Volunteering at Bambelela Vervet Monkey Rehab and Siyafunda Research Camp in South Africa

     This summer, I decided to do something extraordinary with my teenage children.  I wanted to volunteer with wildlife, far away from our California home, in South Africa.  I wanted to volunteer rather than just be a tourist on safari so that we could learn more and save money.  We booked our tax-deductible "volunteer tourism" vacation through Enkosini.org.  In June, 2018, we spent one week at Bambelela Wildlife Care and Vervet Monkey Rehabilitation in Bela Bela, South Africa.  Then we drove 5 hours though the country and volunteered another week at Siyafunda Wildlife &Conservation, on the Makalali Game Reserve.

     After two red-eye flights (30 hours of travel) we arrived in Johannesburg.  Then, in less than 2 hours, we set our feet on African ground.  It seemed like something you can only dream of, but it was really happening.  Baboons and peacocks immediately surrounded us.  And wait, those creatures looked like Timon and Pumbaa from Lion King.  Only there were many of them!  Banded meerkats and warthogs, indeed!  This was going to take some getting used to!

Shibula with our rental van parked in front

    We had upgraded to a slightly bigger chalet, called Shibula, since my husband would come at the end of the week and there would then be 5 of us.  Shibula was the nicest volunteer quarters I had ever seen.  The high straw ceilings were as cute as could be.  The decor was African-themed.  We had 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a living room and a kitchen.  Groceries such as milk, yogurt, cereal, rusks, bread, and peanut butter were provided on the first day.  The WIFI was sketchy but good enough to stream most of the World Cup games.  The trick was that there was only one key, which we had to share, and it was very easy to lose that key.  If you exposed your key while walking outside or even kept it in your pocket, you were likely to lose it to a baboon!  That's why I didn't wear my glasses for a whole week or take very many pictures of baboons.

Inside Shibula

     One volunteer had his phone pickpocketed in the evening but returned to him in 10 pieces by morning.  What was really fun about our chalet was that our back patio always had visitors, be it peacocks or even one of the 50 house cats that lived on the property (to kill rodents that could attract snakes, which would kill monkeys).  We weren't supposed to let the cats into the chalet, but the kids often did.  Beware of the warthogs!  Another volunteer was stabbed in the butt because he got too close to the babies! We had a brai (bbq) in our backyard too, and a nice view of the valley and mountains, where they said you could sometimes see giraffes peeking their heads over the top.

The volunteer house kitchen

the job board

      The "volunteer house" has a kitchen, tv lounge and dining table.  It was modest but clean and organized.  Each volunteer washed his own dishes.  You could eat breakfast in your chalet and make your own lunch in the volunteer house.  One of the staff members cooked dinner for all the volunteers, who all tried to sit around the table together.  Monday was pretty much just cabbage, but usually there was something heartier like chicken and rice.  There was french toast for Friday brunch, a big Sunday brunch and a brai on Saturday night.  I enjoyed wrapping bread dough around a stick and cooking it over the fire!

We were all assigned jobs on the job board.  We rotated every hour between cutting/preparing fruit/other foods for the monkeys, feeding, cage cleaning, washing monkey bowls, gathering natural food, babysitting baby baboons, etc.  All the jobs help fulfill the main purpose of Bambelela, which is to care for orphaned or injured monkeys and reintroduce them into the wild.  Here is the summary of Bambelela's rehabilitation process:  Bambelela takes in a baby monkey whose mother was shot by a farmer.  The baby is nursed until it can go to "kindergarten" in a  separate cage.  Monkeys graduate from kindergarten and go to a transitional cage until they are ready to be put in a troupe cage.  A troupe consist of monkeys of different ages so that they could survive in the wild.  The troupe is observed for sometimes a couple years before it is deemed ready for release.  Human interaction and eye contact  becomes minimal once monkeys are in the troupe cage.  Babies will be born in the troupe cages and never receive human interaction.  Then staff and volunteers choose a release site and bring the cage there.   The monkeys stay in the cage for a while and observe their new surroundings.  Then after several days, the doors are opened, so the monkeys can go in and out.  The staff and volunteers continue to camp there for a couple months observing the troupe's behavior to make sure it will continue to function.  Then they slowly break down the cage until the monkeys are used to not having a cage.  Now they are wild again!

collecting acorn squash at a nearby farm.  (Warren Buffet used to own the
farm right next to this one.  He probably sold it just in time, before the
government started confiscating farms from whites and giving them to
blacks.)  The ride home on top of the squash was bumpy!

Volunteers unloading and sorting fruit.  We were only there one week,
but most of the volunteers were there for 1 month - 4 years!  We met
volunteers from South Africa, England, Switzerland...  Many of them
wanted to stay longer, but South Africa makes it hard for foreigners to
keep renewing their volunteer visas.  They were a friendly bunch and happy
to help us out!  One 4 yr volunteer said she couldn't find a better job in all
world!  She could take the dirtiest job and make it fun!   

