In the Johannesburg airport I got my first good hamburger since leaving the states. It had "Secret Monkey Sauce" on it, which for some reason I had to try. It's just a tangy sauce with small bits of pineapple in it. When we paid with a credit card, I knew I was going to like South Africa a lot.
The place we stayed at was one awesome location, and all props go to Nik for finding it from halfway around the world. It was a three story, 3-bedroom apartment overlooking the ocean with patios and a laundry machine (there was a laundry machine in Cameroon, but it was still in the box where it has resided for two years). So we were hanging out in serious style.
Cape Town was beautiful, and there's not a lot of cities I'd say that about. Cape Town is up against the ocean with a mountainous backdrop. Its basically first world inside the city (outside there are some pretty bad corrugated aluminum communities [just sounds better than ghetto]). We ate steak, oysters, etc, and drank water directly from the tap. Toilets worked, hot showers (on the second day), and we even drove ourselves instead of taking cabs everywhere. It may sound weird, but it was kind of nice to be able to do regular stuff.
The first day we were there, we first went to see the local market, where prices were extremely cheap. The crisis in Zimbabwe (the leader there has plunged his economy into chaos where they've seen million percent inflation!) has cause many to flee to South Africa. So after looking around the market for an hour or so, we started to get ready to leave when I decided to buy a stone rhinoceros. It weighs something like five to seven kilos (ten to fifteen pounds), and after seeing Mike's love and affection for his "stolen" hippo, I figured why not? That set off a spree of spending at this stone maker's table. We ended up buying seven stone statues, a rhinoceros, and the best coffee table sculpture ever. Vass bought this 15 kilo (~30 lbs) statue, it's a wise man but looks like an alien, and I it's about as big as her upper torso, so she's forced to carry it around clutched to her chest. I still don't know how she's going to get it home.
Later that day we hiked Table Mountain, which overlooks the city. It's a great hike, and significantly easier than Kilimanjaro, and is supposed to have an awesome view. Unfortunately, it was really cloudy at the top, so we really couldn't see anything. I am still glad we went to the top though, because I thought it was fun going up.
The next day we went to go to the Cape of Good Hope. It's a short drive from Cape Town, and it is kind of neat seeing the Southernmost point in the world you'd want to live. We got to see some penguins on the way, which was kinda cool, but the highlight of that day was the baboons. At the end of the day when we were ready to leave, we decided to get some ice cream, and when we went outside a baboon attacked us. Nik and Sheila threw their ice cream at the monkey and ran into the car, but Vass and I decided that monkey would have to pry it from our cold, dead fingers.
We had hoped/feared we would be able to go great-white-shark-cage-diving, but unfortunately the weather wasn't cooperating. When the water is too choppy, the boats can't safely put you in the water with the cage. I don't think any of us were all that upset we couldn't go. After Kilimanjaro, bungee jumping and car accidents, I think we did ourselves proud, and a five a.m. wake up call didn't sound very fun.
So instead, the last day we went wine tasting, which was really nice too. I was the designated driver, and chauffeured everyone else around. Sheila had the most intricate record keeping of any person I've ever seen. She literally has graphs of how the wine tastes. When she explains it, it makes sense, but I just can't see myself going back to look at the graph before I buy my next bottle of wine.
My time in South Africa was particularly short, but I have to say I loved Cape Town, and if you really want to visit Africa and go on Safari, but still live with all the comforts of home, I'd say you can do it all easily from Cape Town.
Before I even knew it, I was off to go home.
One last bit of random pics before I'm done:
This is security at our hostel at Victoria Falls
No comments:
Post a Comment