the whole valley. The second was awesome also because we hiked through the mountains to Soller’s port which is a completely different town on the coast but has the same name.

In Soller the home that we stayed at was so pretty that I may not find one quite so cool again. I thought that the best part was the fact that it had a ping pong table but I think that every one else thinks that the wisteria hanging above the ping pong table was great. There was also the fact that you could reach through the fence and pick an orange at any time and that was pretty cool. How weird. My mom’s best friend from elementary school lives on Mallorca so we spent a lot of time with her. Her name was Alice and she was an artist. I would recommend this place to any one then tell them to recommend it to any one they know.

Nadine: Mallorca, Spain

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Mallorca was a very fun place. There were a lot of beaches and cafés. We stayed in two cities while we were there. The first city we stayed in was called Palma and the second one was called Soller.

Palma was a walled city. It had this giant cathedral in the center of town. The cathedral had a pond in the front that had swans in it. The architecture of the cathedral was absolutely amazing. Palma and New York were both artistic. New York was bigger, but I think Palma had a larger span of personalities, though I do not know which one I liked better. There were a lot of really nice beaches in Palma. There were bike paths that went along the water. You could rent bikes and ride down the whole path, which is fifteen kilometers. My mom met one of her friends from elementary school there. We spent a lot of time with her. Her name was Alice. She was really nice. She was also an amazing artist. We had a little apartment that had no windows and the bedrooms were kind of small, but other than that it was really nice. Mallorca was first settled by prehistoric peoples who built stone structures that included the Great Wall of Palma which other conquerors of Mallorca, such as Romans and Moors, kept in later years.

Soller was a cute beach town. It had an amazing port, and there was a really nice beach there. There were a lot of little cafés along the water. My favorite place was a little ice cream shop with really creamy ice cream. Personally, I think my favorite flavor was strawberry. In Soller proper there were a lot of really cool hikes. The first one was my favorite because it had a canopy of trees that made a tunnel. There was also a train that went from the port to Soller proper. A different train went from the port to Palma, and yet another went from Soller proper to Palma and back. Mallorca was really fun and I can’t wait to go back on another trip.

Archives for April 2014