Hello Everybody!
I miss you all and Happy Easter! Someone better have done the Easter egg thing with Iljahs because I was so sad that I wasn't going to be there. However Ryan and I did wake up for a sunrise Easter service by Archbishop Desmond Tutu! How many people can say that? IT was a Catholic service but still really cool. Anyway, thank you everyone for sending me letters! They made me so happy! Oh and the one with the hand was adorable! Well I'll let you get to reading cause there's a lot! Ryan finally made a post about Mauritius, it took a lot of begging! South Africa is done too, I did that one. Sorry it took so long. I have no more internet minuts and right now I am in Vietnam.
India and Malasia coming soon!
Monday, April 9, 2007
Sunday, April 8, 2007
This is from Ryan....
This is my first blog and I am so excited to tell you all about the amazing time we had in Mauritius. Before porting we were told that Mauritius was the port that in the past had the most occurrence or petty theft. I was okay with since in Brazil we had to worry about getting stabbed and robbed at the same time. It has the highest prevalence of theft because most students stay in villas which get broken into, and everyone’s things get taken.
Day 1
We start by showing up a few hours later than anticipated because of storms. The first thing we do is head into town to find the marketplace, and an internet café to book our flights in India. If you have not heard already, we pay about 40 cents a minute on the ship for slow internet access, unless it is in the very early morning. We were told the whole island had wireless capabilities, but my tries were unsuccessful. We find the café and run into problems with the multiple Indian airlines. Some stopped taking international credit cards due to fraud, and some needed an Indian address for mailing. We could go through Expedia, but the prices were twice as expensive. We leave with the plan to show up in India and get flights aligned at the airport in India. This tactic was successful in previous voyages. The whole time we are in a hurry because a group of students are leaving from the ship at 4:00pm to go the VILLAS at the beautiful city of Flic en Flac. There are about seven complexes within a mile radius, and each complex has about 20 villas within. The condos are side by side and completely surround an enormous rectangular pool with multiple bridges, rocks, and walkways. The set up was amazing and about 10 of the villas were all occupied with SAS students. You can probably guess how crazy it was with over 100 students from the boat with our own villas, and unlimited access to cheap alcohol. According to many students, Mauritius was our spring break. Erika and I were going to stay at the villas with all the SAS students, but realized it would be best to stay at another one with other friends because the first villas were going to be trashed, and were more likely to be broken into, and they were the next day. So we start out at the party villas and set our stuff down. We then walk to the beach and around town to see what there is. There are some small clubs, a casino, restaurants, and a supermarket, with an internet café. We eat at this very cheap to-go place and had some awesome pizza. We then run into our friends Sami and Dustin and they want us to stay at their villa which is safer, and only a walk away. So we go check out their place, meet up with some others and head out to the party villas to get our stuff to bring to the new villa. People are playing beer pong, swimming, walking/ running around, and there are all types of alcohol making its way around. There were over 100 students having a good time, but also getting out of hand, and being destructive. People were playing hockey with palm fronds and lightbulbs and chanting “USA” it was very disrespectful. After we found the other members to our group we were supposed to meet, Julie, Jenny, and Claire, we walked back to the other villa. Two other guys, Slava and Greg, also stayed at the villa. Luckily we went to the supermarket earlier that day so we could make breakfast in the morning.
Day 2
After Erika, Sami, and Clair made a delicious breakfast, we went to flic and flac beach and scheduled to take a catamaran out the next day. While on the beach, we were surprised to see a good amount of topless women. I think they were foreigners, except the ones with implants. We hung out with a lot of people and got the cheapest food from some stands nearby. We had coconut drinks, and when we were done they chopped it open so we could eat the inside. I then went back a few times to get some 20 cent ice cream and Erika got eight mini somosas for 40 cents. I also caught some crabs, but they were very small. It was a very relaxing day. A good break from always feeling rushed. That night we made spaghetti, chicken, garlic cheese bread, grilled vegetable salsa, and samosas.
Day 3
Last day we wake up early and catch a 1.5 hour ride to our private catamaran that is supposed to hold 25, and we only had 9. They took us to see a waterfall, and then snorkeling. We were able to jump over the railings of the boat into the water, and it was a lot of fun. They also stopped at a shallow reef area and we were able to snorkel. It was a lot of fun, and extremely funny. I only had a mask and I was doing just fine. Erika on the other hand gets in with her snorkel and mask and starts freaking out because she can’t breathe. After a few seconds she had the breathing thing down. Second, there was a little current in the water, so that was her next problem. She had trouble concentrating on swimming with all this plastic on her face, so they had to throw her the life saver ring, and I had to swim her back to the boat. Once there we gave her a life vest and let her loose. Once again she had the problem of floating away. I then proceeded to get a rope, tie it to the boat and then tie it to her vest. After that she was having fun, and it was hilarious to look down and see the rope tied to her, while floating with the life vest. It was so cute. After snapping a few pictures of her, we sailed to an island which had amazing sandbars and a lot to do. We get there and decide to get pulled by a boat on an inflatable bat looking thing. We fell off once, but that was the best part. We hang out some more and buy some souvenirs and then it was time to head off for some more sun, water and food. We ended up racing another catamaran back to shore and of course won. We then took another 1.5 hour ride back to the ship where we dropped our things off and then headed right back into port. We then ate food, made phone calls, and bought some last minute things. Mauritius was awesome and for anyone going there in the future I know the place to get a great deal on a catamaran. Actually, over half of our group got really bad food poisoning so I don’t know if it was such a good deal. Erika, Sami, and Greg were the only ones that didn’t really get sick.
We’ll keep you posted!
