South Africa

          Cape Town did not disappoint at all. Things started off rough when we were supposed to arrive in the V&A Harbor on the 17^th, but were delayed the whole day due to wind.  The winds were so bad, the pilot couldn’t take our ship in.  Everyone was really upset because the whole ship was really, really excited to go to Cape Town because there is just so much to do in South Africa.  We saw the city in the distance since that morning, but just never made it.  No one could say when the winds would die down enough to make it safe for us to go in, but as the day wore on, I started to lose hope.  It was kind of like a snow day:  no one had any plans, we had to make it up as we went along, we had no idea how long we’d be stuck form, we watched a lot of movies, and we ate a lot of food.  I watched The Hangover and The Karate Kid, and maybe some other movies too.  Everyone was also just so sick of each other, and so angry to be stuck on the ship, people were starting to lose their patience with everyone else.  Uno and Scattergories got pretty heated.  If we hadn’t gotten off the ship the next day, things would have gotten ugly on board.  At least lunch was good and they had an open mic night at the Union. 

          The winds finally died down enough Friday morning for the pilot to declare it was safe enough to take us in the harbor.  We finally docked and cleared immigration by 1:00pm, giving us a good amount of time in Cape Town.  My Habitat trip (along with several SAS trips) was canceled due to the time delays so I had the whole day free.  My trip was through SAS so I should get a refund; a lot of people booked safaris and such independently with plane tickets, and those people were just out of luck.  I spent the first day exploring the city with some friends.  Cape Town is a lot like Sydney; it’s right on the water, there is so much to do, it’s beautiful, quay is pronounced “key”, and all the locals have sweet accents.  There is a multitude of shops, street performers, restaurants, and even Robben Island all within walking distance of the ship.  We walked around, rode the Wheel of Excellence (a giant Ferris wheel with great views of the city), and I bought a new camera from the mall.  My new Sony Cybershot isn’t as nice as my old Cannon, but at least I finally have a camera again.  Now that I’m getting used to it, I like it more.  We checked out the grocery store, and Steven, Ross, and I all went out to dinner before heading back to the ship.  We went out to Longstreet that night, which is really just a downtown strip with a lot of bars and restaurants around.  Our first stop was just a small pub, then we went to Crowbar, which was apparently a “gangster’s bar” as described by one of the patrons (who also told us that our group was the first white people to be in the bar, and he advised us all to stick together so we weren’t mugged), and finally we just went to Fez, a club to just hang out and chill.  We took a taxi home, but on the way, we passed a couple of drunk British people probably coming from the U2 concert who were walking in the road.  I think they were trying to hail a cab, but when our driver didn’t stop, one of the guys put his hand out to hit the car and ended up smashing the mirror.  The mirror was completely smashed and our driver got out to get their information, and there was a screaming match between them because the British people wouldn’t take responsibility for it.  When other people got involved they tried to say how the cab driver hit them with his mirror, and then they brought up race saying how people are coming into this country and taking over (weird for white Europeans to say to our black cab driver in Africa).  We just sat there, not sure what to do, but we figured it was best to stay in the car and stick up for our driver if the police ever came.  The argument didn’t ever get too violent, but after ten minutes the driver seemed to just give up and took us home.  It was pretty bad.

          The next day, we got up early to hike Table Mountain.  I had a homestay at 2 so I was in a bit of a time crunch, but my friends, who are awesome, worked with me and we just went earlier.  Table Mountain is best in the morning anyway because it isn’t as hot and the winds haven’t picked up as much, and sometimes the top of the mountain and the cable cars are closed due to winds.  The mountain is really steep and the trail is pretty much all rocks.  It’s definitely doable; the hike is supposed to take 2-3 hours, but my group finished it in a little less than two hours.  We had amazing views of the city the whole time, and the last bit of the hike is above the cloud cover.  I would just look out and be amazed that we climbed that much in such a short period of time.  We got to the top and took pictures of the city (the clouds are crazy because a lot of the time they are just over Table Mountain and would just blow around so sometimes they would cover up our views of the city, and two minutes later, it would be clear).  After eating at the cafe, me and this girl Erin, who joined our hike and also went on my homestay left the others and frantically headed back down to the ship.  We had less than an hour to take the cable cars down and get a cab back home, but somehow we made it with fifteen minutes to spare and we both made it to the homestay.

            We stayed in a township, where blacks were segregated to during Apartheid.  I think SAS put us in a wealthier township because it was way nicer than I expected.  We arrived in the township and played with the children while we wanted for our “moms” to pick us up.  I stayed with another guy from Semester at Sea with a woman, her husband, and their five children.  Their house was nice; they had electricity, running water, a kitchen, nice couches, and a TV.  I don’t know what I was expecting when I arrived at the township (maybe something like the favellas of Brazil) but I was pleasantly surprised.  Our mom owned a takeout place in the Township.  It was an old storage unit she converted into a food stand so we tried some of her food and then met her husband who owned a barber ship.  It didn’t sound like any of those businesses were very successful so I’m not sure how they can afford such a nice house.  Our father took us to Zoli’s, a market in the township, here a soda company was offering prizes if people got up and danced, and he then showed us the memorials for the Gugulethu Seven and Amy Beihl.  We played soccer with the kids and then hung out at home eating dinner with our family and watching TV.  Apparently their favorite shows are Oprah Winfrey and The Biggest Loser.  It was a very relaxing night (though I did get locked in the bathroom because it didn’t have a doorknob).

