South Africa... the best

Port #4: Cape Town, South Africa.
While this was out longest stop yet, with 6 days and 5 nights, it was still not even nearly enough time to do all that South Africa has to offer. It was the nicest port we have been visited so far, as far as the actual docking location goes. We could walk off the ship and right along the waterfront was tons of restaurants, shops, and even a mall. It was so nice to be able to walk around and not worry about taking a cab everywhere that we wanted to go. It was absolutely beautiful there, and I have already decided that it is a place that I must go back to visit because there is still so much that I want to do and see.

The first day we spent there was basically a day of getting to know the waterfront area. And by this I mean the mall. You can’t blame me; it’s the first shopping center I’ve seen in over a month. They didn’t have many American stores but it was still pretty to cool to walk around all the shops, it is the largest mall on the continent of Africa. That night we treated ourselves to a good dinner and went out to a popular area along Long Street in the downtown area of Cape Town. It was neat to be in an actual modernized city because aside from Spain, which still looked different and older, we haven’t really been able to experience one. It was a lot of fun, but I’ll spare you all of those details.

The following morning we woke up relatively early and took a cab to the base of Table Mountain. I was in a group of about 10 people and when looking up from the bottom, I wasn’t so sure if we were all going to make it ha. After all, we did have a pretty late first night Cape Town, but after 2 hours of climbing each one of us made it to the very top. (Yours truly being the third person and first girl to reach the top, thank you very much.) It was such a cool hike because you could see all of Cape Town; it was beautiful seeing the whole city right along the water. It definitely was no walk in the park though. Later, we went about our night just as we did before… dinner and then out to some place within the downtown area or at port. The restaurant we went to on this particular night was fantastic, great sushi, sooo we went back later in the week… I think the manager enjoyed our company (or our business) seeing as how he made sure we got the table we wanted for our second visit ha.

On our third day I went… wait for it… shark diving. Yes. That is correct. I, Alex Bozich, was lowered into the ocean in a cage so that I could observe Great White Sharks. I did this with 10 other friends, and then there were a few other people who we didn’t know on our trip doing it as well. We were lowered into the water with 3 other people, and the cage was attached to the side of the ship at all times. About ¾ of it is under water with the other ¼ above it. They gave us full body wetsuits and face masks and you would literally just stand with your feet on this bar in the cage and hold on to the top with your head above the water, then when the bait attracted a shark and it was close enough the guides would yell “down” and you would submerge yourself under the water to see it. They were anywhere from 15-20 feet long. Throughout the course of the day, 8 different sharks approached our ship. I was in the last group to go and we had about 30 minutes in the cage. The sharks would always be within distance for me to touch them, of course you don’t ha, but they were that close. The tail would bang into the cage and they would hit their faces into it when they were trying to fight for the bait. It was probably the craziest, but coolest, thing that I have ever done. You don’t even feel scared when you are in the cage because it’s such a surreal situation, and yes, I did feel safe. (Well as safe as one can feel when a 20 foot shark is staring you in the eyes and you can see halfway down its throat.) It was a very neat experience, especially considering Great White Sharks are nearing extinction, so who knows when another opportunity like this would arise for me. Sorry, I didn’t listen to you this time, Mom J

The fourth day I went sand boarding with a group of friends, which is essentially just snowboarding but on sand dunes. It was a 45 min drive from the port but it was neat because we drove along the coast the entire time and got to see other parts of Cape Town. The dunes were really cool, the sand was super white and when you were on top of the dunes you could see over to the water. I managed to make it down the dunes just fine; I think I only ate sand about 2 times. Which isn’t so bad considering my last snowboarding experience was when I was like 10 years old and I took a lesson with my dad. (Yeah, that one went REAL well….) We then went to lunch at our tour guides favorite place along the water. It was nice to hang out with a local from the area and he told us of a few other spots to visit. So, that night for dinner we ventured out of port and headed to an area called Camps Bay, about 15 minutes away. It has a cool strip of restaurants right along the water. After dinner we ended up at a place that is known for karaoke, and it was jam packed, lots of fun though. The list was full by the time we got there, so I was not able to fully display my vocal talents for everyone. (JOKE.) I did, however, make a guest appearance on stage with some friends to sing to the chorus of Wonderwall by Oasis. Quite the 90s classic if I do say so myself.

On our fifth morning we headed about 2 hours away to go on a safari. Many of the locals that we talked to said that the best safaris are much farther away, but with our time restriction this was the best that we could do. It was still very neat and we saw tons of animals including elephants, ostriches, hippos, all kinds of birds, alligators, and plenty of others. There were lions too, but they were in their separate fenced off area… which kind of gave this safari a more “touristy” aspect. Still, it was very worth it… because fenced in or not that’s probably as close as many of us will ever get to some of those animals. On our way back we made a stop at Boulders Beach, which is a very popular spot because of the penguin colonies that live there. Penguins on the beach? Yeah, it was a little strange to see. It was pretty awesome though, they were very cute. That night we headed back to the restaurant I mentioned earlier, sushi is a weakness of mine. Clearly it is for many of my friends as well. It was just as good as the first night, and we then headed to Long Street again for our last night in Cape Town. It was a really fun time. (Bet that’s hard to imagine…)

On my last day in Cape Town I went on a Semester at Sea trip called Operation Hunger. Operation Hunger’s mission statement is as follows: To create partnerships between vulnerable households and caring people to combat malnutrition which, when suffered by children, undermines the nation’s health, education, and economic potential. As such, Operation Hunger concentrates its efforts in marginalized communities serving “the poorest of the poor”. We visited 2 different townships as well as a day care center where we would measure and weigh the children, and then mark their charts so their progress can be observed. We played with them and they would sing songs to us. We fed the children and the adults in one of the townships with some of the staff from Operation Hunger. It was such an awakening to see all of the kids waiting in line with their tiny plastic containers that they use to hold the food they’re given. We all brought extra fruit and candy to share with them. They loved having us around and would cling to us till the second that we left. You could tell that the parents were appreciative of our visit as well. After having such a fun time in Cape Town and going to such nice restaurants and shops, this trip brought me back to reality and reminded me of the tough times that South Africa dealt with in the past with Apartheid and is still dealing with today.

So… it looks like I have a new favorite country, yet again. South Africa is by far the best place that we have been to so far, and I would recommend visiting to anyone… do the fun and crazy things, but make sure to see the culture that the majority of the country experiences. It was pretty sad to be leaving, but now we have Mauritius to look forward to! Except, midterms come first. (I have class on the ship, remember?) Wish me luck! Talk to you all soon.
Love,
Alex