(the picture I took of Table Mountain with the run rising in the background...cue Lion King music)
Ohhh Africa. I know, I know, I really apologize for the lack of African updates. I wanted to wait until we arrived in Mauritius so that I may post some photos and it wouldn’t cost me 40 or 50 cents per minute to do so like on the ship. I'm in an internet cafe in Mauritius right now actually. Anyways…
Our journey began early on March 2nd as we glimpsed at the beautiful mountains of Capetown off in the distance very, very early in the morning. Gusts of sudden wind and patches of cold weather took over the 7th deck of the Explorer as we crept closer and closer to the city’s shore. Unfortunately I had felt very depressed the past few days, so I just decided to go back to bed. I don’t know why I felt so bad, and no, I wasn’t homesick or anything. I’ve been going in and out of this depression throughout my time on the ship. I'll probably talk alittle more about this in my Mauritius post, but no worries, for I’m still having an immensely good time sailing around the world!
Fortunately we had a whole week in Capetown, South Africa, and this definitely brought up my spirits very quickly. The first day in the beautiful city of Capetown started by finding an outside restaurant near the shopping district of the dock near our ship and eating ostrich burgers (see pic). We then made our way to the city by foot.
(Mark, Matt, myself, Jess eating the great ostrich).While we were shopping around the small market, there were tons and tons of crafts, jewelry, and clothing that I was tempted to purchase, but the only thing I went away with was a small djembe (an African drum) that’s actually crafted really well. In case you don’t know, I’m a percussionist, and have been searching for some decent percussion instruments since we left Bahamas, but everything I saw in the other countries were pretty crappy and not worth the money. I was able to get the cost down to around 150 rand, which equals about 21 US dollars (yes, the rand-dollar conversion was a pain for many of us).
While walking around the market, a startling thought entered my head. The current statistic of AIDs victims in Africa is 1 in 9 people. That means that at least every person I passed or made contact with has been affected by this horrible epidemic in some way, and that’s a pretty depressing thought.
Later on in the market we saw my roommate get robbed. I felt bad, because a few of us were across the street in a café and didn’t realize what was happening until it was over, but at least nobody got hurt. After the 25-minute walk back to the ship, everyone else went to take a nap, but I walked out to the beach and roamed the area by myself. I caught glimpses of some dolphins and tons of sea lions, which was pretty exciting and calming.
That night a large group of us left for a jazz club in the mall near the ship. The band was pretty tight and we all had tons of fun. I fully enjoyed my strawberry daiquiri, as well as some other more colorful shooters as a Banana in Pajamas and the Toilet in Soweto. Some of the faculty were also there, and they definitely got more wasted than any other student in sight. It was enjoyable.
The second day was SUPPOSED to be spent hiking up Table Mountain, which surrounds the back of Capetown, but it was raining and windy, so a small group of us set off for the tourist information center in order to find something else to do. One of our friends instinctively signed up for a tour of the townships surrounding the city, and we all delightfully agreed to join him.
A few of us reserved our spots on the tour, then left for a quick bite to eat at a pizza shop near the ship. Just for trivia purposes, this was the first time I ate pizza in over a month; I seriously think that’s a record for me.
That afternoon, Jess, Matt, Matt, Jen and I all took a tour of the surrounding townships of Capetown. We saw some intense poverty around these areas. Literally, many of these people were just living in shacks with thin walls that barely stood up straight.
(a vast township landscape)One of the highlights was when our tour guide led us to this dark, small shack. We nervously walked inside, and he lined us up against the wall with about 6 other people staring us down. He then explained that this was the district’s local “pub”. This woman then made this bucket of homemade beer and we each passed the bucket down the row and had a drink straight out of it. It was an interesting experience (I think I got a good bit of it on video at least). We also saw the District Six museum and visited some peoples’ homes/shacks where we were able to briefly talk to them about their living conditions and their lives.
Honestly, I was really tired by the time this rainy afternoon excursion ended, but my personal highlight was visiting this small local pub. It was crammed, uncomfortable, and loud as at least fifty or so people were crammed into this small space, so no, I definitely didn’t drink anything, but I was able to talk to these few guys from the township who actually went to school in the US. We talked about the racism they encountered while living here in the south, and also talked about this little problem us Americans have named George Bush, and I asked some questions about the townships of South Africa. Really nice guys.
There was an art/music festival happening in downtown Capetown that night on Long Street. Unfortunately it was raining, but that didn’t stop a huge group of us from attending. Many of them decided to visit this Jamaican club, but a few of us decided to skip the cover charge and find someplace else to hang out. We saw some crazy performance art on some outside stages that I enjoyed, but we ultimately decided to hang out at this Irish pub in hopes of catching some awe-inspiring Celtic music. Instead, the musician’s set consisted of songs by generic American acts like REM and Hootie and the Blowfish (just to name a few), so we left as soon as we could after realizing that no Irish music would be played.
The night ended well though. We were talking about how tasty waffles sounded at the moment, and SURPRISE, we found this really cheap diner that served waffles with ice cream for only 13 rand (that’s less than 2 US dollars). Delicious AND cheap. A few of us also viewed the crazy lunar eclipse from the seventh deck of the ship. Good times.
We woke up early on the third day to attend a wine tasting and winery tour. Apparently South Africa is well-known for their wines and abundance of wineries. I’ve modestly enjoyed wine for a while, but now I’m definitely obsessed. The tour lasted from 9:30 in the morning till 5 in the afternoon. We hit up four wineries and had twenty one glasses of wine by the end of the day. No, I wasn’t drunk or anything, but was definitely tired and in a very good mood by the end of the day.