 Let's start by talking about where Bambelela gets monkey food.  Farmers sort their squash into grade 1, 2 and 3.  They send grade 1 and 2 to the grocery stores but dispose of or donate grade 3 to Bambelela.  Of course we had to go to a farm to collect the squash.  Six days a week a pickup truck returns from a farm or grocery store full of grade 3 food for the volunteers to unload and put away.  Sometimes they have to buy some food if there isn't enough free food available.  Every morning at 7:45 AM, volunteers and staff wash and chop the fruit.  It's a messy job because the papaya could be 50% covered with white fluffy mold!  But you can opt for gloves.  There is also bread, ham sandwiches, lasagna, cupcakes...  They give the monkeys everything except for  lemons, but the lemons are used to rinse the monkey houses with to keep the spiders out!

All those crates used for sorting, washing and carrying fruits/veggies need to get power washed!

hauling rotten food to the wild baboons

      Any food that is too rotten is collected and hauled out to the wild baboons.  They will eat anything!  As long as you feed them at a slight distance from the buildings, the baboons will not become aggressive against people, or beg for food.  The site of the baboon feeding is also where we collect natural grasses and branches for the monkeys in rehab, so they can learn to eat food from the wild, too.  I was surprised they would bother to eat the leaves, when there were cakes and croissants at their disposal.  Volunteers like to do these jobs to enjoy nature.  You will often find zebra or waterbucks out here too.  If a waterbuck comes, all the monkeys will scream.  They are scared of waterbuck, perhaps for their strong smell, which I didn't learn about until my second week at Siyafunda.

Playing with kindergarteners

     Once the food is prepared, you get to feed the monkeys.  They are omnivores, but due to financial restraints these
vervets are vegetarians!  Bambelela depends on the income from renting their chalets and accepting volunteers.  They are on a tight budget.
     We were not allowed in the kindergarten cage, except during orientation, because the juveniles are aggressive and could bite.  The more experienced volunteers get to work with the young and healthy ones.  (We were not there during baby season, so there were no real tiny ones for us to take care of.)      We did, however, get to work in the handicap cage.   All the volunteers loved the handicapped cage.  Those monkeys are less aggressive and really fun to be with.  Some of them have really sad stories behind them.  One was given a firecracker inside a banana.  Now it has half a nose and mouth, a missing eye and a partially blind eye.  The happy news is that two babies were born in the handicapped cage, and they are healthy.  The handicapped cage became our closest contact with the vervets.  We could bottle feed them, look in their eyes and really get to know them.  Of course while you are feeding one, you may get peed on from up above!  Or the one you are holding might pee on you!          
   

feeding a banana to Erma while being groomed by Oppy  Erma was hit by a car, which caused her brain damage and epilepsy.  She is unable to groom, feed herself or climb.  We handfeed her and help with her daily physical therapy schedule.  She is so sweet and exhibits a variety of human-like expressions, including gratitude. 

Even 13 yr olds can volunteer at Bambelela and
work in the handicap cage.  My 13 year old daughter,
Giselle, earned 34 hours of community service for high
school during her one week at Bambelela.  Cleaning
cages was dirty work though!  At least now she is more
realistic about wanting to have one as a pet!  Monkeys
do not make good pets.  That's what we were taught here,
and my daughter now agrees!   Hopefully Bambelela
will still allow 13 year olds to come after having my
daughter and her boisterous friend for a a week.  One
evening, Giselle screamed at the top of her lungs to prank
me, and seconds later all the volunteers and staff came
running to our door!  I don't think they appreciated the
prank, but they were very polite and understanding!

  Vervet monkeys have blue skin and blue testacles (jewels).  It was often repeated to us that we have monkey ears.  Monkeys do not have our ears.   Vervets are genetically very similar to humans.  They are also necessary to the food chain.  They spread seeds and feed leopards, eagles, pythons... That's why the founders of Bambelela found it worthwhile to make it their lifelong mission to save them.                 

Babysitting the baby baboons.  They were respectful of my
son since he is a male.  I had a much harder time with them, being a female.  I constantly had to block their attacks with my arms.  I was even grabbed from behind and scratched in the mouth.  It takes them a while to warm up to people, and they have their favorites.  They need to be constantly watched so they don't destroy anything
inside their own cage.  All the long-term volunteers
take turns watching them, and we got to help.  

                                                                                                                                          

Julie, has decided to snuggle with me while
sunbathing.  Julie is a rescue.  She was kept
as a pet and taught tricks at a tourist resort.
When not performing tricks, she was kept chained.
Being a monkey, she became aggressive toward
tourists and ended up at Bambelela.

