The best beach in the world accorrding to us guys'

Here we are on Paje. Just another beach bum shot. We went back for another day and spent the day on the beach. What a good day! From the second day of motorcycle renting, to the beautiful sand that felt like flour, to swimming in the bath-warm water, it was great.

Moving on from that, we raced back to Old Stone Town, went out for dinner and hopped on the night ferry from Zanzibar back to Dar es Salaam. The ferry turned out to be a lot better than our expectations with mattresses to lie down on and Filipino TV soap operas. The AC was pretty strong so Andrea and I cuddled throughout the night. I was actually quite rested and pleasantly surprised to discover that we had arrived in Dar having had a good nights sleep.

We opted for the bus this morning instead of taking the train as we were able to leave Dar at 7:00 AM, just making it in time for the bus from the ferry dock. The bus ride was about 12 hours and Andrea woke me up as she saw giraffes, zebras, elephants and monkeys in one of the national parks that we drove through. It was a lot of fun to meet people on the bus and I had a chance to talk to a journalist/videographer who made documentaries for the local television networks, which is good as it will mean less Filipino TV soaps. He had some interesting stories about HIV/AIDS in Africa and the highway that we were on, the Tanzanian-Zambian highway. He said that this particular highway has helped the spread of the virus because of the lifestyles of truckers and the freedom of sex workers in the region. Basically, it has become a corridor for the virus to get into the middle of the continent and out again.

We're here in Mbeya and leave at 6:20 tomorrow morning for a bus to the border and then on to Chitemba. Please pray that we keep safe on the roads, that we find good people to meet and laugh with, and that we love more and more as we go on.

Much love,

Michael and Andrea