Dia de los Muertos @ Salsa

It seemed like there were dozens of Dia de los Muertos parties going on all over Joburg this year. See what happens when Mexican food catches on in South Africa? It becomes a fiesta!

Home altar dedicated to Africa's poached rhinos, ellies and lions

There were parties planned at the Stanley Beer Garden in Braamfontein, Mexicho in Melville and a whole Dia de los Muertos Street Festival at Carfax Newtown in the CBD.

Stanley Beer Garden

It seems everyone wants to go drinking with Saints!

Salsa Mexican Grill in Fourways

We chose to celebrate the dia at Salsa Mexican Grill in Fourways. The Day of the Dead, one of the most important Mexican holidays, is more a celebration of life than a sad and solemn memorial. And since we are in Africa, I used it to celebrate the lives of our rhinos, elephants and lions.

Social media madam Irene & Salsa restaurateur George

Salsa has great food, ...

... great margaritas and cervezas, ...

... and if you didn't paint your face before you came, there were artists on hand to do it for you!

We chose to paint some masks instead (photo courtesy of Irene & Salsa Mexican Grill)

Lou & Serge wore their skeleton costumes for a second night in a row!

Viva Yvonne!

nice ink!

nice wings!

number juan in your hearts!

she painted her face herself and won a prize for it!

viva el chef!

salsa dancing

Photo courtesy of Irene & Salsa Mexican Grill

And we won a prize for best costume!



















It was totally Lou & Serge's doing. They were a hit.

celebration shots!

Thanks Lou & Serge and Salsa!

tabletop altar for the poached animals of Africa

We got an E for Effort for mounting our tabletop altar. (I did transport the Oculto beer with me to SA from Texas for the occasion too. That was a bit of an effort.) 

Save the Rhinos! Save the Elephants! Save the Lions!

my sugar skull purse from Retrospective (Cape Town)

¡Feliz Día de los Muertos!

Lou says "Save the Rhino"

 It's World Rhino Day! So please ...

 Save the rhino!!!

Nailed it for World Rhino Day!

I thought it would be so easy to have someone paint rhinos on my fingernails for the British World Rhino Day initiative, Nail it 4 Rhinos. It's Africa for goodness sake!

But I went to my usual nail salons and day spas and ... no can do! So I went online and googled "nail art." I came up with a couple of possibilities in my area, the best bet being the Soho New York nail salon in Sandton City who claimed they were  ...

    "introducing the unique New York style of nail salons to South Africa. You can enjoy quick, walk-in & full service manicures, pedicures, all nail systems…"

Lost that bet. They couldn't do it either.

In the end, I bought some nail polish and conscripted my favorite helper, ... Vince! Now he can add "nail artist" to his list of many talents. Happy World Rhino Day!

Rhino SAVE

SAVE the rhino

on background art "Those of Us," my mixed media collage by Cathy Barcroft

I even nailed a place in the Nail it for Rhinos collage!

It's that time again!

Time for the Global March for Elephants - Rhinos - Lions.

Find out where to join the global march coming up on October 3rd in your city!

Nail it 4 Rhinos

Are you ready to #nailit4rhinos this #WorldRhinoDay? An easy way to get involved in the run up to World Rhino Day on September 22nd is by getting creative with your nail art.

Under normal circumstances, I am not really a nail art person. A buff manicure is more my style. But in order to call attention to World Rhino Day, I am willing to do just about anything. Even to go as far as to have a rhino face painted on my thumb nails in order to upload photos of them to social media. 

Why nail art? It is an appropriate gesture actually to remind the world that rhino horn is made from keratin, the same material found in human nails.

Here are some of the best designs from last year to help get you inspired!
 












And don't forget to donate:
- If you're in the UK donate £3 by texting NAIL15 £3 to 70070
- Or donate online from the rest of the world www.savetherhino.org/donate

That Time We Saw Black Rhino ...

After we didn't see a black rhino in the Ngorongoro Crater, we thought we had missed our chance to see one in Tanzania altogether. But no, the Serengeti graced us with a nice little sighting of a female black rhino and her baby. (The baby was hiding behind mom so we couldn't get a photo of the little tyke, but it was there nonetheless!)

Rhino Lodge

We read that we would have the best chance of seeing black rhinos in Tanzania in the thick montane forests of the Ngorongoro Crater in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area.

But the only rhinos we saw decorated our rooms at the Ngorongoro Rhino Lodge where we stayed on the crater rim.

(For the record, our mandatory-for-self-drive-assigned game guide claimed he spotted a black rhino for us way across the crater floor from where we were viewing, but I am not counting it. Even using my high-powered binoculars, it looked like just a big fat black dot to me.)

amonyi means rhino in Swahili

rhino shuka quilts on the beds

No matter. We did see a real black rhino later on in the Serengeti ... and the Lodge did have a great flock of Marabou storks to entertain us!

All the Big Five in one game drive! Again!

playing chicken with impala on a bridge

Really, Kruger National Park is truly the most amazing place on the planet!

After we finished the excavation of SH2015 Gaza Gray, we took a final game drive through lower Kruger National Park. And for the second time in a week, we saw all of the Big Five in one game drive! We aw two lions, two leopards, dozens of elephants, hundreds of Cape buffalo and three rhinos who were sleeping standing up!

the first lion

the second lion

a leopard

ellies and hippos by the river

herds of Cape buffalo too

shhh! rhinos sleeping here!