Garrett

I’m writing about my trip to Africa, which I won. I'm going to five different countries for three days each. This is how I got the chance. I was on the Internet and a popup came up. I usually don’t click them but I decided to give it a chance. Well I filled out all the information and thought it was just a joke. Later that week I opened my mail and found a good-sized envelope. At first I thought it was the shirt that I had bought on the Internet a few days ago. When I looked where it was from the same organization that I gave my information to. So I opened it and inside found all the information, plane tickets, and all other necessary information.


 * Diary 1**

My first country is Egypt. I'm going to get there by plane and a car.


 * Day 1**

Today I went to the Red Sea just outside of the Egypt coastline. It was about a 45-minute ride to the boat we would be riding on but the traffic was heavy because Egypt is grossly over populated. We got there just on time and got on the boat. There were 5 other people on the boat with me not including the crew. For the first day we went deep sea diving with 2 professional divers. We went to a remote island were it was shallow enough and safe enough to dive. We got all the training and safety procedures for the dive by the professional. The caption even shared some history with us like that the red sea held an importance in many African and Asian wars. We saw some coral reefs and all kinds of different sea life and even a shark. We went through most the day and it got over at 6:30.On the way home I saw several homeless on the streets this most be why the poverty present is at 23. Finally I went back to my hotel, had dinner and eventually went to sleep because I had to get up just as early the next morning.
 * [[image:coral_reef.jpg width="178" height="137" caption="coral reef"]]
 * Day 2**

This morning I got to get up a little earlier at 5:30 in the morning. Today I went back to the same place but this time I was going deep-sea fishing. This time there were only 2 other people including the one captain. The boat was pretty nice probley considering that the country is very strong in economic growth. We were only going on a 10-hour fishing trip and we all packed our own lunches. At first for about 3 hours we didn’t catch anything but did share a lot about our lives to each other. After another 1 hour the only girl on board did catch a tuna. We were coming close to the end of the trip and my pole finally went off I ran to it as fast as I could to it. After a 2-hour battle I found that I had caught an 11 and a half-foot marlin! This fish is very common in this area. But I decided to let it go because I had no money to pay for it. We came back a little later than expected but the captain didn’t seam to mind and neither did we. I was able to get back in time to catch dinner and even see an African play about the pharoses, one was even on mosses! This day I decided to go to one of the shell infested beaches nearby. I didn’t have to get up early at all I slept in until11 o’clock A.M. First I ordered breakfast from the hotel I got a very nice pie and alligator soup. Then I got dressed and packed and took a bus to my destination. There was a little girl next to me that was holding an original African doll witch her Grandmother probley made for her. The reason I am saying this is that very few are around and are very important to the Egyptians economy. When I got there I just laid in the sun and tried to get a tan. Then I decided to go snorkeling in a nearby reef. I had a blast and was there for hours looking at all the different sea life. Next I decided to go on the shores looking for seashells. I found about 30 but only kept the best 10. After all this it was getting dark so I decided to go back and watch African movies for the rest of the night. After all I had a big day planned ahead of me.
 * Day 3**r




 * Diary 2**

After my trip to The Red Sea I took a plane trip to a camp in Mauritania. We were planning to go on a three-day hunting and fishing safari. Our first day we got to see all the beautiful plants and animals that inhabit this area. We all even got to see a wild boar until our guide scarred it of. The country did look good considering that it got out of Frances power only 47 years ago. We staid up all night and didn’t check in until 3:00 in the morning. We all stayed in tents and got to see all the stars because it is almost always clear skies there. This is a rather large country 1,030,700 sq. km. with not tons of people so there were few lights and we were able to see the stars clearly. So we got to feel our surroundings and get ready for tomorrow.
 * Day 1**

The Stars in my camp Day 2the stars in my camp

The next day we got to go rhino watching I figure out that in these hunting safaris you didn’t hunt at all we were animal watching. Well it wasn’t that bad I did learn that there was more than one kind of rhino. Also I found that rhinos are on the endangered list so we had to stay back. The guide was very tall and spoke not very good English probly because about only 48% of these people know how to read and right. One rhino also even gave signs of charging but we were able to get to the jeep in time. We also got to see a cheetah in mid chase after an antelope. One time we got to get out and see a cactus our guide said if you ever got stranded you could cut it open and drink the juice inside. We went all day and got to experience the desert like surroundings. We got back and ate salad with cactus juice and wild boar back meat. We eventually went to sleep at midnight.


