Africa Travel Map, Visas and Passport Stamps

Our passports are getting full and we are getting ready to apply for new ones. I decided to take photos of the passport stamps and visas in my current passport for a record. Then I found a website, mapchart,  that does maps that you can fill in and label. So I've decided to map our travel activities and record the passport stamps and visas in a post. This first post is on Africa. This post was updated on June 11, 2018 to reflect further travel in Africa.

Africa: 10 countries so far.

 Our first visit to Africa was a safari to Kenya and Tanzania, set forth here.  It was primarily a vehicle safari and I fell in love with the animals and with Africa, itself, and determined to see more of it. 

Kenya visa. Our entry stamp into Nairobi is the bottom right and our exit at Isebania, going into Tanzania is bottom center. The entry stamp for Tanzania is below.

We exited Tanzania four days later to go back to and fly out of Kenya. 

Going back into Kenya at Namanga as we leave Tanzania.

Leaving Kenya at Jomo Kenyatt Int'l Airport to fly to Ghana. 

Our visa to Ghana and a red-stamp of our entry date.

An entry stamp into Ghana.

Our exit stamp from Ghana at Kotoka Airport.

The next year we visited Egypt, as well as Israel and Jordan (the report of that trip is here). Egypt was a very different experience than East Africa, amazing ancient culture and strong Biblical ties. 

This is the entry visa and also has an arrival and departure stamp. 

We arrived in Taba, near the Red Sea, at the border with Israel. We had a very long walk from the Israel exit buildings to the Egypt entrance buildings. 

A year later we were back to Africa again, this time to Morocco. We flew into and out of Casablanca. The report of our trip is here. 

Our entry stamp to Morocco.

Our exit stamp from Morocco. 

In 2018 we returned to Africa with visits to South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia. I'll updated it with stamps and visas later.

Olympia Provisions Salamis

As a Christmas gift in 2015, Andrew gave sent us some Olympia Provisions salami. Olympia Provisions is out of Portland, Oregon and the founder is a first-generation Greek-American who does handmade pork salami. Andrew enrolled us in the Salami of the Month Club so that we got a different kind of salami each month along with a fact sheet about each salami and what kinds of foods and wine to have with it. So it was a gift we enjoyed the entire year!

We got four kinds of Italian salami, four kinds of Spanish salami, three kinds of French salami and a Greek salami and a primer on salami, in general. Salami is a cured sausage with fermented and air-dried meat. I'd never understood that salami is in many ways like cheese, with the same basic ingredient, in this case pork, being made into very different end products by using different ingredients, fermentation (beneficial mold) and aging. 

First, the Italian salamis. 

Finocchiona is typical of southern Tuscany and is characterized by the use of fennel as an alternative to pepper. It originated during the Late Middle Ages or early Renaissance when pepper was very expensive and fennel grew wild in the Tuscan countryside. This Finocchiona has ground fennel seed, black pepper and garlic. I'd never realized before that the powdery like substance on the outside of the salami is actually mold, just like the mold used in cheese-making to help age the cheese and provide extra flavor. 

Finocchiona salami

Nola salami is lightly smoked, which makes it different from other Italian salamis, and it is more coarsely ground and formed into shorter links. It is found in the Campania region. Olympia Provisions puts in black pepper, garlic, chili flakes and allspice. 

Nola salami on some Italian pottery.

Cacciatore means "hunter" in Italian and refers to a meal prepared "hunter" style, usually with onions, herbs, tomatoes, bell peppers and wine. The "common thread" of cacciatore salami is bold seasoning. The Olympic Provisions cacciatore has caraway, coriander, black pepper and dried red chili flakes. 

Cacciatore salami

The final Italian salami was sopressata, more of a southern Italy variety, with the best found in Calabria (the toe of the Italian peninsula). The Olympia Provisions sopressata has clove, oregano, garlic and chili flakes. 

Sopressata salami

Spanish Salamis.

Chorizo traditionally uses casings from pig intestines and Spanish chorizo gets a distinctive smokiness and deep red color from dried smoked red peppers. 

The Olympia Provisions chorizo rioja is made with both sweet and smoked paprika (a ground spice from air-dried peppers), garlic and oregano. Rioja is a wine-making region in northern Spain and this salami is touted as one that goes well with red wine. 

