[Quixotic_Dancer]

Originally posted by BlockHead
Africa has a lot of nasty things like diseases, large predators, wars, radical Muslims, etc.

It also has: the wind-sculpted dunes of the Sahara; the rose-colored, intricately latticed walls of Marrakesh; a group of Muslim men in Morocco, all good friends, who cooked dinners for me, were perfect gentlemen to me, never said or did anything remotely inappropriate, and completely smashed all my remaining preconceptions about men in the Arab world; Timbuktu, the most literally romantic place I've ever visited; the kaleidoscopic, bustling markets of Mali, where the women carry bundles on their heads, babies on their backs, and still move like prima ballerinas; the gorgeous coast of Ghana, which includes the forts where slaves were collected before being shipped to the new world, and the horrific conditions of the dungeons were like nothing I could have imagined (nothing makes history come alive like travelling to the places where it happened!); the green plains of the Serengeti game park in Tanzania, (green because the rainy season had started, though our safari was rain-free), where, among other wonders, I saw herds of wildebeest, zebra and antelope stretching for as far as the eye could see, and I thought, "This is Eden." And so much more...

I'm wondering how many parasites, and exotic diseases you picked up along the way.

None actually, because I got a battery of innoculations before I left, I was very cautious about what I ate and drank, and I never entered a body of water before consulting locals, and my guide book, about the possibility of parasites there (actually, in Africa, with the exception of the ocean, I never swam in a body of water at all). No one should embark on a trip like the one I just took without a lot of research and preparation (don't mean to be preachy, but it's the truth).

[I think it is foolish to backpack alone for long distances in foreign countries over such a long period of time.

During the year I was gone, there was one horrible terrorist attack which occurred, and, tragically, many people lost their lives. It happened in New YorK City.