Mercedes & Miryam Angon Feel ‘The Experience’

 
Meet Mercedes and Miryam Angon (above) sisters and co-owners of Feeling Africa Ltd, their company that owns and manages North Luangwa Lodge in the North Luangwa National Park in north east Zambia. Mercedes and Miryam live in the house next door to Chanters Lodge in Livingstone, so they were naturals to be invited to appear as Guests on the most recent edition of the Chanters Lodge Experience with the Milli Jam Ingredient featuring George da Soulchild Kaufela. That’s our weekly radio show airing every Sunday night on Zambezi 107.7 fm, Livingstone’s leading local radio station.

Miryam and Mercedes told listeners that they had established their business in Zambia two years’ ago and that they originally hailed from Madrid, Spain. They had left well paid and exciting jobs with MTV and Universal Pictures respectively to come to Zambia. “Why?” We wondered in astonishment. “Because we’re Spanish, crazy and love wildlife!” Was the answer. The ladies explained that their lodge is only open for six months per year, so they spend six months there and six months in Livingstone. Their lodge has four bungalows and prices start from around US$250-300 per person per night all inclusive of food, drink, accommodation and game drives. They described the North Luangwa as ‘wild and exciting’.

The music on the show was up to our usual high standard. We played tracks from Rihanna and Pitbull for openers before Milli Jam moved on with Zambian releases from Dandy Crazy and B1. Songs from John Legend and Kelly Rowland followed. This week’s oldie was Rihanna’s ‘Te Amo’ – much easier than last week and we had a flurry of text messages from listeners correctly telling us the name of the artist in the hope of winning dinner for two at the lodge. Patrick won. Our pick of the week was ‘When I Was Your Man’ a lovely ballad from Bruno Mars featured on his latest album ‘Unorthodox Jukebox’. We closed with Gabrielle Aplin’s No 1 ‘John Lewis’ hit the remake of Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s ‘The Power Of Love’.

Miryam and Mercedes told listeners that they were single ladies without children and that they both loved music. One of the aspects of their previous lives in Spain that they really missed was going to concerts and shows as they used to receive free tickets. They had seen many top acts as well as meeting many stars like footballer Christiano Ronaldo and tennis ace Rafael Nadal. We asked them about bull fighting – they hated it. We asked them about tourist activities in Livingstone – Miryam had done the bungee jump while Mercedes likes white water rafting.

Asked where they would like to be and what they would like to be doing ten years from now, these bubbly, lively, interesting ladies said they wanted still to be in Zambia, single and ‘Feeling Livingstone’ their proposed new project. We wished them the very best of luck as the rain poured down outside the studio!


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Feeling Africa

Guests on tomorrow night’s radio show are the Angon sisters from Feeling Africa Ltd. Learn more next week when we publish the blog following the show – especially about their camp in the North Luangwa!

Feeling Africa Ltd team is based in Livingstone, only 10 kms away from the wonderful Victoria Falls on Zambian side. They are much more than a travel agency, offering safaris is not their job, it’s their way of life : feeling the wild Africa. They do not expect you just looking at the surroundings, they want you to really experience all the emotions of this special part of the world and hope you always keep in your mind those feelings.

These are the ladies:

   
MERCHE ANGÓN
From Madrid, Spain, in love with Nature and active protecting and defending animal rights. She left her job in a big movies company to make her dream comes true : living in Africa, among the wild animals and waking up every morning with the sounds of the wild.
   
MIRYAM ANGÓN
The youngest of the team, she discovered and fell in love with Africa while cooperating in a Jane Goodall Institute project in Sénégal, helping the anthropologist Jill Pruetz. Then she worked as an Overland guide in Uganda and Rwanda. Now, she spends most of her time in Zambia, in love with Africa’s animals and smiles !
   
MARIE NOËLLE CARRÉ
French with African roots, found of nature and wild open spaces, traveling throughout Africa since she was a child. She left her job as project manager to go back to the continent she came from, feeling the freedom with the wild life.

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