One of the biggest struggles of working at Bambelela was learning to deal with the adult rehab baboons that walk around freely.  They are not shy!  We were not allowed to walk around by ourselves for a few days.  A long term volunteer would always come to our chalet to fetch us.  We weren't allowed to walk around with keys phones or any objects in our pockets.  We were warned that if a baboon took something from us and we tried to take it back, we would be bitten and left with a nasty bruise.  Indeed, on the 4th day, I tried to exit the volunteer house myself.  As I was locking the door (all the doors at Bambelela have baboon proof locks), Merlin approached me and bit my pinky before I could lock the door.  The bruise lasted a couple of days; it could have been worse.  So I learned not to exit the doors by myself if I saw Merlin anywhere nearby.  Another time, I took a quick sip from my water bottle, which I kept in my fanny pack, but before I knew it, Merlin had it.  He also took my husband's shoe at the swimming pool and we had to call for help to get it back.  That was his only pair of shoes!  The funny thing was that Merlin could be the friendliest, most romantic baboon.  He would often come up to me for a hug or just to sit with me. He gave volunteers kisses. 

Cage with our laundry hanging.

      Julie was another rehab monkey who was known for giving hugs and being super friendly but then stealing from you.  The kids had to learn not to run away from baboons that approached.  If you run, you will be chased and bitten.  They will see it as a game.  Just stand still and let them hug you and never have anything on you that they might want!  To get anything done, humans have to be in cages.  When we painted tires for the monkeys or hung our laundry, it had to be in a cage.  The truck was unloaded inside a cage and all the fruits are cut and prepared inside a cage.  Our concept of freedom was redefined.

My daughter's friend, Ava, is painting tires inside the cage.  The tires will look attractive and be longer lasting play toys for the vervets.  But the girls left the tires too close to the cage wires.  Julie, the baboon, stuck her long arms inside and scooped wet paint up with her finger and ate it.  The evidence was all over her furry chin.  

Overall, Bambelela was a great experience for the family.  Not only do we learn about wildlife and how to act around them, but the kids get a chance to work in another country, and meet people who are very passionate about something that doesn't even exist in our home country.  They also learn to appreciate what they have- and realize that they haven't had to work very hard for the things they have at home.  All the volunteers signed a thank you card for us and sang songs for us at the last "goodbye" brai.

We were able to pet this 3 legged cheetah, who is
an ambassador for saving all cheetahs.  She was born
with her umbilical cord wrapped too tightly around one leg.
Her mother also abandoned her. 

 On your day off at Bambelela, Sue, the head of the volunteers, will drive you to Feracare and Adventures with Elephants, with a delicious lunch in between at Zebula Lodge, where you can dine on braised oxtail while admiring banded meerkats, rather than squirrels, running about your outdoor table.  This was a fun day trip.   Feracare breeds cheetahs, which they hope to one day release in the wild.  Currently, however, there isn't enough habitat in South Africa to release them to.  Cheetahs need a lot of room!  At Feracare, you meet cheetahs and take a drive through the bush to see other animals they are keeping in rehab, such as owls, jackal, wild dogs, bat eared foxes and caracal.  Some of the animals are in large cages; others are in large enclosures.  The driver opens a a double gate to the enclosure and you get to drive through it.  We hadn't been on a safari yet, so this was a nice introduction to one.  It was good that we saw these animals because they are the ones I never got to see in the wild.

You drive in an open jeep through a huge enclosed area,
and the driver 's assistant throws a raw chicken out
for the cheetahs. Cheetahs don't generally attack people,
especially those in vehicles.  If you come early in the
morning, you can watch cheetahs run at full speed.    

Feracare has some friendly ostriches you can pet.

We were driven through Feracare's huge wild dog enclosure as well.

The wild dog is one of the most endangered species in Africa.  It is hunted by people

who don't like the way the dogs hunt- by disembowelment.  These wild dogs have nowhere to be released to.  Even Kruger  has space for only 6 packs of wild dogs.  

Next, we visited Adventures with Elephants,
where we fed and pet elephants and even got suction kisses from them.  We learned how smart they are.  They could remember all our names and give us back our correct belongings.  This intelligence helps them
to remember where food is in the wild.

Finally, we took an elephant-back safari.  This was a good place to visit
before seeing elephants in the wild at our next volunteer stop.

     After saying Goodbye to Bambelela, we drove 5 hours to Makalali Game Reserve., which is close to Kruger National Park.  Along the way, we stopped at the Thaba Kwena crocodile farm in Bela Bela and took a hike along the Louis Changuion Hiking Trail in Haenertsburg, a cute upscale town in the grasslands.  We even passed through a green mountainous area, very different from the bush!  

