Day 1 February 24th: ARRIVE IN CAPE TOWN! Bridget and I woke up really early to get some breakfast and watch as we docked in Cape Town. We then had to go through our first immigration process and get our passports personally stamped. It took awhile and we finally got to get off the ship around 9:00 am. When we got off the ship we were at the Waterfront Mall and it was gorgeous! Very very wealthy people shop and eat there. There was an awesome view of Table Mountain and the soccer stadium they built for the World Cup. Bridget and I were excited to see an actual mall and not a market! We walked around the port for a while looking at all the cools shops and places to eat. Bridget went to Switzerland in high school with her mom and met a guy there, Sandro, and he had studied abroad previously in Cape Town. Sandro ended up coming down to Cape Town when we were there and set up a private wine tour with one of his friends, Cairo, from Cape Town. So we met them at this big red clock tower and had some ice coffee before we embarked on our wine journey! We first went to Fairview, which was beautiful! We tasted a lot of wine and got to do a cheese tasting as well and it was delicious. They had apricot feta cheese and I wish I could have brought a million pounds home with me it was so good. Mom you would have loved it! They also had this sweet chili and pepper dip for the brie that you would have liked Dad. My favorite wine was the Riesling, a white wine. We then went to The Spice Route, which was by far the prettiest one. It had the most amazing view. We tried another six wines there and they were my least favorite. We then went to Beyerskloof and had indeed some more wine. We also got to eat lunch when we did this tasting. I had a pinotage burger that was interesting. It had no top bun so you had to cut it with your fork and knife. It was good but a little to overdone for my liking. The onions on top of it were sautéed in the pinotage wine and definitely made the burger better. We headed back to where the ship was docked at around 4:00 and stopped at a local bar to listen to some live music and so Bridget could get some ice cream. The live music was interesting to say the least. It was a white guy that put on a hat with dreadlocks attached singing Bob Marley, bizarre. When we left the bar we heard some actual locals singing amazing acapella, the bar should hire them! Bridget and me went back to the ship and took a shower then went out to a bar called Bob's. It was on Longstreet which is where a tons of clubs, bars, shops, and restaurants are located. Bob's was really fun and we got to talk to a lot of local people that were there playing pool. We then tried to get into a top club called Tiger Tiger, but they were at capacity so we ended up at a gay bar, not knowing, and it ended up being really fun! The guys were so nice and I played foosball the majority of the night with them. On the way home we stopped at McDonalds….yes you heard me McDonalds. I do not even like McDonalds but we had to try it at least once in a different country. I am here to tell you it tastes the same except the menu is not as big as in the U.S and there is no dollar menu. I then went back onto the ship and slept well. The first day was a success!
Day 2 February 25th: I left for my Kariega Game Reserve Safari at about 6 in the morning. MY DREAM COME TRUE. I literally have wanted to go on an African safari ever since I watched the Lion King. I had the theme song playing on my ipod the whole way there. We had to take a one-hour flight to Port Elizabeth and then a two-hour bus ride to the game reserve. Once we got there we entered a large gate and on the road to the main lodge we saw a bunch of zebras and impalas. We got welcome drinks and checked into the lodge and went straight to lunch. THE FOOD WAS AMAZING. Words cannot describe how fresh and delicious the food was. It was served buffet style and they had fresh breads and cheese, a plethora of sandwiches, fresh squeezed juice, different types of meat, fresh fruit, and amazing desserts. I took a walk around the main lodge and they had a full bar, fireplace with couches, spa, and an infinity pool in the middle of the jungle. It was really beautiful. I then went to my room and it was quite a walk to get there. They had chalets (bungalow type rooms) so I stayed in a bungalow with three other girls. There were two bedrooms and I got to share a room with Bridget which was awesome because we had to share a king bed and it would have been awkward with someone I didn't know! The other two girls that were our roommates were really nice as well and I made some new friends. We unpacked our things and got picked up by a land cruiser jeep type vehicle that looked like a typical safari car. Our driver's name was Thomas and he was really nice and very knowledgeable about the land and all of the animals. We drove around for four hours and saw rhinos, elephants, lions, lionesses, hippos, ostriches, jackals, birds, monkeys, zebras, impalas, wildebeests, and some other antelope type animal that I can't remember the name. IT WAS SO COOL. The animals were so close to us and didn't even seem bothered that we were there. The lions were sleeping and didn't even look up at us when they heard our cruiser stop. Once I put pictures up of the rhinos you will be able to see that they don't have horns. The reserve cuts it off so that poachers don't kill them. They experience an extreme amount of poaching problems at night. It really saddened me to think of people killing such beautiful, harmless, and magnificent creatures for money. I cannot imagine killing any of the animals I saw through out my time on the safari. We got back to the main lodge around 8:00 and had the most amazing dinner. I had fish, veal, veggies, mushrooms, cheeses, potatoes, and rice. I had chocolate mousse and mango crème brulee. Then all of us (there were about 30 students) bought some wine and went to one person's bungalow and sat outside and looked at the stars. I wish I had a nice enough camera to capture what I was seeing. It was truly the most breath-taking thing I have ever seen. The sky was so clear that we could see Venus about the moon. Between the animals and the stars it was the most peaceful I have felt in a very long time. I happily fell into bed and was extremely excited to sleep in a bed where I have room to move around without kicking a wall and using an actual comforter and not some weird heavy green tarp they call a comforter on the ship. Amazing night of sleep!
