South Africa is definitely one of the more well known areas which I’ll be visiting on this voyage, but I must say, it was nothing like I expected it to be. As commonly known, they only recently came out of the Apartheid which was in place for many years. Bits of leftover tension were certainly visible, but I felt that for the most part, Cape Town proved to be very well mixed and with a surprisingly large Indian population. When the British were controlling the country, they shipped a lot of cheap labor over from India into South Africa, which contributed to the size of the ethnic group’s population. Interestingly enough, Gandhi began his non-violent protest programs in S. Africa when he came as a lawyer to find work. Indians were also discriminated against as lower class compared to whites. South Africa also has an unbelievable HIV/AIDS problem mainly due to rape and other causes. They have a really low conviction rate for rape to the point where women often don’t even report it. Steps are being taken, but it’s difficult depending on the government because in the past they’ve had governmental leaders who have denied facts about AIDS such as how it’s transferred as well as one president and minister of health who openly stated that HIV does not lead to AIDS, which is obviously not true. They currently have a Muslim, paligamous president who also has a mistress whom he takes to various events….as our interport lecturer Rhoda Khedalhi (sp?) they literally have a fucking president. On that note, let me tell you about my time in Cape Town.
Day 1: This day was supposed to be on Feb 17th, however, it was quite windy, and due to the tight space in the harbor, we were not allowed in for the entire first day. I had a hike and picnic scheduled for Lion’s Head mountain, luckily, having felt like I had a little cold recently, I didn’t think that I would want to do it, and was able to sell my trip for the same amount that I paid for it. This was extremely lucky, because they still haven’t come to a decisions about refunds, and the unfortunate girl who bought it from me was unable to go on the hike. We had a great view of the city from the ocean and it was torture looking at it after long days at sea and not being able to get off the boat. We could actually see this beautiful city with awe-inspiring mountains standing tall behind it. Thus, not much to report on day 1.
Day 2: Woke up extra early with my bag packed to hopefully make it to my safari and not miss the flight to Johannesburg to get there. We were running late because they didn’t clear the boat for immigration until we were already supposed to be gone. We had priority to go through the immigration check point, but still waited around for a few hours to see if they could reschedule our plane tickets, which they couldn’t, so finally that afternoon, my trip was officially cancelled…no safari. Luckily, I ran into some girls I knew who hadn’t left to go sight-seeing yet and hopped in with their group to go check out the city. We started out by going to the tourist info center which had so many things to do that sounded amazing. We eventually decided to check out the aquarium which was walking distance from the ship. The waterfront was absolutely beautiful and had amazing restaurants, clubs, and shopping. The U2 concert was in Cape Town that night, and a few people were trying to scout tickets, which was the main reason why they couldn’t get us some new plane tickets. The museum was great, they had some amazing displays of fish, and even huge great whites in some of their tanks! It was just small enough, it only took about an hour, and I think my favorite part with a touch pool, where they had sea creatures who are not disturbed if touched by humans, I got to hold live starfish, sea enmities, and other slippery and slimy stuff. After that we walked around a pretty cool crafts shop that was great for souvenirs. A lot of it was a bit expensive, but it was still really cool to look around and see. After that, we got lunch at a really cool restaurant right on the water called Quay 4. There was music and a lot of people all over, a great way to end my first day. That night, Rachel and I headed to Long St., we went to a few clubs, even meet some cool South African kids while out. Cape Town has some amazing night life that I never would’ve expected.
Day 3: Riled up from the night before, Rachel, Ashley and I woke up pretty excited to hit the town. We decided to go to the top of Table Mountain, which is pretty much a must-see attraction in Cape Town. On top, there is almost always a cloud which quite literally sits ON the flat surface at the peak, which they subsequently call the “tablecloth.” It’s a peak of mountains formed from two tectonic plates which have collided and pushed upwards forming a flat surface at the top. The cloud made it very cold and misty, and rather difficult to take good pictures of the landscape, but it certainly makes a cool effect because you can see the cloud in the foreground of the shot. We took a cable car up, since the hike is known to be steep and time consuming, and the cable car rotated to allow a 360° view on the way to the top. We spent some time taking pictures and exploring the peak, we spoke to a couple from Cape Town who gave us some really fun suggestions of what to do, most of which involved renting a car and driving around ourselves which we didn’t feel comfortable doing on the wrong side of the road, but then came back down the mountain with a plan.