 * Day 3**

The last day we really went fishing in one of these countries rivers. We were expected to catch few fish only 4-6. I got one of the best spots or so my guide told me. The river was quite dirty but we maneuvered. I got the opportunity to catch 7 fish all. The river was did not have that many fish because it was polluted. We got to even clean some of our fish witch was really interesting. We got all over at 10:00 pm and we to sleep right away and watch the stars aging.


 * Dairy 3

Day 1**

My next country is Kenya I will be going on a camping trip to the Shimba rain forest lodge. We will be here for 3 days lake all the other countries. My First day we are going to explore the jungles with our guide his name is Deng. He was 6 foot 3 and surprisingly could speak very well English. There is a very low income in this city so there were no houses around were we where. Well we started at 1:00 in the afternoon on an old tail that we followed. We were surrounded by noises of monkeys and other animals in the jungle. The heat outside was so unbearable because Kenya lies on the equator but inside the forest it was pretty nice. Well after about an hour in the forest we stopped and eat the lunches that we had packed earlier. Our guide even told us one of the ancient African myths that he had been told all his life. After that we went back into our journey. About 2 more hours later we got to see a gorilla but we were not to get close because they will charge. After that we went on our journey back. We got back around 10:00 and all were exhausted so went to sleep.

We started our day today with and amazing Kenya breakfast at 7 in the morning. Today we are planning to go elephant watching at a reserve 2 hours away. We all got in two busses there were 10 of us in all. On the way we saw giraffes right outside the window our driver told us they are native to here. Well we just got there and the first thing that I saw was a huge Elephant right at the gate. Our guide told us this is very rare and that most elephants are afraid of humans. After about 4 hours of observing them we had to leave back to the lodge. That night as we just got out of the car an earthquake stuck putting all of us to the ground. Our guide assured us that this was natural so we were all realized. No one was hurt and we all went to bed waiting to see what would happen tomorrow.
 * Day 2**

Today we are going to go to one of Kenya many rivers to see hippos. That drive there is about 1 hour but was not driving we are actually going to ride a boat to our destination. It was an extended 2-hour ride but it was definitely worth it. This time only 2 other people were coming so it might be twice as fun. When we got there we got of our boat and went to a dock witch went over the river. At first we did not see anything but were guaranteed to eventually. After 30 minutes we spotted something not a hippo but a whole bunch of flamingos. We watched as the big blob of pink soared over our heads to a shallower part just a little bit away. Then we got what we came for a big pack of hippos started our way. There were about 20 in all but they seemed to be going pretty fast. Then I saw a group of alligators were chasing them! Our guide got over to us and rushed us out of there as the hippos smashed into the bridge. All of us were all right except for the bridge with was totally destroyed. After that our guide told us how lucky we were and how strange that was. That day was quite and adventure and I was glad to back to my safe room.
 * Day 3**