Chorizo rioja

Olympia Provisions chorizo navarre is more spicy, a kind found in northern Spain (Navarre is a province next to the border with France). The ingredients in this salami are sweet paprika, garlic and cayenne pepper. This was one of my favorites. It was very soft and had a nice subtle heat to it. 

Chorizo Navarre

Olympia Provisions chorizo Andalucia is more sweet and represents southern Spain. It includes sweet paprika, clove and garlic. Andalusia (Andalucia in Spanish) is the territory that covers eight regions of southern Spain. 

Chorizo Andalucia. I couldn't find my own picture, so I borrowed this from the Oympia Provisions website. 

Salchichon is a Spanish summer sausage made by some combination of smoking, drying or cooking. The pork and fat are chopped into small bits, seasoned with salt, pepper, nutmeg, oregano and garlic, inserted into an intestine casing and cured up to three months. The Olympia Provisions salchichon has cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, paprika, black pepper and garlic. 

Salchichon. This picture is from Olympia Provisions website as I could not find my photos for it. 

French Salamis. 

Saucisson is a thick, dry cured sausage that originated in France. The name comes from the Latin word salsus meaning salted. There are saucisson recipes dating back to Roman times. 

Olympia Provision's Saucisson D'Arles is their most elemental salami. It only has pork and salt. Arles is a city and a commune in southern France. 

Saucisson D'Arles

Saucisson Sec is Olympia Provision's "most traditional French salami" and has black pepper and garlic. It is the type of sausage found in Burgundy, an area encompassing four departments in central France. It is their most popular salami. 

Saucisson Sec

Olympia Provision's Saucisson D'Alsace is the most ingredient rich French salami they have with clove, nutmeg, allspice and cinnamon. The Alsace region of France is in the northeastern part of France neighboring Germany and Switzerland. 

Saucisson D'Alsace

Greek Salami.

Olympia Provisions has one Greek salami, that is Loukanika. It is the family recipe of the owner, Elias Cairo, obtained from his father. It is equal parts cumin and garlic, with a touch of orange zest. 

Loukanika. Picture from the Olympia Provisions website.

It was very fun to try the different kinds of salami and to learn a little bit about salami in general. It is also nice that this salami is top-notch and delicious. There is not one we did not enjoy. I was keeping notes on the various salamis and at some point during the year misplaced them. 

Soursop or Guanabana

Soursop or guanabana is native to the West Indies and northern South America. Today it is grown in Bermuda, the Bahamas, and from Southern Mexico to Peru and Argentina, as well as Southeast Asia. 

The fruit is heart-shaped (human heart, not valentine heart) with shamrock-green skin while it is immature, then turns more yellowish green as it matures and then darkens and becomes soft to the touch. It has limp spines that are soft and pliable with tips that easily break off when the fruit is mature. Inside it is white with inedible black seeds and a pithy core, similar to a pineapple. 

A soursop on the tree (from Wikipedia). Note the limpy spines that are missing in the later photos.

Soursop as it ripens.

I obtained a soursop from Exotic Meat Market and was told to let it sit until it got soft and was turning dark. 

The soursop as it looked the day I ate it.

First I watched a video on how to cut open a soursop (no big deal). I cut it lengthwise and it cut easily. Inside it is white like cherimoya, but has the physical characteristics (other than color) of a pineapple. 

It is one of the most interesting fruits I've ever tried. The texture is complex and changes inside your mouth. At first it is custardy, very smooth and creamy, then it turns pulpy, and then in some bites turns stringy (there were some small pieces I did not swallow, but removed from my mouth). For people who are bothered by unfamiliar textures, it may cause mind games. It is unlike any fruit I've had before. I'm quite an adventurous eater, but I'm not a fan of overly ripe fruit. For example, I will not eat bananas with dark spots or that are turning mushy, although I love them mixed up in banana bread. So the dark outside skin of the soursop and some of the ripeness inside created some minor mental barriers for me. However, the taste is a very nice combination of sweet and lightly sour, unique and marvelous. For Judy, the after-taste was like peaches. 

This photo shows some seeds and the stringy middle.

