Sand Dunes & Sledding

We arrived in Swakopmund (birthplace to Shiloh Jolie-Pitt) last night and the house we have rented is awesome. We got to sleep in unitl 9:30am, what a treat. We took our time getting ready and enjoyed an egg & cheese sandwich leeman prepared -delightful! We headed into town to use the internet and shop around town. Everywhere we go you pay random "parking attendents" 10 rand (a little more then $1) to watch your car. We got some touristy info and realized everything cost about $50 a person, so we decided to create our own fun. Carisa collected cardboard boxes so we could sled down sand dunes. This town is cool with sand dunes on one side and the ocean on the other. We found a big dune and climbed to the top, where the views were really pretty. The boys tried to slide and surf down the dune, with no success. We resorted to our usual picture taking having mini photo shoots with Carisa and Leeman. Once finished we ran down the dunes (getting a lot of sand in my eyes) and headed back to town to find food. On our walk to the restaurant we found a street of vendors selling "african" things. It was really interesting to see how aggressive the vendors were. Each one ran up to us introducing themselves, asking where we were from & stressing we look at things very slowly "Take your time" "It cost nothing to look". Several salesmen told us they we also from the states once hearing we were from the U.S. Once Shelley called for me by name and all the vendors started calling "Christy, Christy" from across the street. I had no idea how they knew my name. It was overwhelming trying to browse at their stuff so we decided to eat first, shop later. On our walk to the restaurant we saw some Himba people, they have red clay rubbed all over their hair and bodies. Shelley asked if she could photograph them and they made a motion for money. She charged about 10 rand. I ended up buying some cool fabric. We sat outside at the restaurant where we bundled in blankets. Leeman tried Red Espresso (a chai style roobios tee -pronounced roobios). After we ate Shelley had an itch to gable at the Mermaid Casino, so we dropped Leeman and Shelley off while we went to the grocery store.

We also started our Speed obsession. We had tournaments and Ulrich made a brilliant chart to document our wins and losses. We also started having a dealing competition to determine which team played first. Finally, we started commentating. It was hilarious and the start of something that would consume most of us for longer then expected!