     Here is my favorite tree that I found in South Africa.  The trunk looks like a wood tree but the branches look like cacti!  I saw it a lot on the drive between Bambelela and Siyafunda.

   

     At last we reached Siyafunda!  Siyafunda Conservation is run by one of the seven land owners of the 61,000 acre Makalali Reserve, a Big 5 Reserve.  Big 5 means elephant, leopard, lion, rhino and buffalo.    One of Siyafunda's great purposes is to protect rhinos from being poached.  They have already lost 13 rhinos to poaching.  By taking in volunteers who pay for their experience, they generate money to pay their anti-poaching team.  Siyafunda also has an elephant contraception program.  At first, I didn't know why such a program was needed.  I always thought we were trying to save elephants and that there weren't enough.  But as soon as I saw elephants on the reserve and how quickly they wrapped their trunks around mature trees and tore them down, I understood why their population needs to be controlled.  

     All the other animals are also being monitored and studied at Siyafunda.  At first, I thought that they are over-managing the wild animals, that the wild animals should be left wild.  Then I learned that many of the animals had been driven to extinction in previous decades.  The savannahs had been converted to farmland.  In the last few decades, South Africa has tried to convert some of this land back to its original state.  Makali is a private reserve that has tried to convert.  Even much of Kruger National Park used to be farmland for a while.  All the rhinos that are there now had to be reintroduced.  All the properties are fenced.  Of course, animals can dig  under fences over jump over.  Because people have recreated the wild savannah land, they need to monitor it to make sure it is balanced.   

     That's where our job came in.   Siyafunda does game monitoring on a daily basis.  We go out in a Land Rover (see above) and count the animals we see and identify their mood and behavior and where they like to congregate.  It's very important that they know where the rhinos like to go so they can be watched and protected.  We are not even allowed to post pictures of the rhino we saw on social media because then poachers might learn how many rhinos there are and where they like to go.  After we count and record our findings, we enter the data onto a computer so that the Makalali management can make decisions about whether to add more animals or restrict their birthrate.   We also contributed to the Panthera project, by identifying animals seen in
front of night cameras on a collective database among many reserves. 

Our first drive was an elephant drive.  The goal was to find the elephants and observe them.  To find elephants, you can follow their dung and their tracks.  You can also follow the scent of a male in musth or little signs such as the tightly twisted grass they leave behind.  We quickly learned to identify the dung and tracks of all the animals.  Each of us was assigned separate jobs.  My daughter, Giselle, was to count and record data on elephants every time we saw them, including the GPS coordinates.  When you see 30 elephants, it's difficult to count them accurately and determine their sex and age.  The field guides are very experienced and help you out.  The female elephants in this group were in a bad mood, perhaps because the male was in musth (ready to mate).  The animals all have a comfort zone, and as long as we didn't invade it, they wouldn't attack us. 

     

 Our field guides for the games drives always rotated, but all of them were awesome!  I didn't know how awesome they were until I went to Kruger National Park afterward and discovered that I had learned so much more from the Siyafunda field guides!  For the price we were paying, compared to Kruger, we had so many private game drives, of 4 hours instead of 2.  The Siyafunda guides are so patient and let you look at animals as long as you want and often let you pick which animals to look for.  Our game drives were at sunrise and before sunset, when the animals are most active.  In June, the days are short, so you go to bed early and have no trouble waking up by 5:45 to get ready for the 6:30 game drive.  We often spent 5 hours on a drive in the morning and 3 hours in the afternoon, putting in a full day of sitting in a bumpy 4 wheel drive Land Rover.   It rarely seemed tedious, for the open air and bumpiness made it so fun!  

We were the only volunteers who elected to sleep outside on the platform.  More people did so in the summer, but with 2 sleeping bags and warm clothes, it was quite comfortable.  The constellations were very clear, and the sounds of the night were alluring.  One night we were surrounded by hyenas, and another night we saw the eye shine of lions creeping closer to us.  We even saw the pet dog run out toward the lions barking.  A field guide called the dog back in just in time, as the male lion started to run toward it.  From the deck, we could see where all the lions went.  One even entered the Siyafunda property and walked right by a building.  Once, while my husband was resting out at "the next" overlooking the valley, a cheetah walked right by him.   He was a little alarmed because he didn't have his shoes on, and there was plenty of rock to cross to get back to the main camp.  Luckily, cheetahs don't tend to attack humans!                                                
                                                                                                                                                                    

                                     

     On our lion drive, we tracked the paw prints and were able to follow a pride of lions for 15 minutes before they veered off into the woods.  The adult lions had been followed since they were cubs, so the sight of the safari vehicle following them did not alarm them.  As long as we kept our distance and didn't get out of the vehicle, we would be safe.  Sometimes they turned around and looked at us, or sat to rest in the middle of the road for a minute.  A cub who got too playful was slapped by its mother.  On another drive, we ran into lions at night without even looking for them (see photo below).  Imagine you're driving home from a long game drive and your headlights suddenly reveal these!  So we had at least 3 lion sightings of different prides during our week at Siyafunda.  My son was responsible for recording data on these predators.

