We had some good flights and some very long ones. The North American ones went smoothly as we managed to get between snow storms. It was interesting to see the "army" of snowplows, etc. working at Chicago airport trying to get the snow off the side runways.
We left Dulles, Washington airport at about 6 pm Sat and arrived in Johannesburg at 6 pm Sunday!!! With the time change, we were in the airplane for about 16 or 17 hours. We had a stop in Dakar, Senegal but weren't allowed to get off the plane. We stopped for gas and to exchange some passengers. So we were very tired but still didn't sleep well last night. Hope tonite we can get back on schedule. I think we are about 10 hours ahead of you.
Joburg is a very treed, green city but everyhing has been planted. There are no trees here naturally. The city is here because of all the gold down below -- mines are from 3 to 5 Km deep. It is on a "gold reef" of about 400 Km long. We spent the day touring Soweto which was a pleasant surprise. We always have thought of it as the slums of Joburg but not so anymore. It is considered middle class now though there are still a few slums to be seen. The population here is 3 1/2 million -- the same as Joburg. 99% are black but anyone can live here. They have their own shopping centers, parks,newspaper, radio station, etc. now. We toured Nelson Mandela`s home. On the same street is Desmond Tutu`s home -- the only street in the world where two Nobel Peace Prize winners live(d).
Our hotel is awesome and connected to two big shopping centers with restaurants plus the usual. We ate in Nelson Mandela square tonite. This afternoon we had a brief shower -- common this time of year but they don`t last long.
I planned to include pictures but I can`t seem to access the folder they went into so Samara`s directions don`t work. Will see what I can do tomorrow.
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