What we spent: South Africa
We’re back! Back to spending $200ish a day, at least.
Four backpacks and a large duffel in a Toyota Agya!
As we’ve described elsewhere we quite enjoyed our time in South Africa. In fact, it’d be a great place for an American family to vacation if it wasn’t so far away. Perfect weather, lovely beaches, good infrastructure, low prices. Brian and I call western South Africa “Half Price California”.
34 days in South Africa
Airfare from Kigali to Cape Town cost $1135 and tickets from Cape Town to Colombo ran us $887 after we used up some points.
Sam along the Seven Passes Road
We did have one large, unexpected expense in South Africa and it made us very grateful for a) a flexible budget and b) South African medical care. A few days before we set off on our backpacking trip, Joe mentioned that several of his teeth hurt when he chewed. Perplexing: he’s never had a cavity before, he saw his California dentist late last spring before we left, and he had his teeth cleaned in Istanbul in December. Neither recent appointment aroused any suspicion for brewing cavities or other issues. So we chatted up some locals at a coffee shop, got a recommendation for a nearby pediatric dentist and booked the soonest appointment available. Joe was a champ on the trail, surviving the trip on the softest foods we could think to bring (lots of peanut butter and Laughing Cow). After seeing the dentist we were blown away to learn that somehow in the space of two months, Joe developed five cavities; all in all, he got four fillings and the worst tooth had to be pulled. The extracted tooth was a baby tooth but still … the experience was traumatic for all of us, most especially Joe.
Joe at the Green Shed, our favorite coffee spot in Wilderness
My theory about how this happened (so fast!) is that Joe has, for years, harbored a love of homemade vinaigrette bordering on obsession. In South Africa, for the first time in months, we could buy gorgeous fresh greens so we ate a lot of salad. Over time Joe decreased the proportion of olive oil to vinegar in his mix until he was basically (and sometimes actually) pouring straight vinegar on his salads. He even took a swig of vinegar here and there. (The kid loves vinegar.) So Joe consumed a vat of vinegar in South Africa and also a similarly gluttonous quantity of fresh tropical fruit. I wonder if the one-two punch of acid and sugar wasn’t enough to lay waste to the thin enamel on his remaining baby teeth. But I welcome other guesses because his dentist basically shrugged.
Green space in Wilderness
Since this is a financial post and not a motherhood-confessional, I’ll add that the price for the whole shebang was $625, which seemed more than reasonable and certainly would have been much higher at home. For now, we’re doubling down on oral hygiene, we’ve banned vinegar at least temporarily and we’re planning to have his teeth re-examined and likely re-imaged in Japan in a few months. Ugh.
The Garden Route at dusk
Final note of financial interest: now we are in Weligama, Sri Lanka. So far Sri Lanka has been a challenge for us; it’s hot, it’s humid, it’s crowded, it’s very noisy and chaotic. But bigger problems are brewing. We learned from our host in Colombo that Sri Lankans use US dollars to import goods into the country; however, since the decimation of tourism that came along with the pandemic, dollars are scarce here and imports have almost totally ceased. The situation is now so dire that there are significant fuel shortages and daily planned power outages. Today while walking back to our apartment from the local grocery store (lots of ominously empty shelves) we passed a gas station and were astonished to see a line of cars so long it snaked out of view, at least three or four blocks long. We may be forced to forgo our prior intention for a tour around the country by train and head to Thailand sooner than previously planned.
Sunset over the marsh near Leisure Isle
