South Africa Part 3 - Final

This is the final part of my South Africa blog. It actually turned out shorter than I expected which surprises me because it was my favorite port. I’m sure no one will be writing me to complain though J
The next morning we decided to go wine tasting. We met a driver who someone had used the first day and the lady took us around the winelands to a few different places. We went to one vineyard that was a ritzy place and made me think I was in Spain or Italy. Not that I would know what Spain or Italy looks like, but this matched my mental image PERFECTLY. We tasted about 8 wines there and 3 chocolates. I do not really like wine so I was out of my element. Afterwards I can safely say I still don’t like wine. We left from there to a place where we could pet cheetahs. The most endangered cat on the planet, I got to pet one. It cost like 13 dollars of course, but I got pictures and forever will remember touching a cheetah. Good luck doing that in the US, it can’t be easy J
After that we went to another vineyard which was far more busy and more fun. This place had wine and cheese, so you get your wine and then go to this line that had like a dozen cheeses to try with it. I’m sure I did it wrong by eating way more cheese than I should, but like I said before, I don’t like wine. We had to leave after that, so we hopped back into the car and headed back to Cape Town. The driver dropped us off at a market where I got suckered into buying a painting like I usually do. They had an awesome T-Shirt there that I didn’t buy because it was 8 bucks. In hindsight I am a giant idiot. While 8 bucks is ridiculous for a shirt anywhere on our itinerary, now I don’t have a shirt from South Africa because of like 3 dollars. Oh well, you live you learn. We headed back to the ship and dropped off our stuff. The plan was to meet at 7:00 to head out that night. JulieAnne and I set off on a quest for internet which proved fruitless. The mall had hotspots that we couldn’t get to work, and the one that did work did so for all of 10 minutes. There was a restaurant nearby where people said the internet worked great, so we tried there too and it didn’t work for either of us. Oh well, at this rate no more pictures are going up until I get back to the US, but I keep trying!
We ate at a pizza place that was pretty good but there was a sad story. A guy was standing there watching us eat and he beckoned to my pizza asking for it. Unsure of what to do I said no, but realizing that I wasn’t going to eat it I left it there as we left, knowing full well he would take it. Sure enough, not 10 seconds after we got up, he was there eating it. It was sad because he was dressed fairly nicely, but was obviously living in hunger. It was extremely awkward though to have someone stare at you eating for 20 minutes. We headed back to the ship to meet up with everyone and set off for the casino!
The casino looked a lot like Vegas, it reminded me of Caesar’s Palace inside. We ate dinner, well I didn’t because I had pizza earlier, but I watched them eat. It took forever and finally at like 9:30 we went out to gamble. First I played slots with Lindsay and JulieAnne. I was betting the minimum on 5 lines whatever that means and the guy next to me kept telling me I wouldn’t win anything because I wasn’t betting enough. Not 3 minutes later I hit some triple jackpot thing and turned my 5 cents into more than 20 bucks. Feeling ambitious I started betting the maximum and lost pretty much all of it again but it was all in good fun. Afterwards JulieAnne went and passed out in the lounge area of exhaustion and Lindsay and I went to play blackjack. Rather I played and Lindsay watched. It was awesome though, I had 200 rand (26 bucks) to start out with, playing 50 rand a hand. I NEVER got below 200 rand. I won the first hand and from there won more than I lost. I walked away up something like 40 dollars. Not too bad. I’m now 2/2 leaving foreign casinos ahead.
We headed home at about midnight, or tried to at least. It took an hour to get a cab there. But regardless we made it home at 1 or so and I went straight to bed.
The next morning, our last in Cape Town, started fairly early. We went to Desmond Tutu’s church for the Easter service first thing in the morning. It was fundamentally a Catholic service and as such was definitely not up my alley. I’m glad I went though, the church was beautiful and even if Tutu wasn’t there, we were at his church while in South Africa on Easter. After church we met a couple friends from the ship and our driver from the wine tasting day with the goal of seeing Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope. We set off south, stopping at a few places to take pictures of the awesome coast line, before making it to Boulder Park. At Boulder Park there are hundreds of African Penguins that roam around and it was really cool to see. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like penguins, myself included, so I was quite excited to see them waddling around. We left there and got lunch nearby at a place that had the most delicious ice coffee in the world, and then set off to finish our drive to the Cape.
We got to the Cape, paid our entrance fees, and drove up to the top of Cape Point where we had about 45 minutes to hike up and down. There is a lighthouse at the top that overlooks the ocean at the southwestern most point of the African continent. The cliffs, ocean, and overall scenery were beautiful and I’m extremely glad we went. Afterwards we drove down to the Cape of Good Hope, which was in the same area, and took a picture next to the sign there. Time was starting to slip away so we jumped back in the car and told Ursula the driver to head straight back to the ship. The only eventful part of the ride back was seeing a baboon on the side of the road, other than that I pretty much dozed off. When we arrived at around 4, Lindsay, JulieAnne and I went to the Pick and Pay, a grocery store, to get snacks. I had 350 rand to spend, the equivalent of 40 some dollars, and definitely spent every dime of it on snacks. It was the Casino’s money anyways, I wasn’t meant to have it J We got back on the ship, grabbed dinner, and everyone was out by probably 9 pm at the latest.
The next morning we woke up surprised to see that we were still parked in Cape Town. Apparently the waves were too rocky and so we had to sit there until almost 5 the next day to leave. It really irritated me actually that we weren’t allowed to get off the night before for example. It is no fun to go to class with a port sitting there out your window and it would have been just terrific if they would have taken advantage of the situation. Oh well though, we are now on our way, the seas are fine and we are making good time on the way to Ghana. I don’t really have plans in Ghana other than to do Habitat for Humanity and I think visit an orphanage the last day. We will see what happens the other days.
Overall, South Africa was definitely my favorite port. The people were extremely friendly, it had adventure everywhere, and I had a lot of fun at every stop. Part of the reason I probably liked it so much is that it had all of the good parts of western living as well as all of the excitement of traveling. The areas we were in were definitely the most wealthy parts of South Africa and probably the whole continent, and I’m sure they aren’t representative of how the people of Africa really live. Ghana should be quite a shock in contrast. Everyone else I’ve talked to has said South Africa was their favorite port as well, I’m really glad everyone enjoyed it as much as I did.
The voyage is coming to an end and life on the ship is getting more and more boring. It is sad too to think that very shortly all of the good friends I have made here will be off in their corners of America while I will be at home in the center as far from them as I could possibly be. This has been such a great adventure and I don’t want it to end but I can feel it coming. Only two ports left, Ghana in 2 days. Even if it is coming to an end though I still love getting emails so hit me up!
Thomas

To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries.

-Aldous Huxley