This is my first blog and I am so excited to tell you all about the amazing time we had in Mauritius. Before porting we were told that Mauritius was the port that in the past had the most occurrence or petty theft. I was okay with since in Brazil we had to worry about getting stabbed and robbed at the same time. It has the highest prevalence of theft because most students stay in villas which get broken into, and everyone’s things get taken.
Day 1
We start by showing up a few hours later than anticipated because of storms. The first thing we do is head into town to find the marketplace, and an internet café to book our flights in India. If you have not heard already, we pay about 40 cents a minute on the ship for slow internet access, unless it is in the very early morning. We were told the whole island had wireless capabilities, but my tries were unsuccessful. We find the café and run into problems with the multiple Indian airlines. Some stopped taking international credit cards due to fraud, and some needed an Indian address for mailing. We could go through Expedia, but the prices were twice as expensive. We leave with the plan to show up in India and get flights aligned at the airport in India. This tactic was successful in previous voyages. The whole time we are in a hurry because a group of students are leaving from the ship at 4:00pm to go the VILLAS at the beautiful city of Flic en Flac. There are about seven complexes within a mile radius, and each complex has about 20 villas within. The condos are side by side and completely surround an enormous rectangular pool with multiple bridges, rocks, and walkways. The set up was amazing and about 10 of the villas were all occupied with SAS students. You can probably guess how crazy it was with over 100 students from the boat with our own villas, and unlimited access to cheap alcohol. According to many students, Mauritius was our spring break. Erika and I were going to stay at the villas with all the SAS students, but realized it would be best to stay at another one with other friends because the first villas were going to be trashed, and were more likely to be broken into, and they were the next day. So we start out at the party villas and set our stuff down. We then walk to the beach and around town to see what there is. There are some small clubs, a casino, restaurants, and a supermarket, with an internet café. We eat at this very cheap to-go place and had some awesome pizza. We then run into our friends Sami and Dustin and they want us to stay at their villa which is safer, and only a walk away. So we go check out their place, meet up with some others and head out to the party villas to get our stuff to bring to the new villa. People are playing beer pong, swimming, walking/ running around, and there are all types of alcohol making its way around. There were over 100 students having a good time, but also getting out of hand, and being destructive. People were playing hockey with palm fronds and lightbulbs and chanting “USA” it was very disrespectful. After we found the other members to our group we were supposed to meet, Julie, Jenny, and Claire, we walked back to the other villa. Two other guys, Slava and Greg, also stayed at the villa. Luckily we went to the supermarket earlier that day so we could make breakfast in the morning.
Day 2
After Erika, Sami, and Clair made a delicious breakfast, we went to flic and flac beach and scheduled to take a catamaran out the next day. While on the beach, we were surprised to see a good amount of topless women. I think they were foreigners, except the ones with implants. We hung out with a lot of people and got the cheapest food from some stands nearby. We had coconut drinks, and when we were done they chopped it open so we could eat the inside. I then went back a few times to get some 20 cent ice cream and Erika got eight mini somosas for 40 cents. I also caught some crabs, but they were very small. It was a very relaxing day. A good break from always feeling rushed. That night we made spaghetti, chicken, garlic cheese bread, grilled vegetable salsa, and samosas.
Day 3
Last day we wake up early and catch a 1.5 hour ride to our private catamaran that is supposed to hold 25, and we only had 9. They took us to see a waterfall, and then snorkeling. We were able to jump over the railings of the boat into the water, and it was a lot of fun. They also stopped at a shallow reef area and we were able to snorkel. It was a lot of fun, and extremely funny. I only had a mask and I was doing just fine. Erika on the other hand gets in with her snorkel and mask and starts freaking out because she can’t breathe. After a few seconds she had the breathing thing down. Second, there was a little current in the water, so that was her next problem. She had trouble concentrating on swimming with all this plastic on her face, so they had to throw her the life saver ring, and I had to swim her back to the boat. Once there we gave her a life vest and let her loose. Once again she had the problem of floating away. I then proceeded to get a rope, tie it to the boat and then tie it to her vest. After that she was having fun, and it was hilarious to look down and see the rope tied to her, while floating with the life vest. It was so cute. After snapping a few pictures of her, we sailed to an island which had amazing sandbars and a lot to do. We get there and decide to get pulled by a boat on an inflatable bat looking thing. We fell off once, but that was the best part. We hang out some more and buy some souvenirs and then it was time to head off for some more sun, water and food. We ended up racing another catamaran back to shore and of course won. We then took another 1.5 hour ride back to the ship where we dropped our things off and then headed right back into port. We then ate food, made phone calls, and bought some last minute things. Mauritius was awesome and for anyone going there in the future I know the place to get a great deal on a catamaran. Actually, over half of our group got really bad food poisoning so I don’t know if it was such a good deal. Erika, Sami, and Greg were the only ones that didn’t really get sick.
We’ll keep you posted!
Hanging out in South Africa
I, along with the rest of the ship, was really excited for South Africa. This is the port that many people were looking forward to the most. The only thing I had planned for South Africa before I arrived was a one day safari and a township visit. The rest of the days I had sort of tentative “we’ll see what happens” kind of plans.
