South Africa

The trip to South Africa was awesome.  I wish I could have stayed longer (I'm sure Lorena wishes I hadn't stayed so long!).  Everybody we met was super friendly, the scenery was amazing, and the soccer was great.  I am already making plans to attend the World Cup in 2014 in Brazil, but I think I will take Lorena and Smalls along to that one.  The only negative was that South Africans didn't seem to be the best at giving directions or estimating how long it would take to get somewhere.  The usual answer to our inquiry about how to find something or get somewhere was "Oh, you just go down the road and you will see it."  Or, when asking how long it took to get somewhere "Oh it's just a few hours."  A few as in three, four, five?  "Four or so."  Well both times we were told something was four hours away it ended up being seven!  Oh well.  Tyson (my buddy who is living in Brazil) and I were able to attend four games and visit Kruger National Park to go on a safari.  One of the highlights of the trip was sneaking (multiple times) on to the FIFA VIP bus that would leave from our hotel to get free rides to the games - complete with police escort, so we could get around traffic and get to the games on time! 

We saw Mexico - Argentina, Brazil - Chile, Paraguay - Japan, and Uruguay - Ghana.
In Kruger we saw:  Lions, leopards, giraffes, elephants, zebras, wildebeasts, impalas, kudus, springboks, civets, hippos, ostriches, baboons, some crazy looking birds, and some other versions of gazelles whose names I can't remember.

Here are some pictures: