Let me tell you about some of the highlights of my week…
I’d have to say my favorite place to be in Cape Town, despite all the amazing and unique tourist spots, would have to be the beach. As was the case with Maputo, I pretty much freaked out when we got to the beach in Cape Town – and this was even better, because the water was clean enough to swim. We went to Camps Bay, a really gorgeous beach with views of all the mountains in Cape Town, palm trees, ice cream vendors, and oceanside restaurants (clearly, the essential ingredients for a nice beach…?) Really, it could have had none of these things, and I still would have been happy. Just being at the beach turns me into a little kid – there we striking resemblances to the toddlers stomping through the water at the shoreline, and me… stomping through the water at the shoreline.
When we first got to the beach we saw some guys surfing on the shoreline. Being the pushy guy that I am, I went up to them and asked them if I could try (despite the fact that I didn’t have a suit and was wearing jeans). I figured it couldn’t have been much different from skateboarding, which I was semi-decent at long ago. They let me have a go, and Sebastian got some good video of me… falling off the surfboard and faceplanting.
Hard.
Five times in a row.
So much for being like a skateboard.
In any case, it was funny and made for some good memories (and a few hip bruises).
Watching the sunset at the beach was also really awesome – I encourage all those who haven’t to watch the sunset at the beach at least once. Put it on your bucket list.
Among our other touristy activities, we also visited Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope (the southernmost tip of Africa). We made the bookings with a tour company called the Green Cab, an eco-friendly tour company that provided transport to the Capes with a knowledgeable and friendly driver who told us about Cape Town, Simon’s Town, Cape Point, and the Cape of Good Hope. We spent about an hour at Cape Point, pretty much just enjoying the view and the awesome weather that the day offered. It was beyond gorgeous at Cape Point, watching the waves crash against the cliffs and feeling a slight breeze. The pictures don’t really do it justice, but here are some shots of Cape Point:
The Cape of Good Hope was also really nice –
So yeah. I spent most of my time at Cape Point and Cape of Good Hope imagining a world map, and thinking about where I was. Crazy.
A few days later we took the ferry out of Robben Island – while once an island for societal exiles, the island has spent the last few centuries as a prison for the highest grade of criminals that society has to offer. This includes political prisoners, and Robben Island is most famous for being Nelson Mandela’s place of imprisonment for nearly two decades. We had a fantastic tour of Robben Island – half was spent in a bus touring around the main facilities of the once-operational prison, and half was spent inside one of the compounds, where we learned more about the life of the prisoners. Both of our tour guides were phenomenal – for the former, we had a very insightful guide who added many of his own personal comments and offered his own perceptions about the nature of apartheid. He spoke about apartheid being so effective because it didn’t set up physical boundaries, but rather, worked by manipulating people’s perceptions of one another. It’s like we always say in Arizona – if we build a bigger wall at the border, those coming over will just get bigger ladders. Physical boundaries will always be conquered by the innovation of those who want to get across. But apartheid utilized people’s weaknesses in character, their hastiness in forming prejudices about other people – this is why it was such an effective (and diabolical) system. Along with this, he added the warning that, while the political system of apartheid may be over, we still possess the same weaknesses in character – it’s what makes us human. We therefore need to check ourselves and make sure that we don’t repeat the same mistakes that led us down that horrible path.
In any case, I thought he was a brilliant guide and a generally insightful person.
Our second guide was a prisoner at Robben Island for seven years, and thus was able to provide some more intimate details about prison life, food, sleeping, work, and prison social classes. As he was also a political prisoner, he told us that political prisoners were considered the most dangerous class of criminals to come into Robben Island – more dangerous than murderers, child rapists, or anyone else. This is because political prisoners are considered the most influential of all the prisoners in Robben Island, and have not physical power, but power over the mind. He took us to see Mandela’s old cell – there was a huge crowd around trying to get pictures, so my snapshot isn’t that good, but take a look –
I’m not usually big on guided tours and stuff like that, but the Robben Island tour was excellent.
For you folks that are familiar with Cape Town, you’ll know that our last big tourist stop was Table Mountain. We saved it for Sunday morning because we heard that Long Street Backpackers (the backpackers we’re staying at) offered a free guided hike up the mountain. We woke up on Sunday, psyched to have a guided tour up the impressive mountain, and walked outside to see…
Overcast skies. The tour offered by the backpackers had been cancelled, and a hotline providing Table Mountain weather described visibility as “poor”, temperatures as “very cold”, and wind as “strong”. Yikes. We really didn’t want to miss out on the hike, so we decided to hop in a cab up to the mountain so we could see for ourselves how bad it really was. We got to the cablecar station, near to the trailhead, and we greeted by excessive fog, heavy wind, and on-and-off rain. Tempted to turn around and go curl up at our backpackers with a cup of hot chocolate, we pushed onward, and told ourselves that if the weather was still horrible by the time we reached the trailhead, we would turn around. And by some amazing stroke of luck, the weather improved. I’m not saying birds started chirping and the clouds all disappeared to reveal a hidden rainbow… but it got somewhat better. It was still cold but the rain stopped, clouds parted in some areas, and the fog receded to the very top of the mountain. Woo! So we got to do our hike in what I considered to be pretty great hiking weather, got some pictures, and got to check Table Mountain off the list of Cape Town activities. Unfortunately, fog towards the top forced us to turn around… but that leaves the completion of the hike for next year. The lack of sun made the pictures kind of meh, but here are some –
It was so great to hike again – the trail reminded me a lot of hiking in Tucson, although the weather was a stark contrast to what we’re used to at home.
Among all this, we’ve spent a lot of time in Cape Town just.. chilling. Watching movies, eating good food, catching up on sleep lost in term (one night I went to bed at seven… I’m such a party animal). It’s been really amazing, because that’s what I really wanted to get out of this break. Of course, I wanted to see parts of South Africa that I hadn’t seen before, but I also had the goal of chilling out max and relaxing all cool. And in this regard, my travel companions and I succeeded. It’s been a major highlight of the trip for me so far.
A final anecdote in my Cape Town adventures – one of the first nights we were here, we were out chilling on the balcony of our backpackers, and down about fifty yards from where we were, we saw orange cones, people with cameras and headsets, and people directing traffic and pedestrians. It looked like a movie was being shot (as the same group of extras kept walking by the same place), so we asked one of the camera guys what was going on. He shouts up to us, “It’s a movie being made. It’s starring Ryan Reynolds and Denzel Washington”. He says this and points to the place where they’re shooting the scene, where we see Ryan Reynolds chatting with a group of cameramen. So a few of us come down from the balcony and go across the street to watch the scene. Sure enough, they were shooting a scene (over and over) where Reynolds talks on the phone and walks along the street for a few yards. We saw nothing of Denzel (dang), but we were pretty certain that the guy was Ryan Reynolds. So if a movie comes out in the next two years with Ryan Reynolds and Denzel Washington where they’re in Cape Town… yeah, I was there. I wanted to slip in with the extras but didn’t muster the stones (the lady directing them was scary) – maybe next time.
Tomorrow we set out for Mozambique – first to Maputo, and then to Tofo. I’ll be in touch when I can be – while I have no idea about internet access, I’m sure it’s not too hard to find.
Miss everyone lots, hope CDO kids had a wonderfully bawdy time at prom and are now having fun studying for AP exams – folks can laugh at me when I’m back in school and you all are on summer break. Stoked for graduation (almost) as much as you!
Stay well, wherever you may be. Live every moment to the fullest (and all that junk :)
Lots of love
Eli
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