3/10/2007
34° 13.81S
025° 0.64E

Well hello! I am now back on the ship after an incredible stay in Cape Town, South Africa. I can’t even express in words how amazing my experience was in this prospering town on the southern most tip of Africa. I love this place!

The first day a group of friends and I hiked Table Mountain, which is a flat-topped mountain that often gets a cloud layer resembling a tablecloth. After and hour and a half of grueling hiking, we reached a beautiful overlook with sights of Cape Town and the surrounding area. The top of the mountain had a very European looking restaurant, bar and tram. If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought that I was in the Swiss Alps. I guess the 85° March weather gave it away. After taking a scenic ride down the tram, we grabbed a late lunch in the marina for beer and burgers. Way to be cultural, eh? Well, that night I made up for it by eating crocodile at Mama Africa’s on Long Street. A live band, amazing food, great company, and fabulous South African wine made for a very entertaining evening.

The second day it rained for what must have been the first time all summer in South Africa. The locals were shocked! My roommate and I took cover in a local coffee shop to people watch and take in the culture. After a day of checking out everything Cape Town has to offer, we headed out to Moyo for dinner. Moyo is a restaurant serving an enormous variety of local foods in a buffet style atmosphere. Sitting around a candle lit dinner with about 35 SAS students, I proceeded to eat myself into a food coma. Our faces were painted, a live band played, traditional dancers circled the tables and fires burned under the full moon. Three trips through the buffet line, one trip through the dessert line, and five bottles of wine later our table of 8 received a bill of 2649 Rand. Amazingly, that’s only about $28 U.S. per person. If you ever make it to Cape Town, be sure to swing by Moyo. You won’t be disappointed.

The third day, I joined a group of SAS students and headed up to the winelands for a day of mountain biking and wine tasting. First, we drove up to Stellenbosch for an awesome mountain bike ride in the lush mountains. I could have sworn that I was in New Zealand. We then headed to Lanzerac, a vineyard on the outskirts of Stellenbosch, for a picnic lunch and wine tasting. Lanzerac was the first winery to produce a Pinotage, which is basically a cross between red and white wines. Next we drove to Frankschhoek, or the French Corner, to visit the Mont Rochelle winery and check out the traditional town. After an afternoon of cycling and wine tasting, I had come to the conclusion that I will someday retire on a South African vineyard.

The fourth day was an entirely different South African experience. At 9:00am, I boarded a bus and headed out to a township for a day of service with Operation Hunger. First, we toured a community with no electricity, no running water and only two makeshift schools designed for students as old as seven. Words can’t even describe what I saw. This particular community was opposed to the current government regime, and therefore, was entirely neglected when it came to funding. At one point we were walking down a dirt street in the village when a tour helicopter flew overhead. Talk about a juxtaposition of serious wealth inequality. After speaking with the town leader, we headed to a Rastafarian community to do our real service project. Operation Hunger had asked us to weight all of the children in the community in order to gain a better understanding of the health situation in the area. Many of the children were severely underweight, suggesting malnourishment is very likely. All off the SAS students felt so bad that we gave our box lunches away on the spot. I have never felt so unjustly privileged as I did that afternoon on the bus ride to the ship.

The last three days of my visit I headed up to Kruger National Park for a safari. SAS put us up in a four star hotel (SAS always travels with class and a big price tag) on the edge of the Crocodile River. The next several days we went on game drives, ate amazing food, learned about the South African wildlife and explored some beautiful African savanna. During the game drives, I saw lions, giraffes, elephants, zebras, rhinos, hippos, wild dogs, wildebeests, antelopes, crocodiles and many, many others. One evening we had a Boma dinner, which is basically an African luau. African dancers performed around a fire while we enjoyed native cuisine under the stars. Couldn’t ask for much more.

Sorry about the lengthy entry. I seriously could have written 30 pages and still not conveyed what I experienced in South Africa. What an amazing place! We are at sea for the next four days before we arrive in Port Louis, Mauritius. Check back in a week or so for more.

Keep it real.

-Mike