We decided to go to Camps Bay Beach, a really beautiful, scenic beach area in a wealthy part of town which was famous for the gorgeous view of the water and cool restaurant and club scene right across the road. Rachel and Ashley wanted to check out a souvenir shop nearby an ATM that I needed to use, so we agreed to split up and meet back at the shop once I withdrew some cash. The first ATM would appear to eat my card, then spit it back and say the withdrawl amount, and then “sorry, there was a problem.” It seemed pretty sketchy, , especially since I had seen it work for people in front of me in line, and we had been warned about ATM fraud being a problem in S. Africa, but I had no choice but to just accept it and try a different one. I went upstairs to a different ATM, saw it work for a few people in front of me, but then the person immediately in front of me got his card eaten. Out of disorientation, need for cash so I didn’t have to keep a tab of money I owed my friends, and hope that by some fluke it would work, I stupidly tried to use it after him….it ate my card. I attempted calling the company with a local person’s phone but they weren’t helpful at all. Eventually, I went into the store looking for Rachel and Ashley who had left to look for me, after running around back and forth looking for them, the store owner finally helped me by calling the bank on my behalf as a local, speaking to them, figuring out a solution, and gave me the advice to walk down the road by the restaraunts because they’re probably getting something to eat by the street and looking for me, which they were. I found them, luckily I had another credit card, and managed to temporarily solve the problem and call Mom to cancel my credit card, but it was certainly a stressful way to spend an afternoon. To comfort myself, I munched out on a delicious pot of mussels, at a seaside table with a view of the beach…not too bad. After lunch, we wandered over to the beach area to get some sun, beautiful pictures and relax. While Rachel and I were walking by the water, my friends Abby and Lakshme saw Ashley and came over to our area to hang out. They introduced us to these cool people they had met from New Zealand and Germany on a wine tour who were backpacking through South Africa and chilled with them on the beach until dinner.
Day 4: I stayed in a youth hostel called “Backbackers” that night with Abby and Lakshme and since Abby had to be back for her safari early in the morning, Lockshme and I slept in a little bit got some amazing hand-beaded earrings and showered before breakfast and then headed out to get back to the boat on foot and explore the city. We knew it was a long walk, so we took our time, and stopped at a Cuban café for lunch and ate outside. We met a guy named Paul who worked at a few radio stations, and our waitress, who was from Germany told us about how she ended up moving to Cape Town. We had a few strange cultural experiences while we were eating; for instance, beggers would just come up to your table and ask for the food you were eating. One beggar was upset that I wanted to eat my own nachos and picked up my travel cup of water from McDonalds and then proceeded to ask if he could have it. Another beggar asked for an entire chicken breast from Lakshme’s plate. After this, when a guy representing a organization for deaf people came by I was a little suspicious to donate, but gave him the benefit of the doubt and got a cool signing card out of it. The city was beautiful to walk around in and when we finally got back to the ship, we were relaxed but tired from walking all day; not to mention we had done a bit of shopping/bargaining as well. When I got back, I got ready for dinner and all I could think about was a big juicy steak, so I convinced Rachel to come out with me to a lovely steakhouse right on the waterfront and I had the most amazing filet which was perfect for not having had meat in such a long time (I don’t trust the meat on the ship).
Day 5: I didn’t have much time before my trip this day, so I ended up just exploring the waterfront area for a while with this random girl I don’t really know on Semester at Sea. We still had a nice time, got sushi, and talked for a bit, but then I went on my Animal Whispers tour which was amazing. It’s a nonprofit which works toward solutions to protect endangered animals of prey including cheetahs and birds of prey. I wish I could remember the name of the organization….it’s something like Coalition for Protection of Cheetahs. They have programs set up where they take in cheetahs who, for whatever reason, would not survive in the wild, turn them into “cheetah ambassadors” to help raise money for their program. They take in other predator animals who would otherwise not have homes and allow the cheetahs to be ambassadors by allowing visitors (and donors) to pet them (don’t worry they enjoy that part) and raise money for the facilities as well as solutions such as their protective dog program. They breed these sheep dogs which are about the size of a large predator, and give them to farmers for free as babies, covering their medical expenses and everything. The dogs grow up with the herd of sheep and think they are one of them and therefore become very protective. They help with the herd and stand up against predators such as cheetahs, eliminating the farmer’s need/desire to shoot/kill cheetahs who come on their property. We then went to a different area for birds of prey who they’ve rescued. I had the opportunity to hold quite a few of them including a large eagle and several hawks. They also had adorable little owls who actually danced when music played! Don’t worry, I have a video. On top of that, the guide who showed us around the facilities knew an impressive amount about all sorts of birds of prey and was obviously very familiar and close to the birds in the facility. That was one of my more rewarding experiences and it was of course, super fun to hold all of these cute/dangerous animals. After this, we walked to a vineyard right down the street from the animal shelter. There we learned a bit about wine and had a short little wine tasting. It was delicious and kind of refreshing because it was about a million and one degrees outside and very humid.
Day 6: Since we had to be back on the ship by early evening, Rachel, Ashley and I found ourselves with bathing suits wandering around Camps Bay Beach to relax and have brunch before leaving. We found this really cool lounge-y restaurant which had tables that were just round pieces of wood sitting on a really large couch, they had regular tables as well, and I doubt people ever actually eat on them, but of course, we HAD to. It was actually pretty funny because after the appetizers they brought with our food, little lap tables, so it felt like we were eating TV dinners in bed because we were sitting on a couch with little lap trays eating what was actually an amazing veggie pasta dish that’s actually making my mouth water while I think about it. While we were there, we ran into these Europeans that we’d met and hung out with the night before. They didn’t even see us, looked at the menu, decided to eat there and then we were like “hey what are you doing here?!” So that was pretty ridiculous and fun and they joined us for a long brunch before we went back to the ship and they went to see the penguins.
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