          The next morning we left the township and got back to the ship by 10:30.  I went out with Russ and Elizabeth to visit the Aquarium (nothing special, aside from seeing some penguins), do some more exploring around Cape Town, and walk along the beach.  Ports can be pretty exhausting since you want to see/do/experience everything so it’s nice to have a day just to casually walk around without having plans.  We had lunch on the waterfront and walked Clifton Beach (a beach with no wind) and finally returned to the ship for dinner.  We went to look for Internet, which didn’t really work.  There was a restaurant that had Wi-Fi, but their network was down so we just sat there, listened to music, ordered some food, and tried to connect to some other networks.  It was not very successful, but still fun.  

          I had an early night that night because I woke up at 4:45am the next morning to go cage diving.  I was supposed to do it on the first day, but that didn’t work out so I was worried I wouldn’t make it.  One of my friends was going and she invited me, which worked out better because I wouldn’t have made it otherwise, especially since we missed that first day.  We drove for two hours outside of Cape Town where we ate breakfast and learned a little about Great White Sharks, who are not aggressive towards humans at all and are actually in danger because of humans.  One of the biggest problems is shark fin soup, where the fin is removed, but the shark is tossed back into the water, where it usually just dies.  We boarded a catamaran and drove for a few minutes on incredibly choppy, though incredibly fun water to get to Shark Alley, where the sharks often hang out.  They chummed the water and poured fish oil in the water to attract sharks, so it was kind of weird to swim in it.  Here were people on our boat on holiday from all over who were seasick/hangover so they ended up throwing up in the ocean, which again I dove in.  We were fitted with wetsuits, boots, and masks, and board the cage in groups of seven.  Everyone in the group gets into one giant cage, and just dives down when they tell you to in order to see a shark.  The chum helps attract sharks, and the guides also throw black bouys on lines in the water to look like seals.  The water was only 56 degrees Fahrenheit, but it was so worth it.  I saw three sharks and our group as a whole saw seven.  I looked down into the water and I saw a shark look right at me and open his mouth.  The whole experience felt very natural because they weren’t making the sharks grab onto a piece of meat and thrash around just for a good show.  We saw sharks as they really are, which may not be exciting at times for some people because they just swam around, but I loved every minute of it.  When we weren’t in the water, you could still see sharks from the top of the boat.  On our way back, we drove to Geyser Rock, to see an island that was covered with 50,000 cape fur seals.  You couldn’t see land because there were just so many seals.  The island smelled like the zoo, but it was so cool.  After we were back on land and ready to go, our driver took us to a village where we could go shopping and took us to KFC, which is way better than it is in the states and apparently provides scholarships for South African students to go to college, so it’s really popular with the locals.  I talked to our driver on the way home and had a relaxing night talking to people on the ship and writing post cards.  I needed a little time to myself just to relax.

          For my final day in Cape Town, I went for a run with Elizabeth, and then headed out to Robben Island with Russ.  Robben Island was a prison for political prisoners in South Africa from the sixties until 1991.  Nelson Mandela served 18 of his 27 year sentence on Robben Island.  We toured the prison and the island, but I was sort of disappointed.  We got a tour of the prison from an ex prisoner, which was impressive because I don’t think I would be able to give tours in a place that was such a horrific portion of my life, but we didn’t learn much about the history of the jail or about Nelson Mandela and Apartheid.  There were so many tour groups that the whole thing felt really rushed.  I think the island has just become too touristy.  The ferry back to Cape Town left later than we planned, so we didn’t have time to eat a real lunch before our next visit, so our last meal in Cape Town wasn’t South African, but McDonald’s.  It was also a lot nicer/better than the McDonald’s we have at home though.  Then we went to Cape Town Stadium, where the World Cup was and where the U2 concert was just a few days ago.  I tried to get tickets to the concert, but it didn’t work out so I was glad to finally get into the stadium.  We toured the whole stadium, everything from the bleachers to the VIP boxes to the media room to the locker rooms (that last part was kind of weird).  I like when the World Cup or Olympics goes to somewhat more developing countries, like South Africa or Brazil because it gives these countries chances to improve and show the world how amazing they are.  Plus, it pours so much money into these countries, which a good thing.  People were really worried that South Africa wouldn’t be able to handle the World Cup, but their stadium was really nice and it proved that they are a strong country.  After the stadium tour, we just went souvenir shipping to spend our last rand and headed back to the ship.  I was really worried about that day in Cape Town because we had so much we wanted to do, but no firm plans to do any of it.  Russ and I tried to get tickets for Robben Island a few days ago, but all the tickets for Tuesday were sold out, but luckily we arrived early and there were cancelations for the early ferry.  We wanted to visit the stadium, but tours had just opened up that day because they were cleaning up after the U2 concert, and we weren’t sure how crowded they would be or how much the tours would cost.  It ended up being a really great day because everything worked out, and it was taco night on the ship, which was incredible.  I then spent most of the night hanging out with people and not studying for my stress management test the next day.  I’ve read all the chapters so I don’t think it will be bad, plus I hate my professor and find both of the classes I’m in with him boring and a waste of my time because we don’t learn.  What kind of teacher schedules a midterm the day we get back from port?

          Life is pretty great on ship, I really can’t complain.  I will be back in Cape Town for sure one day.  There was just so much I didn’t get to do, like visiting the winelands, rappelling down Table Mountain, and hiking Lion’s Head, just to name a few.  It’s by far the most livable place we’ve been to so far, though it’s got a lot of work to do before I move here.  I love the city, but there is just so much inequality among the races and socioeconomic groups.  Their health care system needs work, and the government doesn’t support the people.  Plus, there’s major conflict between the ANC and the Democratic Alliance, all vying for control of South Africa.  I think this country will become very strong in the future though, and I will be back for sure. 

Four days until Mauritius...

Table Mountain

Base of Table Mountain

From the top of Table Mountain

Penguins

V&A Waterfront (where we docked)

Geyser Rock full of Cape Fur Seals

Robben Islan

World Cup Stadium