Day 1:
We arrived in South Africa with a beautiful view of Table Mountain. Many people had risen for the sunrise as we pulled in to port but I needed the extra sleep. My idiot self stayed up till 4 doing absolutely nothing but talking in the hallways. To say the least I was pretty exhausted. Anyway, the only thing Ryan and I were going to do was to explore the city and maybe get some definite plans down. Of course all this changed when some friends of ours told us they were going sky diving. Ryan talked me into tagging along to see if there was room for two more. We doubted they were going to say no to more money. Of course there was room for us and the whole drive down there I was trying not to think that I was about to jump out of a plane. When we arrived, everything moved so fast. (On a normal day, each instructor will make 3 or 4 jumps. While SAS is in town, there will be 15 to 20 jumps made per day. Needless to say they are pretty busy) After putting on harnesses and signing our lives away it was time to go. Ryan and I decided to go separately so after saying goodbye, he was up first. I was hoping to see him come down but it was my turn to go before he even landed. Sammy, Jenny, and I went together and crammed into a plane tinier than the one from Puerto Rico. It was about a twenty minute flight up with beautiful views of table mountain, Robben Island, and the gorgeous beaches. The funny thing was I wasn’t very nervous because the guy I was about to be strapped to was twice my age and hitting on me so I was a little worried about that. Anyway, we reached 9,000 feet and the door to the plane opened. I watched Jenny fly out of the plane and then it was my turn. I was strapped to the front of the guy so I was hanging out of the plane for a few seconds before he actually jumped. At this point, I was thinking wow, this is so unbelievably beautiful. I wasn’t even nervous. I used to get more nervous for cheerleading competitions! It’s really pointless to be nervous because you have no choice anymore, you will be jumping out of the plane regardless. So we finally flew out of the plane and there was that initial feeling of butterflies but that faded pretty quickly. The free fall was amazing. For thirty seconds I was falling to the ground at incredible speeds. I never had that feeling that the parachute wasn’t going to open. I just admired the view. Once the parachute was pulled, I was able to steer and do spirals and turns which were pretty awesome. After about five minutes in the parachute, we prepared to land. I was told nothing but, “lift your knees.” We were about to land and I could see Ryan on the ground yelling to me so I knew we both made it safe. Skydiving was so cool. After our whole group had jumped, we traveled back to the waterfront to eat lunch. By the way, South Africa has amazing vegetarian food but more on that later. We ate an amazing lunch which turned out to be pretty cheap since our dollar goes a long way against the rand. Ryan had an ostrich burger! After lunch, we shopped around until heading back to the ship.
Day 2:
Jenny, Julie, Zeona, Ceara, Ryan, and I woke up before dawn to go on a day safari at the Aquila game reserve. By the way, our driver’s name was Wolf, he was awesome. Upon arrival, we were greeted by a delicious buffet breakfast and champagne. The reserve was beautiful. It was decorated just like you would picture it would be. Wooden lodges with animal prints and everything. So cute. After breakfast, we were off on our safari. Half of us went on horses and half of us did quads since some quads were having mechanical problems. Ryan and I were on quads and we had so much fun doing doughnuts and jumps. Well, Ryan did the jumps. On our game drive we saw giraffe, antelope, buffalo, rhino, and elephant among others. They were so close to us! We saw hippos in the water cooling off and buffalo running around. I loved all the animals. But we still hadn’t seen the lions! We had to change vehicles in order to see them. They were in their own little area. I saw one male and one female lion. They were just chillin’ and didn’t do anything when they saw us. It was perfectly normal. David, you would have loved the lions. Anyway, when we returned to the site we were able to pet cheetahs! They were so cute! Apparently cheetahs are the only large cat that can be tamed. They were just like large house cats. After we were finished petting the cheetahs, we had a wonderful buffet lunch and swimming in the pool, before we headed back to Cape Town. When we got back, we went to this Mexican restaurant that became SASers’ hangout for our entire stay. It has better Mexican food than what I’ve had in Mexico! I went back to this place several times during my stay. I had an awesome vegetarian platter with giant nachos, mini burritos, rice and beans, yummy veggies; it was the best food ever! After our snack, we went to Long Street since it was Cape Town’s annual festival and it was the place to be in the evening. I was a little bummed out since it was pouring rain but we had fun nonetheless. Before we left, we made plans with Tiffany and Ana to go see the penguins the next day. Exciting!
Day 3:
In order to visit the penguins, we took a bus to a train to a taxi. It was much cheaper this way. The train ride was entertaining because while the guy was going around checking tickets, one guy didn’t have one. He was a white local that was sleeping on the train and he was being totally unreasonable. The train guys were so nice and gave him so many chances to show his ticket but this guy was on drugs or something because he started to get violent for no reason. After that, he was kicked off the train. This was happening right in front of us and we were all trying not to stare but it was hard not to. Crazy people. Once we got to Boulder Beach, we saw dozens of mini penguins waddling around doing the most adorable things. Ryan, being the idiot that he is, decided it was a good idea to pet one and ended up getting bitten! It wasn’t a big deal though, it didn’t even break his skin. I am actually the only one of the group that didn’t touch one. I was too scared. But the penguins let you get really close to them so we took lots of pictures with them. I loved the penguins. After our visit to the penguins, we ate dinner at an amazing restaurant in town. We were so starving we had appetizers, desert, and Ryan even had two entrees! Our waiter was really funny to because he was kind of making fun of us. Someone ordered a shake and he said, “should I just bring one out for everyone?” and we were like, why not? So he brought out four. It was fun. Afterwards, we went back to Cape Town on the train before going out for the night. We went to this cute little lounge that had a band playing. Future SASers need to go here, it was called Alba and it’s only a five minute walk from the ship. It has floor to ceiling windows with a beautiful view of the waterfront and our ship. We all had a great time.
