Beautiful Full Moon in San Jose del Cabo!!

/ Ed Armstrong
Sitting on our porch, we enjoyed a spectacular full moon!! This photo is from our room, looking over the pool and spa. It was a wonderful view!!

John and I walked down to the beach to see the reflection of the moon across the Gulf of California!! It was so beautiful!!

Looking to the south, we enjoyed all the lights from the resorts and houses!! What a gorgeous evening!!

This was the view of our resort from the beach! It was amazing!!

We Love Seeing el Archo A Second Time!!

/ Ed Armstrong
We could not stay away from having another trip to see El Archo!! This time we were on a tour using a completely clear boat!! It was great to see all the fish as well as visit the arch!! Charlene was not too excited to be leaning over the edge of a boat that was moving up and down with all the waves from nearby boats!! We had a great time!!

This is Pedro!! He basically lives in the marina in Cabo San Lucas and the boats go by and say hello to him!

Two cruise ships joined us in Cabo San Lucas this morning! They were so huge!!

Every type of boat imaginable was near the arch for scuba diving, snorkeling, or sightseeing!!

This was a very popular location for snorkeling!!

We loved being on a boat that was completely clear!! We could see so many fish!!

This is another beautiful view of lovers beach!! Divorce beach is just on the other side with the rougher Pacific Ocean waves,

This is the “Ventana a la Pacifica” It is the window view from the Gulf of California to the Pacific Ocean on the other side. Today our boat was a bit closer, for a nicer view than a few days ago.

I love this view of El Archo!! It is so beautiful!!

This lady was the first in our group to volunteer to go to the front of the boat for a photo, sit on the narrow edge of the boat, and enjoy the boat moving up and down with the waves!!

Charlene did not enjoy the movement of the boat. Her smile is a little forced! But we had so much fun!! I love my wild and crazy socks from participating in the Turkey Trot a couple of years ago!!

Hold on to the boat for dear life!!

On the way back we saw the cruise ship giving people rides in this crane that went up into the air! What an amazing experience they were having!!

There is some serious money in some of the boats in Cabo San Lucas!!

We saw this sign as we were walking around the marina. I thought it was cute!!

Cabo San Lucas has great food!!

This famous Cabo sign is everywhere!! From t-shirts, to mugs, to artwork. We had to have our photo taken with this landmark!!

These ladies knew how to have a great time with customers!! They thoroughly enjoyed trying to get customers to buy a series of tequila shots. We laughed with them, but bypassed the shots.

This is the restaurant where we ate. Their food was wonderful!!

This was my carne asada burrito!! I do not think I have every had fries with a burrito, but I enjoyed them both!

These were the carne asada tacos!! The flavors were wonderful!!

This woman was not too excited to have a live iguana sitting on her shoulder!!

This guy was much happier to hold the iguana!! However, his mother was much more skeptical about the creature!!

Cabo San Lucas is a vivid and fun place to visit!!

El Archo de Cabo San Lucas!!

/ Ed Armstrong
We have seen photos of the famous Arch of Cabo San Lucas and today we had a great tour to see it ourselves!! It is at the southern tip of the of the Baja California Peninsula! It is beautiful, and where the Pacific Ocean meets the Gulf of California (formerly Sea of Cortez).

Everyone has a great time in Cabo!! These guys had their music loud and everyone was swaying to the beat! Alcohol might be involved.

As we left the harbor, our guide showed us several caves into the rock along the coast.

At this angle, the top of the rock is in the profile of a lion’s head!!

Going farther down the coast from the marina is lovers beach. The is a popular beach for swimming that is only accessible by boat. It is beautiful and great for swimming.

From the Gulf of California is a small opening there the Pacific Ocean can be seen!! The water is much calmer in the Gulf of California than the Pacific Ocean.

This is the famous El Archo de Cabo San Lucas!! I loved looking at the ruggedness of the rock with the rich blue-green color of the water!!

As we backed away from the arch, kayakers were paddling in to see such a gorgeous site!!

Next to the arch, these sea lions were relaxing on a big rock!