 * Diary 4**

After my thrilling adventure in Kenya I was going all the way to Congo in Central Africa. I am going Gorilla watching for 2 days at a zoo called The Bronx Zoo. I will also be going on a helicopter ride over an entire rainforest. For my first few days I am going to stay at a one room condo 60 minutes from the zoo. The reason that it is so long is because most of Congo is rainforests so we have to navigate around them. When I woke up it was about 2 hours till I had to leave s I went to get breakfast. But first I had to get my interpreter because Congo’s main language is French and I didn’t know any att all. After breakfast we went on our trip. We were riding in a jeep this is what most people use. We got there around 11:00 which was only 10 minutes early. We were in a group of about 5 not including my interpreter and the guide. We would each get a gorilla to watch for that day. My gorilla was 200 pound female named Chee-Chee or that what I think the guide said. My gorilla had a baby that did not have a name yet. While I was observing it my guide told me that the mother gorilla was lick us and held on to there young for a long time. After about 4:00 a thunder storm broke out so we had to run to the safe house a mile up the road I was one of the first there so I had to wait for someone to come that had keys. About 3 minutes later the bulky guide came stumbling towered me. He unlooked the door and we walked into a one room building barley big enough for all 7 of us at the say time. We had to wait 5 hours doing nothing but talking until the storm finally stopped. It was about 9:30 so we had to leave to go back to the condo. We got back at 10:46 so I decided to go right to sleep and get ready for tomorrow.
 * Day 1**

**Day 2** For today I am going to go back to the gorilla reserve and get to go in a cart that is able to go through the gorilla reserve. I got up at nine this morning so I just got a bowl of cereal for breakfast. Me and my guide went as soon as I was done we went on the 1 hour ride to the Bronx zoo. When we got there we figured out that we were an hour early. So me and my guide went and the guide went out to there car and shared stories. He even shared some geography with me like History with me like that French ruled there land until 1880. After our long discussion we could finally get in and go to our destination. Our same guide was there but this time we were going on a private ride. We got in the cart strapped in and went on our adventure. At first no gorillas approached us but finally my gorilla decided to check us out. The baby looked so cute close up but Chee-Chee got scarred of so we continued. After our 6:00 safari we had to had back because it was all ready 8:00 and I was dead tired. And anyway We had a long day waiting ahead of us. Today I got to sleep in until 11:00 because we did not have to be at the take of spot until 2:00. So my guide and I got to stop and eat a nice breakfast. The ride to the take of station was only 10 minutes. Our piolet did know hoe to speak English but my interpreter still came along for the ride. You might not know it but is actually very large 131,853 sq. mi. to be exact or that’s what the piolet told me. We went over a whole rainforest that day but didn’t see any animals because we were so high. But as we were flying we did get to see an tribal village below us. After all of this there was a tornado watch so we were forced to go back a little early. We got back at 9:00 so we went to sleep for the last time in Congo. I think that this was one of my favorite places.
 * Day 3**




 * Dairy 5

Day 1**

My trip is coming to an end and this is my last country. It is Madagascar the one country I’ve been waiting for, for this entire trip. My plane trip there was about 8 hours so I had a long time to plan my trip. I am staying in a one-room house in a resort next to the beach. I got there at 7:00 in the morning and unpacked. Today I am going to get a tour and go to the beach again. I am going to leave at 10 o’clock so I still have time to get settled in and unpacked. At 9:40 I left because it was only a 5-minute to get to the jeep we were riding on. When I got there, there was no one else so it was just the captain and I. You might think that this trip would not last that long but Madagascar is three times the size of Arizona. We traveled for hours and saw all types of wildlife. Our trip got over and we went back, I hope tomorrow is just as fun.
 * Day 2**

Today I went to the beach for a whole day. I saw dolphins and other really cool animals. One time wen I stopped for a snack I noticed that most things I found here said made in Japan, must be because that is Madagascar main trading partner. I know this might sound bad but I even went to a spa. I got a lot done it was kind of weird, but fun. Later that day I went sailing and got really close to a whale. I even touched it! After that I went back and got ready for my finale day in Africa.
 * Day 3** (last day)

Im sad that this was my last day there I will miss it. But today I did what you always have to do in Madagascar, go see the lemurs. Yes its true that the only place to find lemurs is Madagascar so I made it worth while. We traveled all day and saw close to 50 lemurs in all. At the end our guid had a special lemur that was trained so we all got to pet it and see it up close. We were all done but I was not I decided I was going to make my last day special. I went to the beach ordered an authentic African meal and watched the sun slowly lower into the horizon. I will always miss Africa and never forget this most amazing experience. Good-bey Africa, for know