Cape Town, South Africa

South Africa was fantastic! It was seriously beautiful and I think it’s one of the prettiest, cleanest cities that I have been too yet.

So anyways, we pulled up into Cape Town around sunrise on the 19^th. Once I walked outside to see the town, I was in awe of the view, as the busy town weaves around Table and Lionshead Mountain. The city is literally shadowed by the ridged mountains. It was Gorgeous! That day I had a required field trip for my documentary theater class on ship. What it consisted of; was that a couple of actors from South Africa who perform a famous African documentary play came upon the ship. They spoke about their play, called “Truth in Translation” which is made up of several personal apartheid interviews conducted by them. It is a really intense play since it is filled with true accounts about the apartheid time (similar to the United States Jim Crowe Laws but much worse in South Africa) from colored men and women. They did speak much about their play, but really through the conversations with the two actors I learned much more about South Africa’s history, specifically within the apartheid era. It is interesting though, since really segregation in South Africa is still happening. South Africa is actually one of the most segregated countries in the world. You can definitely see it too as the blacks all work under the white europeans; in the vineyards, restaurants, you name it.

The second day Ryan, Skylar and I hiked up Table Mountain early in the morning, and oh man, it was tough. We actually went the wrong way up the MASSIVE Mountain and ended up near the ridged cliffs which was the dangerous route. Instead of going up the whole route we turned around since we didn’t drink much water and had no food in our stomachs. We were so close to getting up to the very top too but didn’t make it. Oh well, we had a breathtaking view of the bay, lionshead, and robben island from where we were at, and was an adventure. Once we got back to the boat after a long 2 hour hike, we cleaned up and got some food then headed to the aquarium, because we were really too tired to do too much else. Haha. The aquarium was pretty cool though, and it was really cheap. That’s what is so awesome here…one dollar is about 7.6 rands. So our money goes pretty far. That night about 5 of us semester at sea kids headed to this restaurant called Moyo, where you can eat in a treehouse! We didn’t end up eating in the treehouse…but we had a fantastic all you can eat meal in an authentic African outdoor setting, with free music and a show. I ate antelope, ostrich, and ox tail. They paint your face when you sit down too. It was awesome!

The third day Ryan and I went to the Vineyards through Semester at Sea. We saw quite a bit of the countryside, including three different vineyards and ended at this small dutch town to explore at your leisure. It was beautiful. On the way to the Vineyards, however, shacks made out of tin and scrap metal went for miles and miles on the road. An elderly man on the bus told Ryan and I that the government of South Africa places immigrants into those shacks. They are then put on a waiting list for a newly built home which may take up to 5-10 years. The whole concept is just kinda mind boggling to me and doesn’t seem like it would work. Ryan was able to go on a service visit the day before to see a similar town, and he stated that most of the people living in those towns really don’t want those homes, handouts, or charity, but need land. The problem is that all the white Europeans own the land. Once we crossed into the Vineyard country you could definitely see the difference in the structure of the homes, as instead of shacks, all you see are mansions sitting on their acres and acres of rich farmland. It is extremely segregated, with only the rich and poor. No middle class seems to exist.

Once we saw the vineyards, that night we went to a reggae show. A few local people Ryan met at his service visit were going to play there and asked him to come so we decided to go. It was a fun time and cool to be at a real reggae Rastafarian show in South Africa.

The next day four of us got up at dawn, yes dawn, to head out for our one day safari. It was called the Aquila Private Reserve, about a couple hours away. Once we got there it was amazing! It was a small small resort with a couple huts. As I entered in and paid, I felt like I was treated like royalty. We had a huge tasty breakfast before we headed out for our game drive in the reserve. I haven’t had that good of fresh food in a long while, it was great. Once we finished breakfast we got into our open jeep. It was like I was going on the Indiana Jones ride, but the real thing, well obviously…haha. We were out in the reserve for 3 hours and saw elephants, rhinos, ostriches, giraffes, crocodiles, zebras, springbok, lions and more. It was amazing, especially the lions! They were beautiful and really close. Once we finished with the game drive we had an amazing lunch, then headed out. Mom and Dad, you would have loved this place, it was so wonderful.

On the fifth day, 5 of us semester at sea kids went to Cape point, the southernmost point of Africa. On the way there we stopped at a bunch of different stops, since it was an all day event with our schoeffer taxi driver, who ended up giving us a really cheap price. The first stop was cliffton beach where we took some pictures of the white sandy beach and pretty scenery. The next stop was camps bay where we took a ferry on the rough waters to seal island and saw the seals laying out on the rocks. On the way there we got hit by a huge wave and I was soaking wet because of the stormy weather. The next stop we went to chapmans peak and took some pictures from the beautiful viewpoint…the small town looked almost identical to San Sebastian, Spain. After that we then went to simons town and stopped to see the navy base from a distance and grabbed some souvenirs. Then the next stop was boulders beach which is where the penguins are. Yep, African penguins. It was so so so great! You can just hang out at the beach with the penguins and practically touch them! But if you do touch them, they will probably bite your hand off. Seriously when I was walking through the penguins, I felt like I was walking through a land mine, and hoped they wouldn’t attack, because they are so feisty. Haha. Once we were back on the road there were just random baboons on the side of the road, where Ryan got chased by one. It was pretty scary actually because baboons are dangerous and mean. Oh yea, and in South Africa, you see random baboons, ostriches, zebras and more just hanging out on the side of the road. It’s awesome. Once we encountered the deadly baboons, we finally were off to the cape of good hope and cape point, which is where the Indian Ocean meets the Atlantic. It is the southernmost point of Africa, originally called the Cape of Storms where the old time explorers, such as Magellan, sailed through. It looked similar to Scotland and was breathtaking to see. Then finally we went back to the vineyards to go pet a cheetah. That was pretty cool, even though the cat was probably sedated.

Then finally on the last day we went Great White Shark diving. Yep mom, I did it, and it was so so so so AWESOME! I can’t get over it. I bet it will be one of the best highlights of the entire trip, and was ridiculously cheap. When we were in the cage, we saw about 4-5 different sharks each 10-15 feet. They were huge, but so graceful! They were actually really timid of us once we got in the water, and were more afraid of us than us of them. It was so surprising how I was not scared at all either. One shark’s mouth hit the cage hard and the fin hit my side of the cage right in front of me. It was crazy. I could see the sharks mouth really well as its teeth were inches away from my face. I could touch it if I wanted. It was seriously an experience of a lifetime that I will never forget.