A great city- Day 77

Hello folks-
And a Happy Easter to you from Cape Town! It’s about 10:30pm here and we have been delayed from leaving port. The winds have been very strong all day and the port actually closed meaning we can’t get tugged out until it re-opens. Hopefully we’ll be out by some time tonight but I don’t know if this will affect our arrival to Ghana. We shall see.

Cape town is yet another fascinating city to add to the list. It was completely different than what I was expecting and I loved every minute of it. I had a field trip on the first day to the HOPE Clinic in Cape Town’s second largest HIV/AIDS children’s hospital. While the 2-hour lecture from one of the heads of the HOPE program was interesting and informative, the rest of the trip was kind of a let down. We were told we would get to play with kids and patients however because of a recent measles outbreak the ward was closed. The guy who spoke to us is a German Catholic Priest who had a lot to say about his tenure and his 13 years of experience with this program. His contract at his current church was not renewed because of some of his work with AIDS and his teachings in STD prevention methods). It was pretty interesting to hear, as I would never have guessed that. He was not infected with the virus. The rest of that afternoon I met up with a few friends and we just walked around town for a bit. The waterfront area was really nice and developed. It had a big mall, lots of nice restaurants/ bars along the river, shops and all that fine stuff. Docked next to our ship is the world’s 6th largest privately owned yacht, owned by the CEO of Oracle. I got to meet some of the crew working on it and they said the guy isn’t even in South Africa. I guess that’s what someone can do with tons of money!

The following day my friend and I visited Robben Island and saw the jail cell where Nelson Mandella was held. Despite its symbolism the island was large and beautiful and offered a wonderful view of Cape Town, 17km across the water. The tour guides of the prison are all ex-cons who live on the island for free so it was really cool to get an inside perspective. Our guide spent 9 years inside as a political prisoner with Mandela.

That same afternoon was an experience that I will never ever forget. We got a driver to take us to (and escort us in) one of the many townships. If you don’t know, townships are the slums of the city with thousands of people living in shacks made from rotting wood and rusted scrap medal. It was very moving. We visited an “apartment building” and walked into a bedroom just big enough to park a Mini Cooper in, with 3 beds, each one for an entire family, sleeping 16 people in total every night. Just imagine that. I spoke to one of the guys who slept in there and he was someone I’ll never forget about. He hated his life, he hated where he lived and just had a lot of emotion behind him. Very powerful stuff. Afterwards we walked around outside and ended up passing out tons of stickers to all this amazing little kids who just loved playing with us. Our tour guide had to beg us to leave because we were having so much fun with them. I was holding this little girl who took my sunglasses off and put them on her face. My friend fortunately snapped a photo so you’ll get to see that. We then went to a local pub, had a beer with some really really nice locals and played some pool.. Funny side story: a woman gave us a tour of this B&B she is running and on the wall were some letters sent to her from recent guests and one of them came from Mamaroneck, New York! Pretty wild…small world! On our way home we drove through the largest township in Cape Town housing over 1 million people. It was truly an unforgettable sight. I met so many wonderful adults and children who had almost nothing but the clothes on their back yet they carried the brightest of smiles and seemed like some of the happiest people on Earth. Amazing.

The next morning we hiked Table Mountain and despite the surprisingly difficult 2.5-hour trek, it was worth ever minute from the top. We got a 360o view of South Africa that literally left me speechless. My camera was working overtime up there so you’ll see plenty of photos. The hike was long, steep, and was way beyond any trail in Chautauqua Park! It was quite fun though and again, very worth it. We had lunch at the top then took the cable car down. The inside of the car rotated as you descended so no matter where you stood you got a 3600 view, pretty neat. After that we got a driver out to Stellenbosch, one of the many beautiful wine lands of South Africa. After pulling off to another reserve and pet some African Cheetahs (lots of photos) we went to a local winery for some tasting. I learned some different words to describe wine like “smoky” or “passionate.” Bust those out at your next cocktail party and you’ll be a hit. We spent the rest of the afternoon/ evening there at this really peaceful outdoor bar looking off to endless rolling vineyards eventually meeting the mountains on the horizon. Just perfect. That night we went to a great restaurant with delicious food and live music. We were supposed to stay at a hostel but arrived too late and could not get checked in so we just hopped a cab back to Cape Town, no big deal.

Yesterday a few of us walked around a bit then caught the Chelsea v. ManU match. I know it’s a lame thing to do being in Cape Town and all but let me tell you it was an experience. We were in this local pub, being the only Americans in the place, surrounded by die hard Chelsea and ManU fans from England, meeting lots of people and having a great time. It’s one of those “you had to be there” things but it was worth the afternoon. Chelsea won 2-1, in case you were wondering.

Unfortunately the shark diving for today was canceled. The bad weather I mentioned caused some pretty rough seas and the company couldn’t go out. I am a little bummed but was happy to have another full day in town. Although, sitting in a cage surrounded by great whites would’ve been awesome.

 Now, here we are stuck on the ship with Cape Town knocking at our windows but we cannot leave…it’s torture! But it was time very well spent and will be another chapter of memories. At the same time I refuse to believe the fact that we are approaching our penultimate (hey hey SATs) port and that as of tomorrow we will have exactly one month left until Florida. I’ve asked the captain to hook a right leaving Brazil and take us to Europe but he said no for some reason.

Anyways ladies and gents that is all from me. I am feeling great and hope everyone at home is wonderful. As always thank you for reading and have a Happy Easter and enjoy the day. I miss you all!

-       Chris

PS  Pictures to come soon so check back in!