This is lands end!! It is the very tip of the rock at the end of the Baja California Peninsula!! As our boat went passed this point, we moved from the Gulf of California into the Pacific Ocean!!

As we moved into the Pacific Ocean, we reached divorce beach. It has much rougher waves. It is opposite of lovers beach on the other side of the peninsula.

As we headed back down to Lands End, we could see the back side of the arch and all the boats gathered on the gulf side to view such a beautiful scene.

As we moved slightly farther south, we could see through the main arch and see the smaller opening that lead to the Gulf of California!!

Our boat driver called this cave Pirates cove!!

As we were on our way back to the marina, we passed this boat. Everyone on top was excited to have their photo taken!!

After our boat tour, we visited a glass factory in Cabo San Lucas!! It was amazing see see all the things these guys created!!

From a glob of molten glass, we watched this guy create a beautiful dolphin!!

I liked this humming bird that was for sale in their shop!!

I absolutely love the colors of Mexico!! It is such a beautiful place with so many wonderful people!!

Our next stop was a tequila shop for a tasting of a broad range of tequilas! Here, the mango flavored tequila was my favorite!!

Back in San Jose del Cabo, we ate at a wonderful restaurant. Next door was Eddies restaurant. The owner thought it was fun that my name was the same as his restaurant!! He encouraged me to take photos of several of his signs.

When traveling to other countries, I often enjoy seeing the colors of other flags. I have always loved the colors of the Mexican flag!

San Jose del Cabo, Mexico!!

/ Ed Armstrong
San Jose del Cabo is a very fun place!! Our resort is beautiful, the beaches are gorgeous, the people are wonderful, and the colors are amazing!!

John and I spent most of the afternoon with this friendly guy. Yes, we had samples of all 10 tequilas!! Most were great, but a couple were too strong for me. I bought an almond flavored tequila and John bought a chocolate flavored tequila!

I absolutely love the colors of Mexico!!

This sign highlights a common them in Mexico!! They love their tequilas!!

Mexico has so many vibrant colors on so many different items!!

This is a very wildly painted snake!!

Turtles are a common theme in Mexico!!

This guy looks quite surprised!!

These bright colors seemed to be everywhere in San Jose del Cabo!! I loved them!!

Cabo is a beautiful place to visit!! It is only a two hour plane flight from Phoenix!

The plants around our resort were carved into different animal shapes!!

Our resort had a massive pool area complete with huge spas and bridges that linked different pool sections. There was a bar where you can stay in the pool and swim up and order a drink. We loved the happy hour with their wonderful margaritas!!

The beauty of the beach next to our resort is a bit deceiving. The waves are very rough here, so swimming in the water is not allowed. Other beaches nearby allow swimming.

John, Jan, Charlene, and myself have enjoyed some great meals at this restaurant!

Last night, there was a special program of Mexican dancing!! It was very fun to watch!!

These dancers were very talented and we thoroughly enjoyed watching them!!

I never quite figured out the dancers with the large head costumes that joined the dances near the end of the program. It was fun to watch them dance!!

After the dances, local artists had some of their products available to buy!! I absolutely love the vivid colors of Mexico!!

We watched this very talented artist make this picture right before our eyes!! The arch is very famous in this part of Mexico!!

I simply love the colors used in Mexico!!

Helicopter ride to view Victoria Falls!!

/ Ed Armstrong
Because of the huge size of Victoria Falls, I took a helicopter ride to get a better view of this enormous waterfall! It was amazing to see the amount of water that was pouring down the falls and all the mist that was created. It was a tremendous ride!!

There is so much mist created that at times the falls are obscured in sections!!

The aerial view provides a bit of perspective of the massive falls compared to the bridge and road!

I was so impressed to see the power of this tremendous waterfall!!

This was one of my favorite views of the width of Victoria Falls. Truly an amazing place to visit!!

Victoria Falls!!

/ Ed Armstrong
The train arrived in Victoria Falls in the early morning. I was excited to be in the city that is world famous for having one of the seven natural wonders of the world!!

We stopped by a local shopping market and talked with people selling various products.

This woman showed us how the typical people in the town fix their food. They eats quite a few beans and peanut butter too.

