South Africa

So, Cape Town. Whoa. Long story short – it was awesome! I had been looking forward to going there since I heard it was on the itinerary because Amy had spent 6 months at University of Stellanbosch, only 45 minutes away. I decided to most everything independently with a small group of boys and girls since Amy had given me a list a year long of stuff to do there. No safari for me, but I had an action-packed, culturally rich experience, that’s for sure. So let’s see, where do I start? We got into Cape Town last Friday morning, all of which I spent at the Chinese consulate in Cape Town getting a new visa for China since mine had the wrong dates on it…typical. The consulate was by far the weirdest place I went in Cape Town. It was in this residential area, but it was literally a shack made of plywood, with no walls and serious mushroom problems growing up from the floor haha…nasty! Anyway, after leaving my passport in the hands of some random, questionable consulate, I made my way back to the boat to meet up with our group hiking Table Mountain. And let me just tell you, when I say hike, I mean HIKE. That was by far one of the harder physical activities I’ve done on this trip. As we approached the mountain, me in my very minimal hiking gear, our taxi driver asked us if we were taking the funicular up the mountain or if we were hiking. When we said hiking, he laughed in our faces – awesome. So we started the two and a half hour ascent, with me surprisingly in the lead. Don’t worry I didn’t stay there the whole time…I was hiking with Brad and Jesse, two boys who go to school in Boulder, they quickly took over. Super intense does not begin to describe this “little hike” I had gotten myself into.

It was pretty much straight up into some craggy mountains, but boy was it beautiful! Next to Cape Point, Table Mountain is one of the most beautiful places I’ve been. But more of that later. So we’re hiking up this deep crevasse and water, apparently from melting snow, as I was told, is coming down all over the place.

But not to worry, after only one hour of what was meant to be a two and a half hour hike, we made it to the top! AND IT WAS AWESOME!

View of all of Cape Town, we could even see our ship from there. But it was freezing and I was sweaty – not a good combination!

So I took donations for extra clothes as the six of us spent one and a half hours up on the top of the mountain with a couple bottles of great South African wine.
As the sun went in, we decided to take the funicular on the way back down the mountain and headed back to the ship. We changed super quick, and Brad, Jesse, Josh and I headed out to Long Street to grab dinner. Long Street is a “hoot” as some would say, super hippie and awesome, I loved it! Lots of cool shops, little hotels, backpackers, restaurants, and bars.
The next day we got up, walked around the Waterfront a little bit, which was two minutes from where our ship was docked. We had such a great location! The Waterfront was really nice – much better than Walvis Bay or Salvador, which both reeked! After putzing around for a while, we made our way 45 minutes out of Cape Town to Skydive Cape Town, and I prepared myself to jump out of a plane at 9,000ft. I pulled on my orange jumpsuit, got strapped into my harness, and waited to meet my tandem master.

Julian, a native of Johannesburg, had actually spent a good deal of time in the US, skydiving in Boulder. He was so cool! He had super long blond dreads, and a great accent, not to mention he was very reassuring about my soon-to-come free fall. We went up into the tiniest plane I’ve ever seen and I was attached to Julian when we approached our jumping height.

Kierstin went first, and after watching her and Laura Flynn get sucked out into the sky, it was my turn! We were poised on the edge of the plane, and with no warning we just….dropped! I SCREAMED MY HEAD OFF BUT IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!!! Julian had a camera, so I’m pretty sure I’ve got it on video, but free falling for 35 seconds over Table Mountain was the sickest thing I’ve ever done. Julian then pulled the parachute, and I floated for about 5 minutes, seeing Table Mountain, Cape Point, the ocean, just everything!

I cannot even begin to describe the adrenaline rush of that fall, or the high of simply floating above the world. I’m addicted!
Okay, so adrenaline rushes were key on this trip. The next day we got up at 5:30am to take a 2-hour bus ride to Gaansbai, the whale watching and shark diving spot of the Western Cape. After seeing a few blue whales next to our boat, we waited until the water was sufficiently chummed, and baited some great white sharks!! I was in the first group to get into the cage, along with Jen, Kierstin, and Laura Flynn. I think I started hyperventilating I was so nervous! We got into the freezing water, wet-suited from head to foot.

I came within 6 INCHES OF A GREAT WHITE SHARK! Isn’t that NUTS?? I think so. We got some great shots. They would come up and ram the cage and sometimes our limbs would occasionally just float out into serious shark territory!
One of them got his fin caught in the cage next to my friend Kelly and was thrashing about at her face! But luckily, no accidents!
We then went to a small island in the bay, one that is apparently home to 60,000 cape fur seals. And yes, they were super cute and adorable BUT THEY SMELLED SO BAD!! Haha I am not even kidding, it was actually sort of foul. But tons of them were playing in the water next to the boat and they were just so awesome and jumpy!

So we thought the exciting part of our day was over when the boat docked and we boarded our van to come back to Cape Town. But oh no, no, no – we were wrong! So we’re on the highway, about 5 minutes outside of Cape Town, and in the middle of rush hour, on a six-lane highway, our van just BREAKS DOWN. Hahaha I’m sorry I know it’s not funny, but it really kind of is, and I could not stop laughing. I mean, it was really scary, but all turned out okay, AND as we were staring across the street at I guess was some sort of nature reserve, we saw a zebra and wildebeasts! So, all in all, great day full of wonderful animal encounters!
The next day we headed out to Stellanbosch to meet Francie, for those of you who don’t know her, she’s a friend from UVA, studying abroad at the University of Stellanbosch.