     
     We found our buffalo on a separate buffalo game drive.   The buffalo are kept in a fenced off part of the reserve.  They are being monitored for health.  A plague from Palestine killed off almost all the buffalo in South Africa, so any buffalo need to be monitored to make sure they won't introduce disease to the other animals.     

   

     Of course, we found leopard and rhino
as well, but leopard move too quickly to snap a 
decent picture, though I was just 2 feet from one for a few seconds.  As for rhino, many came to the camp and we found some on a guided bush walk, but we aren't allowed to post pictures of them.   I was in charge of counting and recording general game such as impala, zebra, giraffe, wildebeest, waterbuck and kudo.  I can't tell you how busy I was!   My husband recorded data on raptors, of which we saw vultures and eagle. 

All the Siyafunda volunteers take turns making lunch and dinner.  You will be signed up with another volunteer on the day you are assigned.  Since there were 10 volunteers, we had to cook once during the week we were there.   It reminded me of Blue Apron back home!  The ingredients  and cookware/utencils were neatly organized and labeled in the kitchen.  The recipe was provided.  It was actually fun cooking there!  If you run out of time because of a long game drive, the staff will help you!  Everyone eats together around the campfire.  As you are eating with your field guides, you can fire all the questions you want!  Or you can sit back and listen to other volunteers from other countries tell their stories.  After dinner, 2 volunteers are assigned to wash dishes.   I didn't complain because I knew that non-volunteer guests at Makalali lodge, on the same reserve, were paying a whole lot more and learning much less!  The field guides at Siyafunda chose to work with volunteers instead of pure tourists!   The funny thing is that at Siyafunda, I didn't feel like I was volunteering as I did at Bambelela.  There were no cages to clean or raking of monkey poo.  We were just observing animals and recording what we saw.  So I felt like a tourist who cooked a Blue Apron meal and washed dishes once.   

     On on our day off, or final day at Siyafunda, Sam, a field guide, took all the volunteers to Blyde Canyon for a boat tour.  This is the 3rd largest canyon in the world, after the Grand Canyon.  Here we found at least 10 hippos near us in the water.  On the boat, I met another family that was doing a similar volunteer trip at another Game Reserve.  They were surprised to learn that my trip was tax-deductible because I had booked it through a charity.  We looked up their booking agent and found it was also a non-profit, so I was able to save them quite a lot of money!  Afterwards, Sam took us to his favorite restaurant at 24 Degrees South.    The Indonesian chicken and creative appetizers were a lovely end to my week at Makalali!

     After Siyafunda, we drove about 2 hours to Kruger National Park and then another 4 hours to Burg-en-dal, where we had our bungalow reservations that night.  During that 4 hour drive, we saw the entire Big 5 without any guides at all!  We were lucky enough to follow lions down a side road, witness several large elephant crossings (the kind where you aren't sure if the last elephant you saw is the last elephant to cross. Can you go or should you wait?)  and we even get stuck in a Kruger traffic jam resulting from a leopard sighting.   With binoculars, I could see the leopard leap and climb into a tree.   

     My favorite sighting was hyenas (see left photo) and their babies crossing the road and resting right next to us. At Kruger, you see larger groups of everything than you see at Makalali, but it's still pretty similar.  We did two bush walks and a game drive at Kruger, both at Burg-en-dal and Pretoriaskop.  It was fun staying in Kruger's bungalow and hut and being in a fenced in camp where you could take an unguided walk without a rifle.   It was definitely much more cost-effective and educational, however,  to stay at Siyafunda!   And I definitely never saw as many baboons or Vervets at Kruger as I did at Bambelela!   

     I'll always remember the Bambelela and Siyafunda staff and volunteers we met, who are very passionate about wildlife conservation.  Not only will we miss these people and the African animals as we make our way back to California, but we will miss the colorful African sunsets!

Snow shoeing & XC skiing with dog at Kirkwood, CA- Jan 2018

     I thought we ought to take our husky-malamute, Sweeney, to the snow since he is supposed to be a snow dog and generally likes to pull on leash walks.   So I organized a trip for him!   First, I bought him the right gear, including a harness for me and a harness for him.   I also bought a tow rope, but I ended up just using our long Halti leash so I could also wrap it around my waist and use it with a pincher collar to get him through the parking lot and down the highway to the Kirkwood meadow.  One we got to the meadow, I used it as a tow rope, connecting his harness to mine.  It was just the right length so that he could run ahead of my skis.    

