Kapstaad 2

Right, so now Im back from dinner, burned my tongue with a hot pizza, but was worth it. So back to business.

After a couple of days in Cape Town I decided to rent a car for a day and go to the famous Cape Wine region. This are located around Stellenbosch, the second european settlement in South Africa. Stellenbosch is also a school town, the university has around 20,000 students and most people here speak Afrikaans. The town itself is quite nice, lots of trees, small streets, dutch architecture. But the real nice are the scenaries around. The town and the vineyards are located in the Cape range, so you have huge mountains surrounding the place. There are lots of samlls towns and wineries around and the weather is very clear and nice, if a bit too hot for me.

The catch on this was the fact that south africans drive on the left side of the road and the steering wheel is on the right side of the car, so I had to do some adjusting to that. But I made it back alive! At night I took some guys from the hostel for a drive up Signal Hill, a small hill next to the city and then came back and had some beers.

Next morning me and the guys (Sarah from Ireland, Nick from South Africa and Charlie from England) went to the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront, a commercial point next to the ocean where the boats leave and with a bunch of stores and places to eat. At night we headed to Camps Bay with some more people, a more upmarket part of town, with lots of cafes and bars, next to the beach to watch a game a just hang around. It ended with a quick midnight ocean jump.


Finally today just went back to the waterfront for lunch and then i boarded a bot to go to Robben Island. This is the place where Mandela and many other political prisoners, including namibians, were held during appartheid. The island is about 11 kilometers from land and holds different prisions. It was here that the goverment decided to put the political prisoners so they would be isolated and wouldnt politize the common prisoners. The tour is conducted by former prisoners, whho relates their own stories and takes you ninto the cells, bathrooms and diferent areas of the museum. The museum was actually created by petition from the ex-prisoners so people could learn about it and that wont happen again. On the boat you get to see a lot of wildlife, since the cape is where the cold Benguela current and the hot Indian current meets, it has very varied wildlife, which I saw today in the form of seals, penguins and even whales!

SO for the next few day ill lose contact with the world since I star my 3 week camping tour across South Africa, Namibia and Botswana. WIll try to find a internet somewhere to post updates.

Kapstaad 1

So on Monday I got to Cape Town, coming from Joburg on a cheap flight. Got to the hostal, an amazing hostal, that just got voted the 3rd best in all of Africa. It has a pretty nice bar, so I had a few beers with some people i met there.

So, Cape Town is the oldest european settlement in South Africa, is a very nice nice, downtown you feel like youre in Europe, just with better weather, pretty clean and safe, next to the ocean and lots of things to see and do. Is also a very cosmopolitan city, it has lots of different races here, and in general they get along pretty well. But while the center is pretty nice, there are also a whole lot of townships, where you can see people is really poor, kinda the same in all of south africa. Is also the legislative capital of South Africa, meaning the parliament houses are here.

On the morning I met a danish guy and decided the walk all the way to the top of Table Mountain, 1056m above sea level (thats around 3000 feet). A pretty nice walk up, very steep toward the end, but the views are really breathtaking. Took us the best part of 5 hours to get there and back. Now Table Mountain is almost always covered in clouds, and the weather is pretty unpredictable up there, but we got lucky and did alright. When we got back I headed out to get my Namibian Visa done, since ill be there next week. At night we had a nice braai, kinda like a bbq, South African style, met a whole bunch of people and had a lot of food.

Next day I walked around the city, to see the sights, the oldest building in south africa, which happens to be a castle built by the dutch. I watched the change of guards, since the place is still the headquarters of some division of the army. Visited the old city hall, the botanical gardens, parliament and a bunch of other stuff around. And then I got to the district 6 museum.

District 6 was a neighbourhood where blacks, muslims, indians, etcv lived together and were forced out by the government so they could tear the houses down and make new houses for whites, however no whites went there to live. The museum shows more the family aspects of the area rather than the political aspect of it. Finally that day I went to the Bo Kaap, the muslim part of town, with small cobbled streets and very colourful buildings. Walked around for a while and eat some kind of malayan food, pretty tasty.

Ok, thats it for now, ill post the secoind part in a few hours, since theyre waiting for me so we can out for dinner and im starving. Later!