Day 4:
I was really excited today because I had as SAS trip to Bo Kaap for a cooking lesson. Ryan didn’t get the trip until the last minute so I was happy because it was our 2 ½ year anniversary. Anyway, Bo Kaap is Cape Town’s Muslim area. We were taken to a museum to learn about the history of Bo Kaap. It was really interesting because we learned about festivals specific to the area that had influences from Carnaval. We saw photos from everyday life to wedding ceremonies and places of worship. We also saw some artwork. Next, we were taken to a spice shop where we learned the typical spices used in Cape Malay cooking as well as some of the ingredients. This shop even had frankincense and myrrh like in the Bible! I bough this really good trail mix kind of thing but it was spicy and really good, I wish I would have bought more. After this, we were taken to a local woman’s house for lunch. Her name was Sooray, she was so nice and her house was beautiful. First she served us a welcome drink made from rose water and tapioca I think, it was really good. Next, we were each given a strip of filo dough and taught how to fold somosas. She fried these up along with some pakoras that were so yummy. The next part was my favorite; we rolled out dough to make Indian bread, roti. It is very similar to naan. We were also taught what spices to put into a curry dish. Sooray made chicken curry though. Ryan said it was different from Indian food but still really good. I had something similar to a quesadilla made with two pieces of roti bread with cheese in the middle. Sooray told me her daughters eat them with a certain sauce but she was afraid it would burn me. After Ryan told her that I pour hot sauce all over my food on the ship, she gave me some. It was really good and really garlicky, my favorite! While we were eating, Sooray told us some of the traditions in her town. Her daughter is engaged and since it was the groom’s family that threw the wedding, Sooray held the engagement party. She also talked about how many children inherited their parents’ cute, colorful houses in Bo Kaap and selling them for money that is usually gone within a few years. As a result, Bo Kaap is becoming less and less Muslim. After saying goodbye, we left to go back to the ship.
Ryan and I decided that this was the only day we could hike Table Mountain, so we bought the makings for a picnic and we were off. We went to a tourist information center and asked what times the cable cars went up and down. The last one was scheduled to leave at 7:30 pm (key point). Our taxi driver dropped us off at one of the easiest trails that he said we would have no problem finishing in time. It was 5 pm when we started hiking and we were off to a good start. Let me tell you this was one of the hardest things I’ve done in my life! Some parts were fairly easy but a good portion of the hike was climbing huge rocks. I took many breaks but towards the end we were just trying to make it on time so we could catch the cable car down. That was the hard part. I was seriously thinking we weren’t going to make it to the top and I was picking out good places to spend the night. And then, on top of it all, it started to sprinkle. It was already freezing cold and now it was beginning to rain, I was not happy. After about two hours, we reached the top. I was so relieved we weren’t going to have to stay the night you don’t even know. However, we soon realized everything was shut down. All the restaurants and restrooms were closed not to mention the cable car wasn’t running. I didn’t even know what to do. We had no time to think and we had to start climbing down because the sun was about to set and we were warned about how dangerous it was to hike the mountain at night. It was just our luck that the sun was setting on the other side of the mountain so we had almost no light anyway and the majority of our hike down it was pitch black. This might make a good story now but at the time I was scared out of my mind and I thought we were going to die. This may sound funny but I was crying at some points. Needless to say we made it down safely and I was ready to kiss the ground. (I didn’t though). We soon realized we had another problem. Although we had hiked down, there were still another few miles of road to make it to the base of the mountain. No cars came up that late much less taxis. So we just started to walk down. The one car we did see was stopped taking pictures of the view with a tripod. We talked to these people and they turned out to be students from a film university. They offered to rake us down the mountain when they were finished. They dropped us off at this restaurant that was pretty good and we had them call us a cab to take us back to the ship. It had been a pretty long day so we decided to call it a night.
Day 5:
I woke up thinking we had our township tour so we got ready to go. It turned out that the tour was the next day so instead we made plans to go to the winelands. Another couple, Princess and Carl, wanted to come with us so we hired a driver to take us to the winelands and also a restaurant in the treetops that was supposed to be really cool. The driver we hired was Wolf, the same guy that took us to the safari. His car fit 8 people so we found Renee, Roberto, Eric, and Hunter to go with us to lower the price. The winelands were about 45 minutes away but the drive was so beautiful. The first place we went to was my favorite. It was in the town of Stellenbosch and it was so pretty. There were trees everywhere surrounding a lake and we were taken into a beautiful white building for the actual tasting. We all sat around a wooden table and were given a list of the wines they had and we were to choose six that we wanted to try. Princess immediately asked for the sweetest wine and I loved it! It tasted just like grape juice! I wrote down the name of it! The other ones I ordered were good also. I wanted to buy some, especially a bottle of merlot to take home for Mami. I was so sad we weren’t allowed to bring any on the ship. Some people, not from our group, shipped some home but it was too expensive and many of these wines are available in the states anyway. We also ordered cheese and crackers with our wine, it was so much fun! Not to mention that it was about a total of six bucks for all the wine and cheese, pretty cool. The second place we went to was more formal. We were all given the same wines and we stood instead of sitting. We were told about each wine. Our last was their award winning merlot blend that I didn’t think was anything special. This place was nice but I definitely enjoyed the first place more. After this, we went into the town of Stellenbosch to a coffee shop to hang out before our reservations at Molo, the restaurant I was talking about earlier. The town was so awesome. It is the second oldest town in South Africa, after Cape Town, and the buildings were beautiful and there were little shops up and down the street. This is where I bought my favorite purchase of the entire trip. Now I had heard about these giraffes from previous voyages and I had seen them all around Cape Town but they were pretty expensive. Here, I found one that I loved for about 50 US dollars. My giraffe is taller than I am with a reddish color and he is so cute. The people at the store were so nice. There was a woman who we exchanged emails with and wanted us to come back she was really nice. She gave Ryan, Renee and I each a little gift from the store. The guy in the store fixed my giraffe for me and I was so happy when I bought it. I put it in the back of the van to take back to the ship. We then went to Molo for dinner. This restaurant was probably the most beautiful restaurant I’d ever seen. Everything was outside and tents were covering the eating area. There were performers and waterfalls. It was amazing. I’m thinking oh no this is going to be expensive but it wasn’t bad and it was totally worth it. We even treated our driver to dinner. For future SASers, you need to call up Wolf, he is amazing! He is actually an actor as well and was in Blood Diamond. He has a big movie coming out that I can’t wait to see! Anyway, there was an awesome buffet with lots of vegetarian food. And the desert was to die for! I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this local desert called malva pudding but it is great! I’m going to learn how to make it at home. I didn’t even tell you the best part! So since this place was outside and South Africa gets pretty cold at night, they put blankets on each chair! It was perfect! I had such a wonderful time at Molo. This was probably my favorite day in South Africa.
