Saturday, January 3, 2015

And a Happy New Year

Sangalala Chaka Chatsopano (Happy New Year) from Malawi! I spent New Years at Senga Bay near Salima. Which means I finally got to see Lake Malawi!

Lake Malawi is also called the Calendar Lake because it is 365 miles long and 52 miles wide. The weather was mostly overcast, so when the fog obscured the view of the islands and coast in the distance, it looked like the ocean.



We had dinner at the hotel on New Years Eve. It was a buffet with lots of yumminess like turkey and cranberry sauce, roasted potatoes, minestrone soup, curried chickpeas and even dessert! Which is kind of a rare thing in Malawi. My favorite was the strawberry mousse in the little white teacups. Here are me and Mary Beth, enjoying our dessert:



We went snorkeling on New Years Day. We rode in a boat to a nearby island and then swam around looking at all the cichlid fish. This was the spot where I saw the most fish.


Some of them blended in with the algae-covered rocks. Others were bright blue and very easy to see. It was a lot of fun and I would love to go snorkeling again!

The campsite was pretty full. People drove their cars in and set up massive tents, then were coming and drinking and dancing to the music that was playing all day and most of the night. So it was a pretty normal holiday by the beach. Except that this is Malawi, and just over the wall at the edge of the campsite were...monkeys! So I had fun watching them climb and swing.


Happy 2015! It's off to a great start already. Here's to a wonderful year ahead for is all.




1 comment:

  1. So nice to see you having some fun, some time off, and some good food with a good friend. Lovely. When I was married to Lance, in the 80's, we had a fresh water fish tank and his specialty was African Cichlids. They were so colorful and beautiful, almost as much as salt water fish. We always thought it would be wonderful to see them in Lake Malawi, and there you are. Thanks for the photos.

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