Tuesday, April 7, 2026
We left Maraquita, at sea level, on Easter Monday and drove 3.5 hours to Lubango via the road climbing the escarpment. Very hair raising for me. But once on the escarpment I relaxed. We proceeded across the 6000 foot escarpment and then drove downhill to Lubango at 5000 feet.
It was a delightful town with wonderfully cool air, lots of trees and plants, especially in the Casper Resort where we stayed. There were even ducks and geese and duiker in the resort. There was one unfortunate experience. We learned that our flight to Luanda, scheduled for the next day, was cancelled. The only flight we could secure was out of Namib, aka Mariquita, to Luanda a day earlier than planned. So, after only one night in the delightful Casper Resort in Lubango, we were up early and retracing our steps back to Namib to catch the flight from there at 1pm. What a drag. But at least we made it to Luanda (pop 9 million) with a day to spare for our return home departing Luanda at 10pm on the 8th.
We said good bye to Stefan at the Namib airport, leaving him to drive home alone. Having arrived in Luanda at 3pm, we were driven into the capital by a man Stefan had hired. The ride took a whole hour through very busy streets. Once in the city, we wound up near the ocean at a place called Thompson Art House. It was very quirky. We were all surprised that Stefan would choose such an odd place. We finally settled into a king bed room for us and a double bed room for Claire. I took a few photos of the place, including our door. We took an Uber to dinner at a seaside restaurant called Miami Beach. We feasted on very large prawns, aka Gambas, beer and wine. For dessert I couldn’t resist lava cake. It was delicious.
Wednesday, April 8, 2026
Our last day of this African adventure. At 9am we were picked up by Leo, our guide for the day. He drove us all over the old city and we took several photos of buildings and graffiti. Stopped for coffee in SE 24, a snack bar.
We took photos of the nicest buildings, but most of the city is dingy, crowded and ugly. Sorry to say. We agreed that the best place to live in Angola is Lubango. Nicest weather, very green and not too crowded.
Thursday, April 9, 2026
A final travel day. This time to home. We left Luanda late on the 8th and are now sitting in the Frankfurt airport waiting for our next leg to Denver. The last leg will take us to Sacramento, where we plan to hire an Uber to take us home. The reason for all the crazy flights is because our original flights on Emirates through Dubai were cancelled at the last minute as a result of Trumps war on Iran. Mark worked overtime to get the flights we have. It has been so nice not thinking about politics in the US the last few weeks. Am not looking forward to that aspect of returning, but it will be nice to get home to friends and our garden.
I plan to send an epilogue after we get home. There are several photos and videos I have been unable to send due to time constraints or a lack of strong WiFi. Hang tight for more.
Love to all,
Julia and Mark
Adventures with Julia 