Denise & Pelle’s Top 9 Idiotic Moments (to date)

9) The number of zeroes in the Ariary currency confounds us upon arrival in Madagascar and results in 3 trips to the ATM before we have enough money to pay for our entry visas. (price for entry is 280,000 Ariary)

8) (Inattentive packing + rough baggage handling) x glass Tanguerey bottle = alcohol infused wardrobe

7) Pelle fails to notice that there are 3 tips boxes at the entrance to the hotel in Perinet, Madagascar and puts all the money meant for the restaurant, kitchen and housekeeping staff in just the securely locked kitchen box.

6) Denise narrowly avoids thumb dismemberment when it gets slammed in the door of Hendrina Herbst’s little red Nissan. (We won’t place blame)

5) With more confidence than his sleep deprived and dehydrated body could support, Pelle sets off on a mountain bike ride at high noon under the blazing African sun on the hottest day of our stay with our host Ben Herbst, Cape Town mountain biking champion in his age group. Let’s just say that the ending wasn’t pretty.

4) Denise shakes out her wet red poncho in a flourish that would make a Spanish bull fighter proud while sitting in an open-top land rover surrounded by a herd of 100 wild Cape Water Buffalo, provoking their natural charging instincts and browning the shorts of our safari guide.

3) Denise ignores a prominent “slippery when wet” floor sign and performs the universally recognized slippery floor dance just before crashing to the ground at the Johannesburg airport. Luckily a major wrist bruise is the only major injury she suffers.

2) Arriving at the Portland airport on time for the first flight of the trip, we find that the Lufthansa ticket counter was closed and the flight was cancelled without our knowledge.

1 & The Hands-Down Winner Thus Far) Traveling to a country on the brink of civil war.