We went wine tasting at a couple just beautiful vineyards, went out to dinner in town, spent some time in her dorms, (where Amy was!), and then went out to a local pub, called Tollies. It was so much fun! It’s a great college town, it was SO nice to see a friend from home, and to be able to picture where my sister spent so much of her time.
Hm…so now getting to the most beautiful day of my trip. We went to the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Point. On the way there it was slightly uncomfortable, considering I was squished in the back of a tiny, tiny car with 4 other boys. But who cares, I got to see baboons, whales, and penguins!! So after walking up and around the lighthouse, we went out to the actual point, the southernmost tip of Africa.

We saw the line where the Indian and the Atlantic Oceans merge, lots of whales along the sides of the point, and just the most beautiful sights you could ever hope to see in your life. It honestly made me appreciate nature so much more, I am too lucky to have been able to experience this.

After the point, the 10 of us that went up to Cape Point were leaving the park and ran into a large family of baboons on the side of the road! There were a couple babies, who were adorable!! They were just sitting there, eating grass, chilling on the side of the road…very neat! So we left the park and headed to Boulders Beach, the home of many African penguins, also called Jackass penguins…best name ever. They were SO CUTE!! Just waddling around, making weird noises, and definitely posing for the cameras…they are now one of my top favorite animals, along with the toco toucan (as I’m sure you remember from Brazil).

I awoke the next morning with an early start – I had not yet been to Robben Island and I was determined to make it there before leaving Cape Town. A few days before I had gone to find tickets, and left heartbroken because they were sold out until the day after our ship was leaving. I could have cried. I just had my mom’s words ringing in my ears, “When you go to Cape Town, you cannot miss Robben Island”. So at around 8:15am, Josh and I made our way over to Nelson Mandela gateway to stand in line and wait (with fingers crossed) for cancellations. After waiting and waiting and waiting, we got up to the window and got the last two tickets sold!! We sprinted from the ticket office, through security, down the gangway and hopped onto the ship as they were pulling the walkway away from the dock!

I could not wipe the smile off my face for about 20 minutes. Robben Island was the #1 thing I wanted to see in Cape Town and I had made it! The tour of the island itself was really interesting, we got to meet a former prisoner who is friends with Nelson Mandela, go into Nelson Mandela’s cell, see where he buried his manuscript of his book, Long Walk to Freedom, and go into the quarry where he spent his days working. There was a small cave in the back of the quarry, which they told us served as the “University of Robben Island” and the first Parliament of the new South Africa. This cave was the one place where the prisoners could gather without being seen by the guards, and they could discuss politics, share their knowledge, and educate one another. Overall, it was a very educational and interesting experience, and I’m so glad I got to see it. After Robben Island, Josh and I grabbed a quick lunch, met up with some friends, and went back out to Stellanbosch to do a little bit more wine tasting.

This time it was definitely more legitimate, with people telling us how to progress from wine to wine, what to look for in each wine in terms of taste, legs, aroma, etc. The first vineyard, Beyerskloof, had a bomb cheese platter that to me, a cheese fiend and addict, tasted like a small piece of heaven. Long story short, the cheese on the boat is not so great. The second vineyard we went to, Spier, was part vineyard, part cheetah conservation reserve – so random, right? Well yeah, except it was awesome! I got to go into an open area with 5 BABY CHEETAHS and pet them!!! IT WAS AWESOME! They were the cutest little cats and purred like maniacs, one even rolled over when I petted him! I believe his name was Disney, another one was Belle, another Abu…you get the idea (cheetahs after my own Disney-lover’s heart).

We left the cheetah reserve in a hurry, told the cab to drive like wild to make it back to the ship because we had a special speech to go to. Just another day on Semester at Sea but Desmond Tutu came to speak to us…no big deal or anything. False – it was unbelievable! He is actually really cute and funny in real life, and gave a super inspirational speech about how we as young Americans have a duty to make the right decision in the elections, get out of the war, and start to further aid the international community, but it came out way more elegantly than that.

I even got a picture with him! And, as I’m sure you can tell, I was quite an afterthought in this picture, but I could care less because I was in a picture with Archbishop Desmond Tutu! One of the leaders of the Truth and Reconciliation Committee for reparations of human rights violations in apartheid, a pioneer along with Nelson Mandela for black equality in South Africa.
After Desmond Tutu’s speech, I had another very interesting lecture. Amy Biehl, who was a Fulbright Scholar in South Africa, was stoned to death in Guguletu Township in 1993 during a student uprising. Four men were arrested and convicted, and spent 5 years or more in jail before asking for amnesty from the TRC in 1998 with the support of Amy Biehl’s parents. 2 of her murderers, who now work for the Amy Biehl Foundation, and have a great relationship with her family, came aboard the ship to speak to us about apartheid, her murder, their attempts at reconciliation and self-forgiveness, and what they are doing now to help her foundation. It was by far one of the most interesting speeches I have ever heard in my life.
Our last day in Cape Town was spent in and around the Waterfront, since we had to be on the boat by 1:30pm. It was a beautiful day, and the views of Table Mountain were breath-taking. I was so sad to leave Cape Town, and I can only hope that I will get to go back one day! Amy – let’s move there together, okay?