Day 6:
Today was our township visit that was supposed to last all day. It was described as a visit, service project, and African dinner experience. Pretty exciting. The program was through this Christian organization called Africa Jam. Our guide met us by our ship and took us all to the Khayelitsha township. Along the way he explained to us that the apartheid still had effects on the communities in South Africa. During the apartheid, people were put into three categories. Whites, coloureds, and blacks. The coloured people were pretty much everything else and people of mixed races. The coloureds more closely resembled the whites so they were given more privileges. I was told that both Ryan and I would have been considered coloured. During this time, tests would be done to tell if someone was black or coloured. If you had curled eyelashes or your hair was really springy or you had a wide nose, you were black. There were some that were able to pass. Once it was decided what category you were in, it was written on a card that you had to carry with you at all times. Anyway, the communities are still primarily of one race. The whites live in the rich areas while the blacks live in the townships. The coloureds live somewhere in between but still poor. Anyway, we were taken to a coloured community to eat a snack kind of like a sub sandwich that Ryan said was delicious. On our ride to Khayelitsha our guide told us more about his community. There are different tribes in the township that identify themselves by doing something to each member. For example some people make cuts in their faces and he had half his pinkie finger cut off. Also, in order to be considered a man in their community, they need to go through this few week process where they start out by circumcision. For the next few weeks you are to fend for yourself, not use any medication or communicate with anyone. Pretty intense. Anyway, we arrived at the township and we were introduced to kids that were going to take us around their homes. Ryan and I along with two other girls were taken around by a guy named Weja, and his friend Neo. They were really cool. Weja was teaching me to say things in Xhosa and I was teaching him to say things in Spanish. We went to Neo’s home to see his family and where he lived. They were really nice. He had a month old brother that I got to hold. He was adorable. It was so weird being in their house. They had 3 rooms, a kitchen, living room, and bedroom, and all were very tiny. The house was basically a shack made out of tin and cardboard. It’s really sad. The whole town is littered with trash everywhere. After our visit at their home, we were taken to a little store where we bought drinks, it was so hot out and I was dying of thirst. Ryan also had fatcake, which was thick, greasy, fluffy bread filled with liver. His words. Weja and Neo just let their wrappers fly into the wind when they were done. I guess they don’t even think twice about littering. Sanitation is a big problem here also. There’s a truck that comes around every 4 days to collect waste but often families don’t wait that long. They’ll just dump it out somewhere. When you think about it, waste can pile up pretty quickly with a big family in a small space. Anyway, we met back with the whole group and did some acting exercises. All I have to say is that these kids are very talented. We got a lot of stuff on video so I’ll show you all when we get back. We also had to do some acting; we got into pairs and made fun of our guides in a friendly way. After this we said our goodbyes and took plenty of pictures. I forgot to mention that everytime we went outside the little kids would run up to us and hug us. They were so adorable. They wanted us to take pictures of them. This is where I wish I had my Polaroid camera. Next was our African dinner experience. I had no idea what to expect and I was completely blown away. We were taken to thi really nice house on the shore where there was a live band playing awesome music. It was Africa Jam’s band and many of the songs were written by people involved with the organization. Our little part would have been illegal 15 years ago because there were whites, blacks, and coloureds together. I could write for pages about this day but I need to stop here. Overall, seeing the townships was amazing.
Day 7:
Today was left open to shopping. It was great. We went to a little market where we got a couple of souvenirs. I’m actually most excited about something I got Titi Yvonne because she collects these. Anyway, we didn’t find a whole lot here so we went to the mall. This mall is huge. One guy said it was the largest in Africa but I’m not sure about this. Many of the stores were expensive but I found a few where our dollar went pretty far. I got a pair of jeans for like six bucks. We ate dinner at this garlic lover’s restaurant, it was wonderful. The mall was fun. I had my veggie platter from the Mexican restaurant one last time before we had to be on the ship. I even ordered malva pudding for desert and ate it in line. We made it on the ship with plenty of time and I was sad to leave South Africa. : (
I had a wonderful time in South Africa. It was totally not what I expected because it was very westernized. I didn’t feel like I was in Africa at all except maybe on the safari. It could have been California. I know that you will all love South Africa if you come. There is just so much to do. I was here seven days and was constantly on the go and I still feel like I didn’t do everything I wanted. I know that I will come back here someday. Everyone wants to. Some of my friends have already made plans to come in January and work with Africa Jam. Cape Town was awesome.
I, along with the rest of the ship, was really excited for South Africa. This is the port that many people were looking forward to the most. The only thing I had planned for South Africa before I arrived was a one day safari and a township visit. The rest of the days I had sort of tentative “we’ll see what happens” kind of plans.