I think the foods they sold were quite nutritious and inexpensive for the local population.

We worked our way over to Victoria Falls and stared in awe at its size. The falls are 1.2 miles in width and they are much higher than Niagara Falls! We started looking at the falls from one side and we loved seeing the double rainbow!

We gradually kept walking and kept seeing new sections of waterfall. I really liked the rainbows too!!

The more we walked, the more new sections of waterfall that we found. You can see people on the right of the photo that gives a little perspective on the size of the falls!!

The force of the water was amazing!! It created a huge amount of mist. In several places you could see nothing except mist!!

This bridge is very close to the falls. Zambia is on the other side of the bridge!

Believe it or not, but people actually put on a harness and them jump off into the midst! No thank you!!

As we continued on the path, we were greeted by these to adult warthogs!!

This baboon moved fast, but seemed to be content to watch us pass by. We were warned by our guide to make sure we did not have any food in our pockets. He said baboons can smell food and would quickly put their hands down our pockets to steal the food!

This baby baboon was very cute!!

Hwange National Park!!

/ Ed Armstrong
We had an incredible day at Hwange National Park!! The day started by seeing this beautiful male waterbuck! I love the horns on these guys!!

Right around the corner, we found this marvelous giraffe!! These are beautiful animals!!

We heard on the vehicle radio that lions were found and we quickly changed directions and found this spectacular male lion!! It was incredible to see this wild lion so close!!

Continuing down the road, we found this gorgeous monkey climbing in a tree! I was amazed at the size of his tail!!

We found this beautiful female kudu with her baby in a nearby field. They are so beautiful!

I am not sure of the name of this guy, but I loved his coloring. Africa has many gorgeous birds!!

We found this muddy turtle making his way to a big watering hole. He seemed to be looking intently at us!

We turned around from the turtle, and we saw this gorgeous elephant moving toward us! He was moving quite quickly through the grass. He was amazing to watch!

This guy was a jackal looking at a nearby watering hole!

These guys are small in the photo, but they are ostriches. The one on the right has his head upright and the “black rock” on the left is a ostrich with his head down. The mound between them is a termite mound.

There are many dead trees in Africa and this one reminded me of a haunted movie or something.

The zebra seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves with all the grass in the field!!

I thought this bird was especially gorgeous!!

The landscape in Africa can be ominous and spectacular at the same time!

We learned that a leopard had made a kill, so we decided to try and find this gal. She had killed a baby kudu and afterwards she was resting in a tree. I was amazed to see her so closely!

After killing and eating the kudu, the leopard dragged the kudu into a nearby tree to save it from other animals. Our guide said that the leopard would eat on the kudu over the next couple of days.

This leopard just sat in the tree. She would stare at us and then she would look away. I think she was exhausted from the kill.

This photo shows how distended her stomach is from recently gorging herself on the kudu!

These baby warthogs crossed the road as it started to rain.

I thought these birds were very beautiful!

As we were driving, we came upon a large group of elephants! They were happily eating away.

I was amazed at the size of these guys!

I really enjoyed watching this baby elephant and he poked his head out from the pack.

I thought this elephant was great! He was my favorite elephant in the pack!

The lions also became more active as it started to rain.

This wild lion was staring right at us as he walked closer and closer to us! It was starting to get scary since this lions catch and kill everything they eat. His tongue sticking out as he was licking his lips was concerning!!

Take a look at this guys teeth!! They are huge and his jaw is strong!

I did not like how he was staring directly at me! There is intensity in those eyes!!

It was cold and rainy, so these two lions moved to the road for its warmth. I could not believe how close we were to the wild lions in an open vehicle! It was amazing and quite scary at the same time!!

Matobo National Park!

/ Ed Armstrong
For Matobo National Park, we rode is these open vehicles! They were certainly put to the test with the rough roads!!

Our first stop was to see rock art from African bushmen!! This is a drawing of a giraffe!

The roads were certainly fun!! Notice the person on the front of the vehicle buckled into a chair above the front bumper!

The is the plant were curare comes from!

Our guide pointed out the white liquid when a leave was pulled from the stem. If the liquid entered a person or animal’s blood stream they could die because the muscles would be paralyzed.

