Day #234 in lockdown in Mumbai, India hotel…Good news!!!… Halfway, anyway!…

Although the hills block the sun’s setting, these beautiful skies give us a peek of what lurks behind the hills.

Today’s photos are from this date while staying in a condo overlooking Maalaea Beach, Maui, Hawaii, in 2014. For the story and more photos from this date, please click here.

While researching photos for today’s post, I experienced a hurdle. There was only one post on this particular date of November 12th in the past eight years that appealed to me. I knew at some point this would happen. With over 3000 past posts and repeats for the past eight months, it was inevitable I’d eventually run into such an obstacle.

Subsequently, today’s photos are no big deal. After all, there were only eight 12ths of November, with the first year, 2012, with no photos at all. So bear with us on today’s less-than-interesting photos. When living in certain parts of the world for extended periods, it’s not unusual for us to have days when we take no photos.

A new Coast Guard boat in the marina.

There are days when we choose to stay in. In anyone’s life, sightseeing isn’t always an important aspect of one’s daily life. In our old lives, we never went sightseeing unless we had out-of-town guests who were anxious for us to give them “the tour” of the highlights of our city.

Of course, our world lives usually travel (except for now) warrant us heading out to see what treasures we can discover as we tour the most recent location and take hundreds, if not thousands, of photos. At some point, we’ll repost many of the photos we’ve taken here in India while touring during our first six weeks before COVID-19 hit, and we had to curtail our activities.

Speaking of which, according to numerous news media reports, it appears that President Cyril Ramphosa of South Africa has agreed to reopen borders to travelers worldwide. See this article here. His comments include:

“By using rapid tests and strict monitoring, we intend to limit the spread of the infection through importation,” he added. “We expect that these measures will greatly assist businesses in the tourism and hospitality sectors.”

The president did not give further details or a specific date for the reopening. A presidency spokesperson could not immediately be reached for comment.

After a six-month ban, South Africa opened its borders to some international travelers at the beginning of October, but the restricted entry from high-risk countries, with the latest list, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, Brazil, and India.”

Beautiful colors at dusk at the lava rock breakwaters.

Yeah! Well, almost yeah. India has yet to open up international flights in order for us to be able to fly to South Africa. But now we feel more hopeful. We wait for the airlines to start booking flights from Mumbai to Johannesburg and then to the Nelspruit/Mpumalanga/Kruger, a one-hour drive to Marloth Park.

We’ve had zillions of readers contacting us via email, comments, and Facebook, letting us know about this news. We thank every one of you for letting us know. However, during the night, when I suddenly awoke and couldn’t go back to sleep right away, a news notification popped up on my phone with the story. I couldn’t wait to tell Tom but didn’t want to awaken him.

Note how the colors of these flowers progress to brighter pink at the top. This is a variety of Aloe Vera.

The first moment I felt him moving around this morning, I excitedly shared the news. Now, we both feel hopeful and can more easily wait out the time for India to resume international flights. How exciting this is! Of course, the reality remains that we can only spend 90 days in the country without leaving to return for a new visa stamp. We have been prepared for this all along.

Ninety days is not enough time for us to spend there. But, we have several options as to which countries we can visit to do this and return. Doing so requires a stay in a country that doesn’t border South Africa. We’ll figure that out later. Right now, we are reveling in our enthusiasm and newly found hopefulness.

It’s the same challenge with these unusual fruits, which we could not identify after searching through hundreds of photos.

Today? We’ll be walking, smiling, binge-watching, eating the same food as the previous days, walking, smiling, and repeating.

Happy day to all!

Photo from one year ago today, November 12, 2019:

While out to dinner with my son Greg’s family, my cioppino (fish stew) at Stella’s Fish House was delicious. For more, please click here.