We flew from Mauritius to Cape Town, South Africa on Thursday March 17th (St. Patrick’s day). Cape Town is much nicer, modern and bigger than I expected. It is really nice. We have a hostel about .5 miles from an area called Victoria and Alfred water front. This water front area has a bunch of bars restaurants, shops and a huge fancy mall all built around a small dock. The water front area is packed with tourist and locals all night and day. The water front has an open amphitheater that plays various culture shows and there are loads of small and big musical groups and street performers. It feels very safe here in Cape Town. On the highway we have driven by the "townships", prostitutes and drug deals in the "bad" parts of town that appears similar to any big city in the USA.

On Thursday and Friday we walked around the city for about 10 miles each day seeing all the sites. Cape Town is surrounded by the Table mountain Park, which has very dramatic mountains and great scenery. The plants on Table Mountain Park are so unique that it is considered its own flora kingdom. It looks like a mix between alpine above tree line plants and desert plants. On Saturday we went to Cape of Good Hope nature reserve, which is also part of this same huge mountain range with beautiful beaches that meet the cliffs. We went mountain biking along on of the coastal cliff roads, it was such a great time. We saw a pack of about 6 wild baboons hanging out in the bushes, crossing the roads and even stealing part of our lunch. We also saw antelopes, ostriches, lizards and snakes.

Today we went to Robben Island where former president Nelson Mandela was held prisoner for 27 years. We did get a chance to go inside his tiny cell, what a very powerful tour. The tour starts out as a half hour boat ride, then a tour of the island where we saw penguins, and a rare bok (like an antelope) and then we saw the prison that held political prisoners from 1960 to 1991. All the tour guides are ex political prisoners.

We are eating very well and our rooms have all been very nice. We are heading east along the South African Coast called the Garden route tomorrow so I will post again when I can.



Journal Entry CapeTown Posted On: 3/20/2005