She was quite knowledgeable and described how the bushmen would put the liquid on the end of their spears when they were hunting!

This was a very healthy aloe vera plant!

I loved the orange rocks and green vegetation in Africa!

Africa is a very beautiful place!!

On the top of this hill is were the famous Cecil John Rhodes is buried. I think this location was selected because there were beautiful views in all directions!!

The rocks had different colors of lichen growing on them!! It was beautiful!

There were beautiful views in every direction!

What a beautiful place to visit!!

Some areas made me think of sections in Arizona!

This huge rock was sitting on the top of the mountain!!

These roads were quite challenging!!

There was never a dull moment riding around on these roads!!

Antelope Park!!

/ Ed Armstrong
We had a wonderful time at Antelope Park. This is a private game preserve and I thoroughly enjoyed our time there. The elephants were my favorite!!

We spent quite a while with these three elephants and I loved every minute of it!!

Up close the elephant skin is very rugged!!

I was invited to hold the tusk of this amazing elephant! It was my birthday and I thought it was an unexpected birthday gift to be with these elephants!!

Our group was each given an opportunity to feed the elephants!! What an amazing experience!

Elephants eat continuously and they were quite happy that we wanted to feed them!

Yes, I put my hand inside an elephant’s mouth to feed him!!

The elephant curved his trunk around and wanted me to put the food inside his trunk!!

It was amazing to drop food inside his trunk!!

It was an unbelievable experience!!

This guy just wanted me to keep going and putting more food inside his trunk!!

He loved when I put more food inside his mouth! He teeth were huge!!

It was very fun to add food to his trunk!!

I truly loved spending time with these guys!!

The rough texture of their skin was amazing!!

They were continually sniffing for food they may have dropped to the ground!!

These guys were amazing!

Watching them use their trunks was quite interesting!!

These birds stayed near this river and they would hunt for fish!!

We next went on a drive in the park and found these rhinoceroses!! They were massive! They have excellent hearing, but poor eyesight. I was shocked at how close we were to these huge creatures!!

This mom was followed closely by this quite baby!!

They almost walked right up to our vehicle!!

They have very unique faces!!

Their horns were certainly impressive!!

The baby stayed right with the mother!!

This big guy was on the move!!

I enjoyed watching this guy move around through the grasses. He seemed to be very happy!!

This guy seemed to be listening and studying us!!

Mom and baby came around on the other side of our vehicle too!!

I really like these flowers! The oranges were so bright!

This guy maintained a beautiful beat!!

This was not the most comforting sign to see as we walked around the park!!

This was a picturesque bridge across the river!

The rainy day made everything seem extra green!!

Great Zimbabwe Monument!

/ Ed Armstrong
We woke up in the train to see this fog moving around us. I thought it was a beautiful to the rich orange color African soil along with the green vibrant vegetation.

On the other side of the train track were these homes. Our guide described them as round because they did not want to give snakes a corner to hide in. The idea is that if a snake enters the house, it will move along the wall until it come back to the entrance and exit the house. A great plan and I hope it works!!

This kids lived in these home and joined us outside to say hello.

A mom brought out the two middle kids to join the others and be in the photo!

After spending all of the previous day o the train, we were looking forward to some exercise! We went to the Great Zimbabwe Monument and this monkey wanted to check everyone out.

Our guide showed us all the granite stones that were created to build all the walls! That is a huge amount of work!!

As we climbed up the monument, there was beautiful scenery all around us and spectacular clouds in the distance!!

There were an enormous number of stones!

We had to climb up some impressively steep steps!! The passageway was designed to be narrow to make it easier to defend themselves!

The walls were quite high!

The top was quite large.

It was interesting to see different sections of the wall!

One of the funniest things happened at the top. All of these young people came up to us and wanted to have their picture taken with us. Suddenly there was a stream of people and cell phones. We stayed in one place and new groups of people would run over and stand next to us for a photo. These guys loved it that I also wanted a photo with them!!

It was fun to walk around the inside of the monument!

I liked this classic African tree as we walked along the monument!