Safe Travels

Well, as you all know, there have been a lot of unfortunate developments regarding traveler safety in light of the terrorist busts last week out of London. We are scheduled to fly through London in both directions for our trip. Up until yesterday, it was forbidden to carry anything at all on the plane, so we were trying to decide how to get our cameras to Africa. Thank goodness they've made some changes. Our first priority is obviously safety, but we sure do want to take some photos while we're there! That's it for now.

The Perfect Shoes!

I (finally) found the world's most perfect shoes for a month-long trip to Africa! They are the Merrell Chameleon II Stretch GTX. They are waterproof, have nice rugged soles, and, best of all, they are super comfortable! And they are only moderately ugly. Yay! I previously bought and returned 2 other pairs (Salomon Amphibian - not comfortable and the Merrell Chameleon without Gortex - not waterproof). I knew if I didn't get waterproof shoes, I'd end up getting in the mud sometime during the first couple of days and, for the rest of the trip, I'd be the one with the really stinky shoes! For a girl who has been known to take up to 5 or 6 pairs of shoes with me for one weekend, finding ONE pair to take for a whole month has been a real search. Happiness = shoe perfection!

Flatulence

Well, I did some research on the medicine we've been given to take with us in case we pick up a case of traveler's diarrhea. It's called Xifaxan...It's pretty new and good for areas of Africa with resistance to Cipro. Not absorbed systemically, it carries the benefit of having very few drug interactions or systemic side effects. But, look out for some local GI side effects. Some of my friends suggested using this recreationally (think "fart contests") or to get revenge on someone who has made you mad. Whether I end up NEEDING to use it (for either medical or recreational purposes), I'll be sure to let you all know if I'm in the lucky 11.7%.