  

     Of course I took him jogging with the new harnesses a week before we went to the snow.  It was hard controlling him without having him at my side, so we really didn't get very far, but at least his 80 pounds couldn't overpower me with the harnesses.  I tried teaching him Gee and Haw, Let's Go and Woah!   We did pretty good at the latter two.
     The next plan that had to be made was where to go.  That took a whole day because it wasn't so easy finding a hotel that took dogs, had a good cancellation policy in case there was no snow and was located near a XC ski center that rented skis and allowed dogs.   So with all that in mind, we decided on Kirkwood Cross Country and Snowshoe Center.  The phone receptionist was very friendly answering all my questions.  We would have to stay in Jackson, 1 hr and 11 minutes before Kirkwood.   Jackson's Best Western Amador Inn, took dogs and gave a refund up to 24 hrs in advance.  We'd take it!
    So we loaded up the van with luggage for 4 people, including downhill skis, and a dog!

     He had a nice cozy spot on a blanket in the back with the rear seats folded down.   It was his longest car ride ever!  2.5 hrs to Jackson!  But we gave him one 10 minute break in Stockton and another 10 minute break at Camanche Lake.

     Sweeney had a great time at the hotel and on the ride!  There were plenty of cows to bark at in Gold country!  Walking downtown Jackson was dog-friendly enough.  Then, instead of keeping him in the hotel room during dinner and leaving our liability to luck, we put Sweeney in the van with his dinner and a chew toy.  Everyone was happy.

     The next morning, we arrived at Kirkwood and were so excited to see Sweeney's reaction to his first snow encounter!  He took to it right away as if knowing snow was innate to him.  There was no surprise on his part, just total comfort.  He hopped through the deep snow, licked it, rolled in it and looked generally content.  Dogs weren't allowed in the lodge, so we hooked up his leash to the staircase.  Meanwhile we got fitted for snow shoe rentals!

     It was our first time on snow shoes, and the kids might have though it was less exciting if it were not for Sweeney.  But the kids took turns hiking with Sweeney and his leash wrapped around their waists so they could hold their snow poles.  The trails were groomed the width of a body, just for snowshoers.   Sometimes we left the trail, but Sweeney quickly learned that it's easier to walk on the groomed trail.  He didn't even need to know Gee or Haw!  He just followed the trail.

Kirkwood's groomed trails-  groomed for the width of single file snow shoers.

a junction of snow shoer trails.  Time for a doggy snack.

the views at Kirkwood XC ski center

After completing the snow shoe circuit in an hour, we switched shoes and all took cross-country ski lessons, except for my husband, Dima, who was already quite comfortable on XC skis. He hooked up Sweeney to his harness right away and followed us during our lesson.  Seeing Sweeney pull Dima was very motivating for the other students in the class.  The teacher even snarked, "Or we can all just hire Sweeney and forget about learning to do it ourselves."  My family figured out the skiing quickly and everyone took turns being pulled by Sweeney.  Falling didn't hurt as much as if you were falling off a bike onto pavement, so everyone was comfortable mushing.

Sweeney watching our cross country ski lesson at Kirkwood.  The snow was hard enough that not even the weight of his paws could damage the groomed tracks.

I fell a few times, but then Sweeney always waited for me. 

      After the lesson, my kids were eager to get some downhill skiing in, so they opted for the half day downhill ticket at Kirkwood.  It was a rushed trip because we didn't know how well Sweeney would do on an overnight trip, so my kids did snow shoeing, XC skiing and downhill skiing all in one day.   I dropped them off there and came back to ski on my own with Sweeney in the meadow.  It was a hot day, so there was no need for my long underwear, ski jacket or even the Musher's Secret, which failed to come by Amazon Prime in time for the trip, for Sweeney's feet.  All I needed was a helmet, just in case.  I didn't expect to do so well since it was hard to get Sweeney to move when we were jogging in my neighborhood.  But Sweeney and I made the entire loop!  He just followed the trail and did what he was born to do.  He was in his element!  And he was a great companion!  Together we admired the Palisades and beautiful winter lodges on the meadow trail.

We skied in both the tracks and on the skater's section.