Amandla!

Hey, so after a few days I got back online. Right now Im in Cape Town, pretty hot, the hostal is amazing, but that will be another post. For now, I'll tell you about Johanesburg. Got to my hostel after about 30 hours of travel from Puebla. Plane got delayed in Atlanta and finally made it there. Got to the hostal and sleppt.

in the morning, after waking up at 4 beacuse of jet lag, I went to the Appartheid Museum, a very big museum about the history, reactions and consequences of apartheid, is very interesting if a bit long, but deffinitly worth it. SInce the beggining you can tell how they try to make points out of everything. Your ticket is a card that says either "White" or "Non White" and according to what it says you use a particular entrance. Some exhibitions are quite strong and get to you. Spent a few hours there, and went to a nearby mall so I could get something to eat. Afterwards went back to the hostel and took a nap that turned out to be 8hours long, so i woke up at 4:30 in the morning again.

This time some english guys came into the room around 9 and invited me to tag along with them to a driving tour of Joburg and to eat with a friend of theirs. Now, downtown Joburg is pretty dodgy, youre are not supposed to walk around it since is rather dangerous and you do get that feeling to a certain point. But then we got to the northern suburbs and they turned out to be quite nice, clean and green. City of big contrasts at this point. Not really a lot of stuff to do in here, but I can see where middle class people go and try to keep away from the dark areas.

Then they drove me to Soweto where I would stay a couple of nights. Soweto is short for South West Township, and it istarted as a squatter camp for black workers in Joburg, and then grew up to according to different people, from 2 to 5 million people. Is reputed to be very dangerous and depressing, but this is far from true. People who say that are just afraid of the looks of it and what they see from their big buses windows. Once in there everyone is extremely nice, everyone says hi to you, want to talk to you, is very nice.
The hostel i stayed in is runed by a local sowetan and is very nice and friendly, it has a backyard filled with sand where you can play pool, darts, foosball, drink a beer, relax at a hammock, etc. He makes tours around the township in a bike, which I couldnt do because he had a big group coming to do it, so I walked around to get to Nelson Mandela's House and Hector Pietersen's memorial and museum. Vilukazi Street, in Soweto, is the only street that housed 2 Nobel Peace Prize winners. Pietersons memorial is about the 1976 Soweto uprising where hundreds were killed by the Afrikaner police. Hector Pietersen, a 12 year old was the fisrt one killed. Is a very moving museum, that shows the reality of hardships in the townships and enfizices in International rejection to South Africa during the time.

Back at the hostel a group of kids came to play football for a while (thats soccer for the americans reading this), Lebo, the owner of the place, took a dump, got some people to help him clean it up and made a little park for kids to play and be healthy and keep them away from gangs. Then just played foosball and talked to locals for some hours before going to bed. I have to say that im deeple impressed by Soweto, people make it out to be a lawless place, where being white is a crime and nobody should go there. Granted, there are areas that are worse than others, but in general is a very safe place, very nice, where you can see the conditions in which the majority of south africans live. AN di deeply loved it

Today (Monday 25th) I took a shuttle to the airport, talking to the guy put in place of security in Soweto during the World Cup, since Soccer City stadium is in there. Then fle to Cape Town and got to the hostel, but i'll tell y'all about it later in another post.

Take care

Amandla! Awethu!

All set

H-Hour is here. Tomorrow is the big day. The bag is packed and all is good to go.

First stop: Johannesburgh. Will let you know how it all goes. For now, im getting some rest since I have a very long day tomorrow. Will be looking forward to hearing from you people and check ina few days for an update.

Adios

One week till departure

So after years of working, saving and
scraping for money, my trip to Southern Africa is good to go. Wednesday the 20th I'll be boarding the plane towards Atlanta and then connecting to Johannesburg. A bit worried about the security measures and making it on time since I only have an hour and 45 minutes to make the connection, but it should all come out right.

A bunch of people has asked me to keep them posted during the trip, but given the remote places and the limited access i'll have to the internet I thought it would be easier to just blog and should anyone be interested on checking on me needs just to read it.

I'll try to post as often as possible to let you know what stuff im into at the time.

See y'all