Cape Town

Considering its been almost a month since we were in Cape Town I’m just going to scribble a few bullet points down about what all I did.  But before I do that I have to say that Cape Town was one of my favorite places that ive ever been to.  And yes I know I have probably said that before, but it really was amazing.  Rio is a cool place that I could visit again, but Cape Town was somewhere I could move to!  We didn’t have near enough time there, but here’s what I did get to do in our few days in Cape Town…

Day 1:

- We walked around the shops in the harbor front area and got some great food

- Went to Robben Island where Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners were held during apartheid.  We were given a tour through the prison by an ex political prisoner

Day 2:

I had a field trip with one of my teachers who had lived in Cape Town… we went to the Old Biscuit Mill Market in the morning and then the second half of the day we went to a township and ate at a local restaurant.  The Old Biscuit Mill (or as my human rights teacher calls it… the “white peoples market”) was extremely fancy.  There was every kind of food imaginable from all over the world.  It was kind of like a Saturday morning farmers market type thing but with the fanciest and immense collection of food imaginable.  I think the best way to describe it is that it was basically the food market area in bottom of Harods in London but outside and in Cape Town.  AWESOME.  I ate so much food.  They also had clothes and jewelry, etc.  Then we took a bus to a township where we saw the exact opposite.  Everything was so rundown.  As we drove down the highway the one room shacks kept going for miles and miles and miles.  We went to a restaurant called Mizoli’s.  It wasn’t a traditional order a meal of a menu type restaurant.  All they had was a ton of meat and that’s it.  You picked out your raw meat at a small counter and then they took it in the back and cooked it.  You were supposed to bring your own sides so our teacher had bought some bread and snacks at the market for us and we went to what looked like a lemonade stand across the street for drinks.  However the biggest difference between Mizoli’s and any restaurant back home was that they didn’t give you eating utensils, and keep in mind we were eating meat smothered in bbq sauce.  A group of us split some sausage, chicken, full steaks and lamb.  It was sooooooooooo delicious and by the end we all had sauce all over our faces, hands, and clothes but no one cared.  This wasn’t a touristy restaurant at all and based on some of the confused looks we received I’m pretty sure they don’t even get many people there from outside the township.  About half ways through some people came and set up drums and were singing and dancing.  It wasn’t long before we were all singing and dancing with the super friendly locals.  Great time and the best meal I’ve had so far!

            That night we grabbed our vuvuzwelas and headed out to the FIFA stadium to cheer on the Cape Town Ajax play some soccer.

Day 3:

In the morning about 7 of my friends and I piled in a van and drove to the countryside for a wine tour.  I was so exhausted in the car ride out there but couldn’t fall asleep because the drive was so beautiful and I couldn’t stop looking out the window.  I think that drive was one of the prettiest things I’ve seen so far.  We went to a few different wineries and then ended our road trip at the Aquila Game Reserve.  The guys who were in charge of the tour group we went on had bought a bunch of the same meat from Mizoli’s and when we got to the hotel we had a big bbq and just hung around the hotel that night.  When we finally headed back to our rooms (which were individual little hut things), we realized there was a water buffalo just chilling outside our door.

Day 4:

We woke up early in the morning and did a safari!  We saw a ton of different animals.  Saw some hippos, rhinos, elephants, lions, cheetahs, giraffes, zebras, kudu, etc etc.  It was pretty awesome.  The rest of the day we spent driving back to Cape Town.

Day 5:

I had another field trip thing.  This time we went to a different township and helped out with an organization called Operation Hunger.  Operation Hunger goes into the townships and weighs and measures as many children as they can.  Basically they do the simple parts of a routine checkup than most families don’t have access to in order to identify any children who may be malnourished or have other health problems.  If a child has any sorts of problems they have someone in the community who works for the organization go and check on the family once a week and provide the child with enough food to keep them healthy.  When we got there we first walked around the township for about an hour and then I measured children’s arms.

Day 6:

The last day we woke up bright and early at 4am and went shark diving!  We had some issues with the tour groups getting mixed up so turned out we didn’t get to go until 8 but I was just glad that we were able to go in the end.  Three of us got in the cage at once and I was in the last group to go.  The first few groups saw some sharks and I got to get a good look at them from the boat.  But when I was in the water we didn’t see anything.  Nonetheless it was still SO cool!  We saw a ton of fish underwater and since you couldn’t see very far through the water I still felt like there could be sharks about to pop out.  We also saw a shark attack and eat a seal, so that definitely made up for missing out.  Also the water was FREEZING!

All in all Cape Town was AAAAAAMAZING and one of my favorite places on earth!

“Travel holds the magical possibility of reinvention: that you might find a place you love, to begin a new life and never go home.”

             -Ghost Train to the Eastern Star