guacamole

Nothing says summer like a batch of homemade guacamole! This is THE recipe you’ll want to have on repeat to enjoy at home or bring to a gathering with friends and family. Even better? It’s actually good for you!

Avocados are by far one of the best foods you can be including as part of a balanced, anti-inflammatory diet. They’re a great source of concentrated healthy fat and fiber, and contain a wide array of nutrients that can reduce heart disease risk and are beneficial in improving overall health. Quite honestly I eat them in some form almost daily, and I recommend that my clients do too!

The other ingredients in this guac add plenty of nutritional value too! Garlic, red onion, cilantro and lime juice are not only flavorful but pack a punch of anti-inflammatory benefits and nutrients, so it’s totally worth it to take the extra step to make your guac next level!

Without further ado, here’s how you make the magic happen.

Ingredients:

3 ripe avocados

Juice of 1 lime

¼ cup minced red onion

1/3 cup mince cilantro

1-2 cloves garlic, minced

½ tsp kosher salt

Directions:

Combine all ingredients and mash with a fork or potato masher to the desired consistency. Serve with chips, vegetable crudité or use on tacos, fajitas, or even sandwiches and salads!

Africa got me through COVID. When the world was shut down - and no one was traveling or planning travel but everyone was cancelling travel - I learned about Africa. It was a destination I always wanted to know more about but never had the time, so when all I had was time I spent it learning about Africa. All told, I probably spent the equivalent of a full month attending online events with suppliers in Africa, taking an incredibly in-depth class designed for travel advisors to learn each country in detail, and researching countries, game lodges, and resorts. Africa kept me grounded during a very scary time in the travel industry.

Fast forward a few years and travel was back bigger and better than ever, and my time during COVID shutdowns came full circle when I was invited to go to South Africa and Zimbabwe for a work trip.

I arrived in Johannesburg and while there, I was able to experience the Apartheid Museum and visit Soweto. We were at the museum for only a few hours but were emotionally exhausted from what we saw there. It was surreal to fully realize how recently it was that apartheid ended, and even more so to follow the museum visit by going to the various places in Soweto that we just saw in photos and videos and to hear people who were there tell us about their experiences. It was an incredible day and one of my favorite experiences from the trip.

Our first game lodge was near Marakele National Park, which is a stunning part of South Africa with beautiful mountains. During our first game drive we were able to see a lion with its recent kill, and watch it protect the kill from wild dogs. When we saw our first elephants (my favorite) we were as excited as a preteen at a Taylor Swift concert – literally giddy - and if we didn’t need to be quiet we would have squealed like one. During our time there we saw all kinds of game as well as four of the Big Five animals – lion, elephants, rhino, and water buffalo. We were also incredibly lucky to see a ton of babies while we were there, including a month-old rhino. I even scared off some hyenas one night that had walked into the common area of the game lodge.

A friend of mine put it best – ‘everything in Africa is just more and all of your senses are heightened. You see more, hear more, smell more. It’s everything - the animals, the terrain, the dirt, the stars. It’s all just more.’ That was especially true when we went on our walking safari. Instead of being in the relative safety of the safari vehicle, we were on foot and completely vulnerable. We had two armed guides with us in the front, and I can say with certainty that none of us have been on such high alert in our lives. You are totally exposed, out in the open, and you have no idea what waits for you around the next bush, tree, or turn. We walked through an open field of high grass and had to watch for movement to ensure lions weren’t waiting to pounce. We walked through an area with trees and had to make sure the giraffes weren’t having lunch nearby. We went by the watering hole and had to make sure elephants weren’t taking a midday break. I don’t think any of us exhaled until we were back in the safari vehicle but we all absolutely loved it.

Even in the vehicles we were constantly scanning the horizon, looking for game. And when we did find it, we often had to be quiet - and utterly still if the animals were very close by. On one of the drives, I was less than ten feet from a young elephant. If anything had spooked him, he could have charged our vehicle and easily knocked it over with all of us in it. You truly get a sense of how small you are in the world when you’re on safari.

We also stayed in Sabi Sands, and it’s amazing how different the land is there versus Marakele. The one Big Five animal that had eluded us up to that point was the leopard, and on our second game drive we finally spotted one up in a tree. This is one of the reasons I recommend staying at different game lodges, because the game viewing is different at each and it gives you a better chance to see all of the Big Five.

We also visited Cape Town which is a beautiful city on the western coast. It reminded me very much of San Francisco with its hills. Here we visited Table Mountain which has stunning views of Cape Town, the Cape of Good Hope, and the Cape Winelands which is similar to Napa. The difference between being out in the bush on game drives versus in a metropolitan city is quite stark and was a great way to break things up.

Our last stop was Zimbabwe and the highlight here was Victoria Falls, the ‘Smoke That Thunders.’ This is one of the natural seven wonders of the world, and it did not disappoint. It straddles the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia, and the views are very different from each side. We hiked along the rim to see the falls from the Zimbabwe side and it was so impressive to see the volume of water that passes over the falls. Visibility here varies and the falls are much less visible on windy days. There are also several activities you can do here, including the infamous Gorge Swing over the Zambezi River. Three of the five of us were brave enough to do this 230-foot free fall that then swings you out 312 feet. Given my fear of heights, I was not one of them and opted instead to take photos. Maybe I’ll brave it on my next visit.

My visit to Africa was an absolutely amazing experience. A friend told me before I left that once I went to Africa no other destination would compare and I would keep wanting to go back. She could not have been more right - which is why I’m going back again in October to experience Botswana and Zambia.

If you haven’t yet experienced Africa, it absolutely must be at the top of your list.