I ate half in the evening, shared some with Judy, then had the rest in a bowl of oatmeal in the morning. I felt like the oatmeal overshadowed it. It was much better plain. It is said to be good in smoothies and ice cream.

Updated:

In April 2017 we were visiting a Korean store in the Koreatown area of Los Angeles and saw a container of soursop juice. I had to have some. The picture shows that the juice is a brownish color and it is quite dense and thick. The texture reminds me of peach nectar, which is interesting because the fruit reminded Judy of peaches. The juice is very, very sweet, sweeter than any other fruit juice I can think of. I enjoyed it very much, but a little goes a long way.

Soursop juice

Starfruit with Honey and Maple Syrup

I did a post on starfruit about six years ago and I've not had any starfruit since then. My prior post gives some of the background on starfruit and where it is found.

A friend, C. c. Claudia, gave me a box with some assorted fruit in it, including a starfruit. Starfruit reminds me of two things: the North Shore of Oahu, where I have bought it at roadside stands; and the Peruvian jungle where we were served slices of starfruit with honey as a dipping sauce.

Sliced, it has the appearance of a vertebrae. 

Starfruit is very juicy, it rivals watermelon for water content. It also has an understated taste like watermelon. It is usually a little tart, so I find that a little something sweet with it is a nice addition. In this case, I used some honey and some maple syrup, drizzling a little bit on separate portions. 

The star shape is so distinctive that it is as fun to look at it as it is to eat it. I loved both the honey and the maple syrup on it, with a slight nod to the maple syrup. 

Judy has eaten pancakes several mornings recently, and I've been a little jealous watching her pour maple syrup on them. I was able to get my maple syrup fix for breakfast with the star fruit and feel much more healthy doing it. 

Eastern Wild Turkey - Baked Without Stuffing

We got an eastern wild turkey from Anshu Pathak of Exotic Meat Market for Thanksgiving. However, we got invited to a friends house for Thanksgiving and put the turkey in the freezer and did not eat it until early January when we had some friends over for dinner. 

An eastern wild turkey we saw near Minneapolis.

Unlike domestic turkeys that can't fly, Anshu raises these birds on his farm and they run wild and can and do fly. I picked the never-frozen bird up from his office a few days before Christmas and reluctantly froze it as indicated above. 

Your normal supermarket bird does not look like this.

It is fun to have it come with the head.

Because it was not Thanksgiving and we were not devoting the day to it, we did not stuff the bird or do any special preparation other than putting it in a cooking bag in the oven. That was a mistake. We under-cooked the normal cooking time for a turkey of this size and still overcooked it. It was over-done, chewy and slightly gamy, something I've not experienced with the two previous wild turkeys we've cooked. 

Here is the bird, minus the head and legs.

The bird after cooking, still in the bag.

The browned and fully cooked bird.

A platter with some of the white and dark meat.

A couple of thoughts and observations for future wild turkeys. First, you can't be casual with wild meat. There is much less room for error in cooking because it is less fatty. So give it proper attention. Second, brine it ahead of time. The brining will break down the meat a little bit and moisten it up. It will also help reduce or get rid of any gamy taste. Third, stuff the bird. There is nothing like good moist stuffing. Fourth, put butter under the skin to provide better moisture while cooking. And fifth, use a thermometer rather than rely on a cooking time gauged for a domesticated bird.  

Fonda Oaxaquena - East Wenatchee, WA

We visited Sam in the Leavenworth area and had an opportunity to go up Tumwater Canyon, outside Leavenworth, to see where Sam does some of his climbing. It was a beautiful fall day and many of the trees were sporting brilliant colors.

That afternoon we decided to drive to Wenatchee for lunch. Fonda Oaxaquena was rated no. 8 out of 34 restaurants in East Wenatchee on Trip Advisor and Mexican food was sounding good. 

This is the only time I can recall getting beans and salsa as a snack while we waited for an order, supplemented by guacamole which we did order. It was a nice combination. 

We each ordered the same thing, enchiladas de espinacas, a tortilla filled with spinach and mushrooms covered in green sauce and queso fresco. It looked beautiful, was a nice vegetarian option and was quite filling. I just miss the much hotter salsa we get in Southern California.