There were plenty of ice cold creeks for him to wade in and drink from along the way.  It wasn't too cold for him.  The only times he really got distracted were when we passed by other dogs.  That happened four times.  The first was a stray dog that came up to us.  I didn't want to get literally pulled into a fight or play match, so I just took a seat while they sniffed each other.  Then another skier with an off-leash dog came along, sniffed us and passed.  There was a jogger with a dog and finally skiers with their Golden Retriever on a regular leash instead of a skijorn leash.  They knew their dog wasn't so friendly so they trekked through the deep snow while I passed.  There was a little barking war that had me on the ground, but soon enough we continued on.  Everyone we passed was very impressed by Sweeney and a little jealous of me.   The only commands we really needed were "Wait," "Let's go," and "Woah!"  He just followed the trail!  At the end we ruffed in the snow and and had a little snowball fight.  Sweeney then took his deserved rest in the car while I got filled up on mac n cheese at the Kirkwood Inn & Saloon.
     All in a all, it was a terrific day enjoying dog powered snow sports.  Next time we will take Sweeney on a 4 day, 3 night trip to North Tahoe for more skiing.  There we have reserved a cabin with a fenced in backyard!  He has graduated from the 2 day, 1 night trip, and we are ready to move on!  If only we had a few more huskies, so we could all enjoy dog powered skiing at the same time!  Not!

Cruising on the Norwegian Dawn: Dec. 2015

This Christmas cruise starts out great because it departs from New Orleans! What a fun city to tour before you board the Norwegian Dawn!

We stayed at the Hyatt, just 2 blocks from the cruise terminal and about 4 blocks from the French Quarter.  That way we didn't need to rent a car or take a taxi.  We rolled our luggage down the sidewalk between the Hyatt and the cruise terminal.

Guided Swamp Tour:
There are plenty to choose from on Groupon.  Ours put us on a quiet boat with a Cajun tour guide who played Cajun music for us and pointed out some alligators as soon as it got sunny.  We were there on the coldest day of the year!  He even let us hold an alligator.

Guided Bus Tour of New Orleans: 
Again, this is worth it, especially if you look for a Groupon ahead of time.  We saw the flood lines on houses that sort of survived Hurricane Katrina and visited a famous cemetery.  Then it took us through the Garden District and pointed out the houses of famous authors and the like.  On this trip, we learned the history of the French, Spanish and American architecture and how to spot examples of each, often side by side.  They stopped at a cafe where we could get beignets.  It's legal to consume alcohol on the bus, so I brought an Irish coffee with me.

The bus took us to this cemetery.  

Personal Walking Tour of New Orleans
We were quite impressed by the quantity and quality of street performers, from singers to violinists to acrobats to clowns with devil sticks, to magicians.  At one magic show, I won $5 because I took a risk.  My $5 bill turned into a $10 bill.  Visiting the voo doo shops was also fun.  However, what was most memorable for me was sampling the salsa at all the salsa shops.  One night, I took just a tiny sample of Death by Salsa on a pretzel stick.  It was really just a dab, smaller than my pinky nail.  Within seconds, my stomach was hurling.  I tried to vomit into a trash can but ended up just going to the bathroom at a beignet shop.  The scary part was that it caused me to bleed like I was having my period later that night.  We think that a passerby might have put drugs or poison into the salsa sample?

Of course, all the traditional food we tried, such as grilled oysters, gumbo and creole dishes was amazing.  But we had to save room for the cruise ship!

The Norwegian Dawn
I really miss the Norwegian Dawn.  Overall I have fond memories of the ship and the entire staff.  Everyone went out of their way to make us feel comfortable.  When I cruised with Royal Caribbean years later, I realized how great the Norwegian Dawn was.  Dingo Dave, the cruise director, constantly entertained everyone by loud speaker, newsletter or on stage and he made everyone love the Norwegian Dawn.  There was cruise ship spirit!

     The stewards were so cool that ours, Ray, knew all of our names and the names of everyone in all 16 of his rooms.  And he always left us cool towel animals, a different one each day!  My kids had fun going to the restaurants alone.  They could order 3 chocolate lava cakes in a row, and the the waiters would politely bring them!  Once my son asked if he could have a tower of lava cakes, and the waiter said, "absolutely."  My son said he was just joking and the the waiter insisted, "Are you sure?  I can do it."
     We did the 7 day cruise with stops in Cozumel, Belize, Roatan (Honduras) and Costa Maya (Mexico.)  There were 2 days at sea and 4 stops, and we felt this was the perfect balance of cruising and port visiting.  You don't have long to see any of the ports,  just 6-8 hours, so you try to make the most of it and don't expect to visit more than one place.   While you are on the ship, you can attend a schedule of events, from karaoke bar to trivia games to shopping preparation for your island visit.  There were poolside concerts and evening magic shows!  Sometimes you meet the stars of the show in at the buffet!

