Tanzania's president has thanked a visiting Chinese minister for not wearing a mask, claiming it proves there's no coronavirus in the country.
From a BBC news article issued yesterday.
Yeah, okay.
So apparently it's going to be an interesting visit for us to Tanzania, one of the few countries in the world where life at this time goes on pretty much "normally".
I've been following the stories of a few other travelers who are either in Tanzania or have been there over the past six months.
Ruth packed us a lunch, and we set off heading due north out of the city towards a cave that I had read about. One of the things that attracted me to this particular cave was that one of the reviews said "you will be the only ones there except for the cows"!
How could Turkey's largest cave get so few visitors? From looking at the map, I assumed it was because of the 3.8 km (2.4 mile) uphill hike to get there. We were overdue for some exercise, so we were looking forward to the hike.
We had planned on driving about an hour and a half south to Mount Chimaera, but we were late getting going, and it was market day so we had to get some fruits and veggies at some point. We decided to put off the Mount Chimarea visit and go do our groceries and then just go down to the big beach here in Antalya and go for a walk.
Besides, it was a hazy day, so there likely wouldn't have been much scenery to admire at Mount Chimaera. It was pleasant though, and it got warmer than they had forecast.
It was looking like another decent day yesterday with a forecast high of 20C (68F) and cloudy with sunny breaks. So we set off to do some more exploring.
There are several waterfalls in the area of Antalya, so we planned a route to include two of the more popular ones. The first one is within the city limits, but not the downtown area. It's called Upper Duden Waterfalls. We had been to the Lower Duden Waterfalls a couple of weeks ago.
On Monday afternoon we went back for a follow up appointment regarding our eye surgery. Bottom line, everything is proceeding exactly the way it should be. But there is more to it, so for anybody considering the same thing, here are ALL the details...
What we had done is called Refractive Lens Exchange.
It's exactly the same surgery as cataract surgery, with one difference. We didn't have cataracts.
The weekend lockdown was over, and it was a half decent day from a weather perspective. So we were itching to get out and do some exploring. It's all fine and good to get this eyesight thing done, but between that and the lockdowns and the weather, we haven't had a chance to do nearly as much exploring in this area as we wanted to.
So on Monday morning, we hopped in the car and drove up into the mountains behind Antalya.
Ruth and I keep track of every penny we spend. We were doing that even when we had "normal" lives. We found that it was easier to see where frivolous spending was going, and where we could cut back. And doing it daily meant that we could easily see if we were overspending, and when it was time to cut back.
In the old days, it was a simple piece of paper... adding everything up by hand. Then it the late 1990's we got a computer and that made things a little easier. As time went on, I made myself an Excel spreadsheet that keeps annual track of our spending.
On Saturday, we contacted our Airbnb host here in Antalya and once again extended our stay. Because of our eye surgery and the weekend lockdowns, we haven't had a chance to explore the area nearly as much as we wanted to. So rather than moving on just for the sake of moving on, we decided to stay put.
We thought about getting another place further east of here, and driving back for our eye doctor appointments, but we are really happy with the apartment. It's got a comfortable bed, and fast, consistent WiFi... and it's only 125 lira ($21.50 CAD, $16.85 USD) per night.
When we were traveling in our motorhome and it was just the two of us, playing Backgammon while having a drink at happy hour became a regular thing. And then at dinner time we would play a couple of games of Yahtzee while eating dinner.
But when you travel as light as we normally do, it's not easy to travel with a Backgammon board! However, it's very easy to bring along five dice to play Yahtzee.
Well at first glance, it looks like we had a really expensive month. In fact, our most expensive month ever.
We spent a total of $8,847 CAD ($6,943 USD).
However, a more detailed look reveals that it wasn't too bad. A big chunk of that expense was to have our eye surgery done. And we consider that an investment, not an expense. (I will talk a little more about that another day.) So we could remove $6,097 CAD ($4,785 USD) right there.
I know that this eye surgery stuff has been taking up a lot of our daily activities for the past two weeks. But it's almost over! By next Monday we will be back to our normal programming showing you some more of the sights of Turkey.
An interesting thing has happened since we stopped posting to Facebook. Now, maybe it's a combination of factors, since it seems that many of you have been interested our progress with this eye surgery, but our daily readership has actually increased since stopping the Facebook posts.
My first new eye... the one that was done last Friday, is now at about 90%. It will still improve a little more over the coming days. But it was time to get the second new eye!
Yesterday, Tuesday, was a total write off. It poured with rain all day and we just stayed inside. So it felt great to do the 8.2 km (5.1 mile) walk to the hospital this morning. Our appointment was at 9:00am, so we left the apartment at 7:30am... it was still dark out.
Most of the world is happy to be leaving 2020 behind and watching it disappear in the rear view mirror. 2021 just has to be better. But while there were some challenges for us in 2020, we certainly wouldn't call it a disastrous year, as it has been for many people!
The first three months of 2020 were fantastic. January, February, and March we were in Mexico leading a group of other motorhomes on a four and a half month tour. It was a great group of people and we enjoyed the trip as much as we think the participants did. It was a lot of fun!
Yesterday was another lock down day and we didn't leave the apartment. But, we have our freedom back for the next three days until the four day New Years lockdown happens here in Turkey. While Christmas is not a big deal here, New Year's Eve normally is. It's going to be tough to get out and do anything though over the next three days. We have an eye doctor appointment at 11:00am today, and then it's supposed to rain for almost 24 hours through to Tuesday afternoon.
And then of course Wednesday is eye surgery number two! Of course Wednesday is supposed to be a beautiful day. We don't know at what time yet though, so we're hoping it will be in the afternoon so that we can get out and do something Wednesday morning.
Woke up Saturday morning with a 9:30am appointment at the eye doctor ahead of us.
The first thing I wanted to do was to remove the patch to see if I could see! The doctor had said it was okay for me to remove it in order to confirm that I would be okay to drive.