Day 1:
We arrived in South Africa with a beautiful view of Table Mountain. Many people had risen for the sunrise as we pulled in to port but I needed the extra sleep. My idiot self stayed up till 4 doing absolutely nothing but talking in the hallways. To say the least I was pretty exhausted. Anyway, the only thing Ryan and I were going to do was to explore the city and maybe get some definite plans down. Of course all this changed when some friends of ours told us they were going sky diving. Ryan talked me into tagging along to see if there was room for two more. We doubted they were going to say no to more money. Of course there was room for us and the whole drive down there I was trying not to think that I was about to jump out of a plane. When we arrived, everything moved so fast. (On a normal day, each instructor will make 3 or 4 jumps. While SAS is in town, there will be 15 to 20 jumps made per day. Needless to say they are pretty busy) After putting on harnesses and signing our lives away it was time to go. Ryan and I decided to go separately so after saying goodbye, he was up first. I was hoping to see him come down but it was my turn to go before he even landed. Sammy, Jenny, and I went together and crammed into a plane tinier than the one from Puerto Rico. It was about a twenty minute flight up with beautiful views of table mountain, Robben Island, and the gorgeous beaches. The funny thing was I wasn’t very nervous because the guy I was about to be strapped to was twice my age and hitting on me so I was a little worried about that. Anyway, we reached 9,000 feet and the door to the plane opened. I watched Jenny fly out of the plane and then it was my turn. I was strapped to the front of the guy so I was hanging out of the plane for a few seconds before he actually jumped. At this point, I was thinking wow, this is so unbelievably beautiful. I wasn’t even nervous. I used to get more nervous for cheerleading competitions! It’s really pointless to be nervous because you have no choice anymore, you will be jumping out of the plane regardless. So we finally flew out of the plane and there was that initial feeling of butterflies but that faded pretty quickly. The free fall was amazing. For thirty seconds I was falling to the ground at incredible speeds. I never had that feeling that the parachute wasn’t going to open. I just admired the view. Once the parachute was pulled, I was able to steer and do spirals and turns which were pretty awesome. After about five minutes in the parachute, we prepared to land. I was told nothing but, “lift your knees.” We were about to land and I could see Ryan on the ground yelling to me so I knew we both made it safe. Skydiving was so cool. After our whole group had jumped, we traveled back to the waterfront to eat lunch. By the way, South Africa has amazing vegetarian food but more on that later. We ate an amazing lunch which turned out to be pretty cheap since our dollar goes a long way against the rand. Ryan had an ostrich burger! After lunch, we shopped around until heading back to the ship.
Day 2:
Jenny, Julie, Zeona, Ceara, Ryan, and I woke up before dawn to go on a day safari at the Aquila game reserve. By the way, our driver’s name was Wolf, he was awesome. Upon arrival, we were greeted by a delicious buffet breakfast and champagne. The reserve was beautiful. It was decorated just like you would picture it would be. Wooden lodges with animal prints and everything. So cute. After breakfast, we were off on our safari. Half of us went on horses and half of us did quads since some quads were having mechanical problems. Ryan and I were on quads and we had so much fun doing doughnuts and jumps. Well, Ryan did the jumps. On our game drive we saw giraffe, antelope, buffalo, rhino, and elephant among others. They were so close to us! We saw hippos in the water cooling off and buffalo running around. I loved all the animals. But we still hadn’t seen the lions! We had to change vehicles in order to see them. They were in their own little area. I saw one male and one female lion. They were just chillin’ and didn’t do anything when they saw us. It was perfectly normal. David, you would have loved the lions. Anyway, when we returned to the site we were able to pet cheetahs! They were so cute! Apparently cheetahs are the only large cat that can be tamed. They were just like large house cats. After we were finished petting the cheetahs, we had a wonderful buffet lunch and swimming in the pool, before we headed back to Cape Town. When we got back, we went to this Mexican restaurant that became SASers’ hangout for our entire stay. It has better Mexican food than what I’ve had in Mexico! I went back to this place several times during my stay. I had an awesome vegetarian platter with giant nachos, mini burritos, rice and beans, yummy veggies; it was the best food ever! After our snack, we went to Long Street since it was Cape Town’s annual festival and it was the place to be in the evening. I was a little bummed out since it was pouring rain but we had fun nonetheless. Before we left, we made plans with Tiffany and Ana to go see the penguins the next day. Exciting!
Day 3:
In order to visit the penguins, we took a bus to a train to a taxi. It was much cheaper this way. The train ride was entertaining because while the guy was going around checking tickets, one guy didn’t have one. He was a white local that was sleeping on the train and he was being totally unreasonable. The train guys were so nice and gave him so many chances to show his ticket but this guy was on drugs or something because he started to get violent for no reason. After that, he was kicked off the train. This was happening right in front of us and we were all trying not to stare but it was hard not to. Crazy people. Once we got to Boulder Beach, we saw dozens of mini penguins waddling around doing the most adorable things. Ryan, being the idiot that he is, decided it was a good idea to pet one and ended up getting bitten! It wasn’t a big deal though, it didn’t even break his skin. I am actually the only one of the group that didn’t touch one. I was too scared. But the penguins let you get really close to them so we took lots of pictures with them. I loved the penguins. After our visit to the penguins, we ate dinner at an amazing restaurant in town. We were so starving we had appetizers, desert, and Ryan even had two entrees! Our waiter was really funny to because he was kind of making fun of us. Someone ordered a shake and he said, “should I just bring one out for everyone?” and we were like, why not? So he brought out four. It was fun. Afterwards, we went back to Cape Town on the train before going out for the night. We went to this cute little lounge that had a band playing. Future SASers need to go here, it was called Alba and it’s only a five minute walk from the ship. It has floor to ceiling windows with a beautiful view of the waterfront and our ship. We all had a great time.