Actually this was probably my favorite day in Africa. We met some cool people, learned A LOT about the art of wine tasting and wine making, and were also able to see the countryside of South Africa. It was only four of us, plus these two nice Swedish girls, and our tour guide, Deon, who was pretty damn knowledgeable. At the first winery this woman who sounded and looked like an older Mary Poppins taught us proper wine-tasting etiquette. After that, Mary Poppins also gave us a tour of the facilities and the rooms where they make the wines. Very informing. The other wineries were equally as fun (I'll post a group pic on my next post).
(me at the last winery of the day)Later that night I spent about four hours at the jazz club with a few others as we watched a band tear through four unbelievable sets of pure jazz madness. I love watching excellent musicians play. It makes me feel like crap because I suck so much, but it’s also incredibly inspiring. I arrived back at the ship around 1 a.m., and started packing, because in less than three hours it was time to quickly leave for the airport and catch a flight to my safari!
I spent the last week or two trying to plan this 3-day Camping safari in Kruger Park, and somehow it all came together well. I went with Matt and these two other girls we met about a week earlier, Kelsey and Grace. Anyways, after a quick nap we left at 4 a.m. for the airport. The airline company we were traveling on was 1Time Airlines...seriously the worst name for ANY company. They did, surprisingly, get us there safely though! After the two-hour flight to Johannesburg, we had a six-hour van drive to the actual safari, so I was totally caught up on sleep by the time we made it to the park.
While traveling in the van from Johannesburg to the park, I paid close attention to the landscapes that we were passing. It was quite odd. At one point it looked like the setting for a live-action Lion King movie, but 20 minutes later look like we were traveling through Florida or someplace with lemons growing everywhere. 20 minutes later it looked like farmland from Imperial, PA, but then switch back to the African landscapes.
Kruger Park is HUGE. The weather was nice. We saw tons of rhinos, elephants, warthogs, baboons, zebras, buffalo, turtles, some giraffes, hippos, kudu, and a cheetah.
(rhinos, elephants, warthogs (Pumbas))I was hoping for at least one or two traumatic occurrences in order to have some crazy stories though…getting attacked by an elephant or even smacked in the face by a monkey would have been sufficient, but alas nothing too crazy. We slept in 2-person tents, ate some homecooked food, and interacted with people from all over the world.
Our tour guides were naturally from Africa, but the few people we camped with were from everywhere. Argentina, Ireland, France, Belgium, and United States were all represented in our safari.
On the last day, as we were waiting for our van to pick us up and transport us to the airport, I was playing UNO with four other people, and halfway through realized that I was the only one from America. I don’t know, I thought that was pretty neat. By the time our game drives were completed I was really in the mood to watch Jurassic Park.
Hmm..what else? Our tour guides sang us a catchy African song about rice after dinner both nights, that's worth mentioning, right? All in all it was a fun time.
Our ride back to the airport was crowded and uncomfortable, but fortunately I had the wonderful lounge/pop sounds of Stereolab jamming on my iPod to keep me entertained for 6 hours. Oh, and we BARELY made our 6:30 flight back to Capetown. Running frantically through the airport has been a pretty common occurrence on this trip so far for me. Luckily we made it back to Capetown around 9:30 or so, and I met up with a few others at an African restaurant, where some traditional African marimba players and drummers were jamming the night away. Yes!
The final day in Capetown started early when we visited Robben Island. The island’s about a twenty five minute ferry ride from Capetown, and it’s mostly known as the prison where Nelson Mandela was held for many years. It was pretty nice, but I would have been fine if I skipped it. I was actually REALLY hoping to see many of the penguins that inhabited the outskirts of the island, but alas our penguin sightings were quite slim. I DEFINITELY have to see some penguins next time I visit South Africa though. You can never have too many penguins.
(James and I locked up in Robben Island)We then FINALLY got to hike up Table Mountain. It didn’t take long for the five of us to make our way up the steep rocks and eventually make it to the top.
This was taken BEFORE we starting the great trek. (Mark, Jess, me, Matt, James)Suggestions for anyone hoping to climb Table Mountain in the near future:
1. Take lots of pictures (we definitely did…mini photo sessions are a must).
2. Bring LOTS of water (we definitely didn’t)
3. Hope that the sun isn’t TOO hot outside (it definitely was)
(Jess took this during one of our many rests)
(view from the top)It was a great hiking group and we made it to the top in less than two hours (it took other SASers around four hours or so to hike up), and Jess was incredibly lucky because she got to repel down from the top…for free…in order to be on this demo video these guys were shooting. The rest of us traveled down using the cable car, and then stopped at Long Street for one more shopping experience in Capetown. Having been inspired by this African group I saw at the Warhol museum a year or so ago, I bought a thumb piano at one of the market shops. We then made our way back to the mall near the ship where I had two, yes two milkshakes (I had a craving the entire time we were in Africa) and shopped for a few music cds and/or gifts for others.
The ship had to refuel, so we spent the final night in Africa aboard the ship unfortunately (they wouldn’t let us walk off), and we left the next day in the middle of the afternoon.
I know I’ll definitely be back to this country in the near future (anyone up for some 2010 World Cup action?); it was seriously one unbelievable experience. I wish I could have done more and/or met more people, but we only had a week.
I'll try to post some more Africa pictures when I write my post on Mauritius. I promise it'll be up within the next day or so.
