Greetings,

One last post here to finish up my adventures during my Cape Town Trip, there is still plenty to talk about though.  We took a wine tour as a group on Wednesday.  The land is so beautiful.  All you see when gazing across the landscape is the rolling valleys that are filled with vines of grapes, all enclosed by humbling mountains.  We were able to tour a couple estates and learn about the process it takes to make the wines.  I must admit that I had no idea it took so long to make wine.  Depending on the type, it can take over a year and a half to put out a finished product.  Also, a wine tour would not be complete without a tasting as well, so we were able to try some of the different varieties.  My tastes for wine are very young, so many of the differences that the leaders spoke of were lost on me. 

On Thursday, many of us went to an aquarium on the waterfront to check out what it had to offer.  A few from the group, Matt, Liz, and Emily, are certified in scuba diving, so they were able to dive at the aquarium.  The tank they dove in was full of all kinds of sea water fish.  It had everything from colorful schools to giant sea turtles to sharks.  Yeah, sharks.  They were not an aggressive breed of sharks, but they looked intimidating and I can tell you that I would not jump in that tank. Water sports just aren’t my thing.  The tank had glass on about 75% of it, so we were able to watch them scavenge around the bottom in search of lost teeth and swim around the giant rays.  After that, we walked around on the waterfront to check out all the vibrant life that goes on around that part of town.

On Friday I, along with a few others, decided to explore the city a little bit.  We walked all around to check out the various areas of the city.  We checked out the different markets and street sellers that are everywhere in the city because you can do some great people watching and check out some really cool paintings and sculptures.  On Saturday, some of the group had left to take a slow route back to PE and make a stop or two at different cities on the way.  I stayed with a group and we spent the day checking out various museums throughout the city.  There are all kinds of museums that are dedicated to Apartheid, but also some other cool things.  One of those things is a castle that was built by the Dutch East India Company that first settled on the Cape.  We toured the castle and were able to watch a loud and impressive cannon demonstration in the process.  On Sunday, we went to Easter Mass in one of the churches in the city.  We ended up walking around the city and looking around the city one last time.  We ended up spending most of the day at the SA Science Museum and Planetarium where we checked out the different exhibits and watched a movie on 2012 while it was raining. 

Cape Town has a life of its own.  If you ask anybody that has been to SA, they will tell you to check out Cape Town.  If they know the country, they will also tell you that the city is not a representative of Africa.  That means that the city showed a very different aspect to what I have already seen.  The city is very diverse with large amounts of all kinds of races which is great, and gives it a great culture.  Some things I noticed was that the crime is definitely a step up from PE.  Port Elizabeth is known as the ‘friendly city,’ and it is a small city despite its large population.  While down the street from our backpacker to get some food, we would be hounded by beggars and dealers of all sorts of stuff.  We have maybe become a bit lax in PE because we know everywhere that is safe and have gotten better at fitting in.  In Cape Town, we had to take extra precautions to make sure that girls did not walk alone and keep an eye on our belongings at all times. 

The last few days of the trip were somewhat rough.  On Thursday, one of the girls on the trip found out that her dad had past.  My heart and prayers go out to her along with everyone else on the trip, and we all have done what we can to rally around her.  Over the weekend, another girl lost her grandfather.  This was also a tough blow, and I will not comment more because those situations are personal.  I cannot even imagine being in their positions and I hope they can find support in our group which has really become close throughout the trip and last week especially. 

That should cap everything up.  I know I probably missed some things, but I think I got most of the trip well covered.  If you have any questions, feel free to try and get a hold of me to ask.  Thanks for reading as always!

Cheers,

Bobby

View of Cape Town 

Chapman Bay in route to Cape Point