Day 4:
I was really excited today because I had as SAS trip to Bo Kaap for a cooking lesson. Ryan didn’t get the trip until the last minute so I was happy because it was our 2 ½ year anniversary. Anyway, Bo Kaap is Cape Town’s Muslim area. We were taken to a museum to learn about the history of Bo Kaap. It was really interesting because we learned about festivals specific to the area that had influences from Carnaval. We saw photos from everyday life to wedding ceremonies and places of worship. We also saw some artwork. Next, we were taken to a spice shop where we learned the typical spices used in Cape Malay cooking as well as some of the ingredients. This shop even had frankincense and myrrh like in the Bible! I bough this really good trail mix kind of thing but it was spicy and really good, I wish I would have bought more. After this, we were taken to a local woman’s house for lunch. Her name was Sooray, she was so nice and her house was beautiful. First she served us a welcome drink made from rose water and tapioca I think, it was really good. Next, we were each given a strip of filo dough and taught how to fold somosas. She fried these up along with some pakoras that were so yummy. The next part was my favorite; we rolled out dough to make Indian bread, roti. It is very similar to naan. We were also taught what spices to put into a curry dish. Sooray made chicken curry though. Ryan said it was different from Indian food but still really good. I had something similar to a quesadilla made with two pieces of roti bread with cheese in the middle. Sooray told me her daughters eat them with a certain sauce but she was afraid it would burn me. After Ryan told her that I pour hot sauce all over my food on the ship, she gave me some. It was really good and really garlicky, my favorite! While we were eating, Sooray told us some of the traditions in her town. Her daughter is engaged and since it was the groom’s family that threw the wedding, Sooray held the engagement party. She also talked about how many children inherited their parents’ cute, colorful houses in Bo Kaap and selling them for money that is usually gone within a few years. As a result, Bo Kaap is becoming less and less Muslim. After saying goodbye, we left to go back to the ship.
Ryan and I decided that this was the only day we could hike Table Mountain, so we bought the makings for a picnic and we were off. We went to a tourist information center and asked what times the cable cars went up and down. The last one was scheduled to leave at 7:30 pm (key point). Our taxi driver dropped us off at one of the easiest trails that he said we would have no problem finishing in time. It was 5 pm when we started hiking and we were off to a good start. Let me tell you this was one of the hardest things I’ve done in my life! Some parts were fairly easy but a good portion of the hike was climbing huge rocks. I took many breaks but towards the end we were just trying to make it on time so we could catch the cable car down. That was the hard part. I was seriously thinking we weren’t going to make it to the top and I was picking out good places to spend the night. And then, on top of it all, it started to sprinkle. It was already freezing cold and now it was beginning to rain, I was not happy. After about two hours, we reached the top. I was so relieved we weren’t going to have to stay the night you don’t even know. However, we soon realized everything was shut down. All the restaurants and restrooms were closed not to mention the cable car wasn’t running. I didn’t even know what to do. We had no time to think and we had to start climbing down because the sun was about to set and we were warned about how dangerous it was to hike the mountain at night. It was just our luck that the sun was setting on the other side of the mountain so we had almost no light anyway and the majority of our hike down it was pitch black. This might make a good story now but at the time I was scared out of my mind and I thought we were going to die. This may sound funny but I was crying at some points. Needless to say we made it down safely and I was ready to kiss the ground. (I didn’t though). We soon realized we had another problem. Although we had hiked down, there were still another few miles of road to make it to the base of the mountain. No cars came up that late much less taxis. So we just started to walk down. The one car we did see was stopped taking pictures of the view with a tripod. We talked to these people and they turned out to be students from a film university. They offered to rake us down the mountain when they were finished. They dropped us off at this restaurant that was pretty good and we had them call us a cab to take us back to the ship. It had been a pretty long day so we decided to call it a night.
Day 5:
I woke up thinking we had our township tour so we got ready to go. It turned out that the tour was the next day so instead we made plans to go to the winelands. Another couple, Princess and Carl, wanted to come with us so we hired a driver to take us to the winelands and also a restaurant in the treetops that was supposed to be really cool. The driver we hired was Wolf, the same guy that took us to the safari. His car fit 8 people so we found Renee, Roberto, Eric, and Hunter to go with us to lower the price. The winelands were about 45 minutes away but the drive was so beautiful. The first place we went to was my favorite. It was in the town of Stellenbosch and it was so pretty. There were trees everywhere surrounding a lake and we were taken into a beautiful white building for the actual tasting. We all sat around a wooden table and were given a list of the wines they had and we were to choose six that we wanted to try. Princess immediately asked for the sweetest wine and I loved it! It tasted just like grape juice! I wrote down the name of it! The other ones I ordered were good also. I wanted to buy some, especially a bottle of merlot to take home for Mami. I was so sad we weren’t allowed to bring any on the ship. Some people, not from our group, shipped some home but it was too expensive and many of these wines are available in the states anyway. We also ordered cheese and crackers with our wine, it was so much fun! Not to mention that it was about a total of six bucks for all the wine and cheese, pretty cool. The second place we went to was more formal. We were all given the same wines and we stood instead of sitting. We were told about each wine. Our last was their award winning merlot blend that I didn’t think was anything special. This place was nice but I definitely enjoyed the first place more. After this, we went into the town of Stellenbosch to a coffee shop to hang out before our reservations at Molo, the restaurant I was talking about earlier. The town was so awesome. It is the second oldest town in South Africa, after Cape Town, and the buildings were beautiful and there were little shops up and down the street. This is where I bought my favorite purchase of the entire trip. Now I had heard about these giraffes from previous voyages and I had seen them all around Cape Town but they were pretty expensive. Here, I found one that I loved for about 50 US dollars. My giraffe is taller than I am with a reddish color and he is so cute. The people at the store were so nice. There was a woman who we exchanged emails with and wanted us to come back she was really nice. She gave Ryan, Renee and I each a little gift from the store. The guy in the store fixed my giraffe for me and I was so happy when I bought it. I put it in the back of the van to take back to the ship. We then went to Molo for dinner. This restaurant was probably the most beautiful restaurant I’d ever seen. Everything was outside and tents were covering the eating area. There were performers and waterfalls. It was amazing. I’m thinking oh no this is going to be expensive but it wasn’t bad and it was totally worth it. We even treated our driver to dinner. For future SASers, you need to call up Wolf, he is amazing! He is actually an actor as well and was in Blood Diamond. He has a big movie coming out that I can’t wait to see! Anyway, there was an awesome buffet with lots of vegetarian food. And the desert was to die for! I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this local desert called malva pudding but it is great! I’m going to learn how to make it at home. I didn’t even tell you the best part! So since this place was outside and South Africa gets pretty cold at night, they put blankets on each chair! It was perfect! I had such a wonderful time at Molo. This was probably my favorite day in South Africa.
