We landed in Cape Town one day early - and looking back very thankful that we did. Cape Town and the surrounding region is packed full of history, natural beauty, and amazing cuisine!
We finally started using the video function on our little camera, so there are tons of great videos from this part of our trip. Click on the links in the text below to see a flock of penguins, children singing, and me dancing...or trying to at least.
For pictures, click here.
Daniel
Food, food, and more food...Our first day in Cape Town is best described as pure gluttony. We were so overwhelmed with all our dining choices that we just had more meals (breakfast, lunch, high tea, dinner, & dessert). We had lunch at one of the best restaurants in Cape Town, the highly recommended 95 Keerom. The ostrich carpaccio was amazing, and Kimberly swears her tuna steak with a balsamic vinaigrette was the best seafood she's ever had. (I can't comment on that...although I did try a bite, and it wasn't too fishy...) After lunch, we actually went straight to Mt. Nelson Hotel for high tea. Rumor has it that they refused to accommodate President Clinton during his South African visit when the secret service security requested that they cut down the trees lining their main driveway entrance. Even after the security backed down the hotel refused to accept them as guests. And for dinner, we enjoyed a nice, albeit random, dinner at Cara Lazuli. The food was supposed to be North African/Moroccan, but other than the tagine on the menu, it didn't seem that way. At one point during the meal, they came out with all these funny hats and made all the guests wear them for the rest of the meal...
The next day we had quite the opposite experience, far less indulging in fancy food...and by far the most eye opening and culturally rich day, probably of our entire 2 1/2 month trip...and the longest: we started at around 9am and returned home after 11pm! We spent the entire day with an amazing and enlightening guide, Selwyn Davidowitz(to use just the word "guide" is an injustice) who taught us about South African culture & recent history.
Selwyn is probably the most fascinating tour guide you'll ever meet. A former engineer, who spent a considerable amount of time in Las Vegas playing the house, he decided to show people his home town after his retirement. His tours are very different from others in the area, in that half of his profits go into the township community of Kayamundi. After giving us a historical overview of South Africa, and especially apartheid and the Afrikaaners, he took us to Kayamundi to meet its residents. You can also go to a part of Selwyn's website here where you can read his posting on our tour with him. He makes a page like this for every one of his tours!
We were a little nervous to be going into a township...we certainly hadn't heard that they were the safest places for three white folks to go for the afternoon. But for some reason, being with Selwyn and hearing about the impact he has made in the community and the relationships he has with its residents, we were both completely at ease. And it turned out to be for good reason. I'm convinced we had a view into a part of South Africa that almost no white tourist ever sees. The township was obviously disturbing in many ways: lack of running water in many houses, people living in shacks who cannot afford to build walls, an alarming number of single parent families and teenage pregnancies...but in other ways, it felt like a happier, safer place than most neighborhoods in the U.S. Kids roamed around the streets playing together. Parents watched out for each other and their families. Most of all, there was this amazing sense of community (or Ubuntu as Selwyn explained in the local language). We could really see this just from our first stop in the township. We sat with Lily, a singly mother of three daughters and heard her life story of all the hardships she has faced and triumphed over. And how her community has helped her--and how she has helped the community. Before we left, she asked if she could sing a special lullabye for us. Click here to watch!
Selwyn told us he had a surprise for us, but we weren't prepared for what would come next! We went to the community center that Selwyn built with the proceeds of his tours and watched the group of kids practice their dancing routine...after they were finished rehearsing, we videotaped their performance to send it to another dance troupe in England. The two troupes are part of a cultural exchange where they learn another culture's dance and perform for each other. To see the dance, click here. (You won't believe this, but we posted this on Google Video a few months ago and never sent anything out to anyone to look at it....now 1400 people have viewed the video and four people even rated it!) For an equally good video of the lead boy doing an impressive solo dance, click here.
Then, they started doing another dance and pulled Kimberly in to dance with them. Her former cheerleader days proved helpful, as she picked up the moves really quickly. Click here to watch. When I discovered it would be my turn next, I wasn't so excited. I didn't pick things up quite as well, but did manage to get the kick while clapping underneath my leg move down. What was funny was that the boy kept yelling, "Men don't smile! You must not smile!" So in the pictures, you can see that I'm trying really really hard not to smile... Click here for some amusing video.
After the kids were finished dancing, Selwyn gathered them around and said he had some important news to share with them. This was when he told them that next year they would be getting scholarships to attend a private school...and they could all go together. It was really amazing to see the excitement (and nervousness) on their faces when being presented with such an opportunity.
By now it was starting to get dark, but our tour was no where near over. We went to see how the progress was going on the trash collection that Selwyn sponsors in the township. He hands out plastic bags to all the kids in this neighborhood. The children who return with the bags filled with trash receive an apple each...and he buys the apples from the town shop...to ensure the money stays within the community. It seemed like he had so many little projects going on in the town, so many people knew him, he was doing so much good...so why be nervous that the sun had completely set and we were wandering around in the dark with flashlights...
And there was no reason to worry. The evening passed while we sat in Nosandile's house and watched as at least 20 children (none of which are her own) followed us into the house and made themselves comfortable in her living room. We received a surprise serenade from the kids (click here to watch) and the kids thoroughly enjoyed having us take their photos! And after that, Selwyn took us to an evening church service that was unlike anything I had ever seen. The entire service was a frenzy of singing, dancing, and waving papers in the air. Really, just watch here.
The next day, we set out for Cape Point, the southern-most part of Africa. Along the way, we stopped at Boulders Beach to see the famous colony of penguins (no Great White Shark Sightings, unfortunately). Click here to watch Kimberly's close encounter with a flock of penguins! We continued on to the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve, where we drove around the coast, saw some ostriches, spotted a whale off the coast, and avoided a baboon attack in the parking lot!
We spent the afternoon touring the infamous Robben Island where the Apartheid government imprisoned political enemies including Nelson Mandela. The story is bleak and more numbing was that our tour guide spent 13 years of his life on the isolated island. Jobs are hard to come by in South Africa for many people. After years of imprisonment, it's even harder to break back into the workforce. Our guide told us that he had agreed to return to Robben Island for work only because he must provide for his family.
For dinner we went to Africa Cafe offering a wide selection of different local foods from all over the African continent. The name is a little misleading, since it is a massive restaurant (we were on the 3rd of three floors). But the staff was all musically trained and broke into chanting and singing on multiple occasions during our meal, which was fun. Click here for some African song. At times it seems touristy, but we did get a taste of cuisine & culture all at once.
Our last day in Cape Town, the skies finally cleared so we could ride the cable car to the top of Table Mountain. The view was just spectacular. It really felt like we were on top of the world! Such a great way to end our stay in this fabulous city.
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