The Venice of Botswana.

This is a horrible thing to admit, but I did zero research before taking this trip and could barely even name the countries I was visiting, let alone the specific sites. But the positive side of my unpreparedness is that I've been pleasantly surprised at every turn. And the Okavango Delta in Botswana was beyond anything I could have imagined.

The Delta is made up of hundreds of small islands surrounded by shallow, reedy water that attracts almost every form of wildlife in Africa. To really appreciate it, you have to spend some time away from any villages--preferably in complete isolation on a small island. Which is exactly what I did. To get there, I took a Mokoro--a canoe-type boat that is manned by a "poler" kind of like the gondoliers of Venice. Only instead of house-lined waterways, we were poled down canals carved through a sea of reeds. It's possibly one of the most relaxing and beautiful ways a person can spend an hour-and-a-half.

My poler was a man named Wiz, and during an afternoon of downtime, his nephew, Excuse, gave me a lesson on the intricacies of their profession. It ain't easy. Especially for a spaghetti-armed, spindle-legged stork such as myself. Though I didn't ever flip the boat, I think Excuse was a very happy man when his feet were once again planted on solid ground.

Our days on the island were filled with nature walks where I became an expert on the poo of just about every animal in Africa. It's actually surprisingly interesting stuff. We also took Mokoro rides to look for the hippos we could hear grunting outside our tents in the middle of the night.

But the best part of the trip was the polers, themselves. They were all really cool, and I spent a lot of time playing UNO (or "one card left") with them during the hottest hours of the day. At night around the campfire, they tried to teach us some of their traditional songs and dances, but when it came our turn to reciprocate, we were at a bit of a loss. What's a traditional American song other than the national anthem? The best we could come up with was Bye Bye Miss American Pie for the song and the Hokey Pokey for the dance. I was embarrassed on behalf of my entire country.

However, this just highlighted my ever increasing willingness to make an ass out of myself. Which, if I'm completely honest, I think is a good thing.