1/7/2019 – 1/11/2019

After several hours of non-enjoyable, middle seat with broken screen flights, I arrived in Cape Town! I snagged an Uber from the airport and was very confused when I saw the driver in the passenger seat; I completely forgot they drive on the other side of the road. On the ride to the hostel, we had a wonderful view of Table Mountain. That night I was exhausted, so I just relaxed at the hostel bar and chatted with several different people. It was a nice start to my Cape Town trip.

The next morning, I headed to a coffee shop for breakfast and to wait for a walking tour. I started with a historic tour of Cape Town. I wasn’t very familiar with the history of Cape Town, so the history lesson was really interesting.  Along the tour we learned a lot about the Dutch East India Trading Company and how they tricked and enslaved many people during their operation. Its sole purpose was to provide supplies to boats coming past towards India/Europe.  They set up a community there to support the business and slowly began enslaving people to help construct and then cook with the spices they were acquiring from India. We also learned a lot about how those people have grown since apartheid. The tour was wonderful and I decided to grab lunch and stick around for the next tour of the Bo-Kaap neighborhood. The Bo-Kaap neighborhood is where the skilled slaves moved to after the collapse of the DEITC. It is filled with small, brightly colored homes. Everyone seemed very welcoming. I bought a local type of donut from a cute lady selling them on the street; it was delicious.  On this tour I learned about the word “UBUNTU”. Ubuntu is a word that has several meanings, but generally means that we cannot exist without each other/be good and take care of each other. I bought a book about a South African woman who left with only 100 rand in her pocket and the clothes on her back and lived for 7 years with 600 families throughout South Africa. The book is called the Ubuntu Girl if you’re interested in checking it out. Ubuntu is a beautiful word that people should know and practice. I thoroughly enjoyed that tour. Afterwards, I walked to the V&A waterfront and had a cocktail, with a view of the clouds rolling over Table Mountain.

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It was really interesting walking around CT. On the same street, you would see excessive chain linked fences  with barbed wire and window bars  and then the houses directly beside wouldn’t’ have any special protection. Additionally, I have never seen such extremes in poverty/wealth as I had there. There are beautiful, humongous houses and close by there are shanty towns. It was very fascinating to see it.

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The next day, I went on a hike with two people from the hostel; Phil who was the travel coordinator and Petra, who was also staying at the hostel. We hiked up a more difficult route called Kloof’s Corner. It was a very challenging hike which included climbing up a few chains and ladders to get to the top. The end result was absolutely worth it (there are also more normal hiking paths for people to do..). We relaxed at the top and then took the cable car down. It was a stunning view. Phil dropped me off at a beach Camps Bay. I laid on the beach and relaxed for the afternoon. That evening I went to dinner with Petra and her boyfriend, Urban, at a food bazaar and had Bunny Chow. Bunny Chow is a traditional food which consists of half a loaf of bread and curry. This food came about because in the neighborhoods like Bo-Kaap, there was not a lot of money. People shared what they had. So you’d have a baker, who would have bread and another family that had curry. You’d come together and share what you had. It was delicious and way too much to eat. We had everything wrapped up to go and gave it to some guys on the street, who were very pumped to have it.

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Thursday, I started off the day snorkeling with seals. It was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. I did not think about the potential to be shark bait during this experience, but it has since been brought to my attention (although I doubt they’d take you somewhere that sharks typically hang out…). Anyways, it was a really great experience. It’s best to stay still and they’ll swim up under you, bare their teeth at you to show their dominance. When you don’t react, they become very curious and keep coming back and checking you out. I had a seal rub its body against my head and another swim over my legs. One curious pup played and swam around me for a decent amount of time. The only downside of this was the water was freezing!

I spent the afternoon with a friend of a friend (Zuks), and her friend (Lunga). We went to Stellenbosch, which is a university and also a major winery area. We went to a few different wineries. They have delicious Pinotage and sparkling wines. We spent the afternoon talking about everything and anything. It was wonderful spending the day with locals. On our drive there were some farms that had horses and zebras in the same area. That was the first time I felt like I was truly in Africa, with zebras roaming around.  I mentioned ubuntu and they were surprised I knew the word. They explained that experience we were having was ubuntu, since we didn’t know each other before and we came together sharing time and conversation with each other.

That evening, I had dinner with Petra and Urban again. We went to a restaurant overlooking the town at the base of Lion’s Head Mountain. They had a buffet of local food, it was really good! As a result of the Indian influence, the food there is AMAZING. I was not expecting it to so delicious. After dinner we went back and I packed my bag.

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Friday morning, a cute old Scottish man (Danny.. who happened to be from a town very close to my grandfather’s side’s family!) that I met on one of the walking tour picked me up and we explored the Cape of Good Hope. It was a very beautiful drive. We stopped at Boulder’s Beach and looked at the penguin colony. There were at least 100 penguins waddling around :). After we ventured into the park and stopped at a light house. We climbed up to the top of the lighthouse. From that view you can see both the Indian and Atlantic Oceans, warm and cold water colliding. On the way out of the park, there were several baboons crossing the street; one even had a baby on its back. He dropped me off at the airport. Now off to Kampala, Uganda!

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