Day 6:
Today was our township visit that was supposed to last all day. It was described as a visit, service project, and African dinner experience. Pretty exciting. The program was through this Christian organization called Africa Jam. Our guide met us by our ship and took us all to the Khayelitsha township. Along the way he explained to us that the apartheid still had effects on the communities in South Africa. During the apartheid, people were put into three categories. Whites, coloureds, and blacks. The coloured people were pretty much everything else and people of mixed races. The coloureds more closely resembled the whites so they were given more privileges. I was told that both Ryan and I would have been considered coloured. During this time, tests would be done to tell if someone was black or coloured. If you had curled eyelashes or your hair was really springy or you had a wide nose, you were black. There were some that were able to pass. Once it was decided what category you were in, it was written on a card that you had to carry with you at all times. Anyway, the communities are still primarily of one race. The whites live in the rich areas while the blacks live in the townships. The coloureds live somewhere in between but still poor. Anyway, we were taken to a coloured community to eat a snack kind of like a sub sandwich that Ryan said was delicious. On our ride to Khayelitsha our guide told us more about his community. There are different tribes in the township that identify themselves by doing something to each member. For example some people make cuts in their faces and he had half his pinkie finger cut off. Also, in order to be considered a man in their community, they need to go through this few week process where they start out by circumcision. For the next few weeks you are to fend for yourself, not use any medication or communicate with anyone. Pretty intense. Anyway, we arrived at the township and we were introduced to kids that were going to take us around their homes. Ryan and I along with two other girls were taken around by a guy named Weja, and his friend Neo. They were really cool. Weja was teaching me to say things in Xhosa and I was teaching him to say things in Spanish. We went to Neo’s home to see his family and where he lived. They were really nice. He had a month old brother that I got to hold. He was adorable. It was so weird being in their house. They had 3 rooms, a kitchen, living room, and bedroom, and all were very tiny. The house was basically a shack made out of tin and cardboard. It’s really sad. The whole town is littered with trash everywhere. After our visit at their home, we were taken to a little store where we bought drinks, it was so hot out and I was dying of thirst. Ryan also had fatcake, which was thick, greasy, fluffy bread filled with liver. His words. Weja and Neo just let their wrappers fly into the wind when they were done. I guess they don’t even think twice about littering. Sanitation is a big problem here also. There’s a truck that comes around every 4 days to collect waste but often families don’t wait that long. They’ll just dump it out somewhere. When you think about it, waste can pile up pretty quickly with a big family in a small space. Anyway, we met back with the whole group and did some acting exercises. All I have to say is that these kids are very talented. We got a lot of stuff on video so I’ll show you all when we get back. We also had to do some acting; we got into pairs and made fun of our guides in a friendly way. After this we said our goodbyes and took plenty of pictures. I forgot to mention that everytime we went outside the little kids would run up to us and hug us. They were so adorable. They wanted us to take pictures of them. This is where I wish I had my Polaroid camera. Next was our African dinner experience. I had no idea what to expect and I was completely blown away. We were taken to thi really nice house on the shore where there was a live band playing awesome music. It was Africa Jam’s band and many of the songs were written by people involved with the organization. Our little part would have been illegal 15 years ago because there were whites, blacks, and coloureds together. I could write for pages about this day but I need to stop here. Overall, seeing the townships was amazing.
Day 7:
Today was left open to shopping. It was great. We went to a little market where we got a couple of souvenirs. I’m actually most excited about something I got Titi Yvonne because she collects these. Anyway, we didn’t find a whole lot here so we went to the mall. This mall is huge. One guy said it was the largest in Africa but I’m not sure about this. Many of the stores were expensive but I found a few where our dollar went pretty far. I got a pair of jeans for like six bucks. We ate dinner at this garlic lover’s restaurant, it was wonderful. The mall was fun. I had my veggie platter from the Mexican restaurant one last time before we had to be on the ship. I even ordered malva pudding for desert and ate it in line. We made it on the ship with plenty of time and I was sad to leave South Africa. : (
I had a wonderful time in South Africa. It was totally not what I expected because it was very westernized. I didn’t feel like I was in Africa at all except maybe on the safari. It could have been California. I know that you will all love South Africa if you come. There is just so much to do. I was here seven days and was constantly on the go and I still feel like I didn’t do everything I wanted. I know that I will come back here someday. Everyone wants to. Some of my friends have already made plans to come in January and work with Africa Jam. Cape Town was awesome.
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