The Smoke that Thunders

We made it out to the US Embassy to get our extra passport pages on Tuesday. I called first thin g in the morning and a very comforting, very American voice telling me that it would all be OK, just to come down to the embassy. So we rented a VW Citi and drove across Cape Town to the Embassy. The stars and stripes flying over South Africa was a beautiful sight for two stranded travelers. Security to get in tighter than Ft. Knox. Once inside, we received VIP treatment and left with a fat new edition of pages taped into our cluttered old passports. Afterward we crossed Table Mountain and explored the Cape of Good Hope. We visited a penguin colony. They were cute with their bigger-than-mom chicks. They laied around like lazy house cats. I really like Cape Town. It is one of the most beautiful cities I've ever seen. I loved the way the mountains blend into the city. We stayed at the Hotel Ritz two nights. Wednesday we flew from Cape Town to Jo berg to Livingston. We saw Victoria Falls from the plane and I nearly cried. It was so beautiful. Mosi oa Tunya, "The Smoke that Thunders." We stayed at Zambezi Waterfront where we met up with our tour group last night. There are about 12 of us - all mostly young professionals from England, Canada and the US. They're all really nice and interesting. We visited Vic Falls again this morning and now we're at the border crossing getting stamps and changing money. It's so nice to have a guide for this stuff. Border crossings always freak me out. A guy with a hose is herding women through a little door in the border gate. Africa makes me a little sad. Zambia was so expensive for us and yet the people are so poor. What is wrong?