     Cozumel- our first stop.  We decided to book the cave trekking tour through Norwegian.  It was a good choice, probably the best adventure we booked.  It was very well organized and guided.  They fitted us in wetsuits and helmets with head lamps while we adored their pet coati.   We got to wade in the water and sometimes we had to swim to make our way through the cave, where there were stalagmites, bats and spiders.   The entire trip was beautiful and felt like a rugged adventure.
     Our second stop was in Belize.  We chose to go cave tubing, but we booked it with a group outside of the cruise line to save money.  This trip was not as well organized, so I wouldn't recommend it.  First of all, it takes a long time to get off the ship in Belize; you have to wait for another boat to come get you, and priority is given to people who booked trips through Norwegian!  The cave tubing was fun, but not as much of an adventure as the cave trekking.  The problem was that it took a long time for the organizers to get the bus filled with all the people and get going.  There was a lot of waiting around.  We chose ATV and zip lining in addition to the cave tour, and that's why we chose this company, because they offered all 3, but we quickly learned that that was a gimmick to attract our business.  There was no way we would have time for all three and still make it back to the ship on time.  I don't have any pictures of the cave tubing, because we were in such a hurry to get to the end on time; there was absolutely no time to take pictures of anything!

Taking selfies with monkeys at Roatan

 At every port, there are cultural treats waiting, such as natives to dance with.  Many people spend their port day just by going to a beach party or even just shopping in the cruise ports.  We definitely left plenty of time for shopping after most of our port adventures.

the beach at Roatan.

     At our 3rd stop in Roatan, we chose a tour that let us interact with monkeys and then go to a beach party.    The tour took us through a park and museum where we had to hear a lecture about many artificial things.  We would have rather seen Roatan.   We did see a bug collection and learned about butterflies.  At the very end we got to go in an enclosure with monkeys and hold them.  A bag in my purse was lifted by a monkey.  It ran around with my bag for a few minutes before the staff was able to seize it!  The beach party included snorkeling (but instead of giving you fins, they wanted to take you out in a boat and have you hold on to the boat.  The boat bumped my head!).  Having a monkey drink with kahlua and rum served at your lounge chair felt great, but what I remember is how we were ripped off with the day lockers.  A scam artist offered to return my key for me, but I didn't know that if you returned your key, you got a refund for the locker cost.  Beware!
     At our final stop in Costa Maya, we were supposed to take a catamaran, but the weather canceled the trip, and some of my family chose to stay at the port.  I signed up for the Mexican cultural tour where I got to go to a Mayan village and visit a Mayan pyramid.

Pooldeck chess!

     You need to be stomach strong to fare well on the Norwegian Dawn.  Maybe it needs bigger stabilizers. Other cruisers say other ships dont rock as much.  You really only notice the rocking when you wake up the first day at sea and the rest of that day. If you don't stay busy, you will  feel sicksick. Some employees said their first day on the job was hard. Some passengers spent the day in bed.  I wanted to keep busy, so I went to 7AM stretch, 7:30 abs, and 8AM spin. I felt no rocknroll during spin.  I usually hate spin. The instructor was awesome and distracted me from the rocking.  At least, I didn't abuse the buffet because of my nausea.  Maybe the ship saves money on food when there are no stabilizers.  Dingo Dave said there were stabilizers and showed them on a ship model, but another cruising regular said there weren't.
     Meanwhile, my daughters were stalking Chadley, one of the photographers.  They thought he was so cute.  They learned his schedule and followed him everywhere.  

The pool at the Norwegian Dawn.  My favorite
thing to do was sit in that hot tub and listen to
the band, "Flavors" play Caribbean music at
every sail away party.  I ordered one drink in  the
hot tub, but it was not as relaxing as I had hoped.  I had to get my room card and sign the receipt.
But the receipt gets wet, and then the bubbly water
threatens to jump in your drink

Chocolate delights!

     There are so many ways to stay entertained on the ship.  For a family of 5, you will need two rooms.  It costs more money, but it's really fun for the kids to have their own room and their own key cards.  We let the kids roam the ship freely and do what they wanted.  None of them wanted to go to the kid's club.  Two of my kids were usually at the basketball court playing soccer or other games.  People around the ship starting recognizing my son as the kid who plays 3x3 soccer really well.  My older daughter like to read and sunbathe on the deck.  My husband used the computer lounge with wifi to get some work done.  I played bingo and attended the lectures describing the next port.  We would all decide in the evening after we saw the next day's schedule what we would all do together and where and when we would meet.  The kids even ordered room service to their own room in the middle of the night!  This worked well!  Everyone was happy!

     No one wanted to get off the Norwegian.  Dingo Dave said we'd go home and throw our towels on the floor, but they'd still be there the next day.  My younger daughter said she would grow up to become a magician's assistant and marry her magician and live on a cruise ship.  Years after this cruise, she kept in contact with another kid she met on the ship!   Still we had a good time for a couple more days in New Orleans.    After New Orleans we went on to New York for 5 days to watch Broadway shows.  Somehow the triangular airfare was not that much more than round trip to New Orleans would have been.  This was a trip the whole family looks back on as being one of our best family vacations.