Day 3 February 26th: Woke up bright and early for a morning game drive. We finally saw giraffes that were so pretty! They just stood there and stared at us and walked right near the car without a care in the world. Giraffes are bizarre but beautiful. We went to a different part of the reserve (it's huge) and saw different scenery with different groups of animals. We saw some rhinos sleeping and hippos actually sitting in the water. After the three-hour morning game drive we had an amazing breakfast and then had free time until about 4:00 in the evening. Me and Bridget walked around for a bit except in the restricted areas because they have hippos that walk close to the area and apparently hippos are extremely mean and you would want to be around an elephant or rhino instead. I didn't know that! At 2:30 we ate lunch then went on another game drive at 4:00 and it went until 8:00. It was the coolest one because we were out for the sunset, which was gorgeous, and then we got to drive around at night and it was such a different atmosphere than during the day. A giraffe was got so close to our car that you could have reached out to touch it. Wildebeest were running alongside our car for a while which was pretty cool as well. We got back in time for yet another amazing dinner. This dinner was the coolest because we went to a boma, which is an outdoor fire pit where they cook the food. It was amazing. The cooks were all so nice and made us try chicken liver, which was surprisingly good. It tasted like chicken but had a ground beef texture. The staff and cooks then came out and sang for us and played the drums around the fire. Very cool. Then Bridget and I went back to our bungalow and got to use the free wifi!! No one will ever understand the beauty of free wifi until they have been on semester at sea. One of the best things that happened on the whole safari was being able to skype with my mom, dad, and brother back in Naperville and my sister out in Denver. Amazing! I was so happy to get to see them and actually hear their voices for the first time since January. It made me so happy although it made me miss them a little more because I always tell my family the majority of things that go on in my life either through text, phone calls, or facebook and being on the best experience of my life and not getting to communicate with them as much or as efficiently is the hardest part! There is only so much I can convey through an email or a blog post. Hopefully I get free wifi in India and can skype with them again! Tim Drancik if you are reading this (which you better be) we will skype in India if I can :) I'm also so happy I got to talk to my friends from home on facebook. Even if it was just for a little but it was nice to talk to Charlie, Kaitlyn, Eva, Brionna, Caitlin, and Tim!! After some amazing Internet usage I fell fast asleep knowing it was the last night to sleep in the most comfortable bed ever.
Day 4 February 27th: Woke up bright and early yet again (I am not a morning person but might be one after this semester is over) we packed our bags, went to breakfast, and went on one last game drive. I was really happy with the amount of game drives we got to do while on the trip and the amount of amazing animals we got to see. I got to see the best lions on this last game drive and also the best giraffes. The giraffe was by the watering hole and seeing a giraffe trying to bend over to get water is quite funny. Apparently drinking water puts a lot of pressure on their brains so they can't drink for very long. We then went to the other side of the reserve, which is across the street. I kid you not when I say it is straight out of Jurassic Park how you get in. The first gate opens and you are confined in this area until it closes then the second gate opens to let you into the actual park. I took a video of it because it seriously reminded me of Jurassic Park ha! The lions we got to see were the last animals I saw and the most amazing! They are such beautiful animals and we got to get really close to them, which was so cool. The last lion we saw was called Big Papa because he is massive and the "leader" of the lions. I was actually kind of nervous around him because he was just staring straight into my soul and I thought he was going to pounce! But don't worry he didn't although our driver said afterwards he was a little nervous as well because these DUMB girls in our car kept standing up to take pictures. Standing up was the one thing our driver said not to do because it startles or makes the animals nervous and that's when they attack. Especially because one of the lions just had cubs so they are extra protective. After the game drive we got onto the bus back to the airport. Flying in African airports is amazing. The security process is so short and you don't have to take liquids out and put them in a bag or have them be a certain size, you don't have to take your shoes off, you don't have to take laptops out. Amazing! Although I'm sure they don't have terrorist threats they need to worry about like the United States does. Bridget and I got back to the ship, showered, and then went to Camps Bay. How do I even describe Camps Bay? It is like Malibu or San Diego on steroids (or what I would assume them to look like on steroids). It is ten times more beautiful because these massive mountains are up against the houses and the beachfront is lined with amazing restaurants and local shopping. It almost reminds me of Acapulco how the houses are built into the side of the mountains and you have to take windy roads to get to the most beautiful houses I have ever seen. A few of my guy friends rented a house for a couple nights and Bridget and I took a taxi to the house. Little did we know it is a 2 million dollar house with the most amazing view. Mom and Dad you would have died to see this house in person, it was the definition of contemporary (I will send you guys pictures as soon as I get them off Bridget's computer). It was such a cool house with an infinity pool on the balcony. After hanging out at the house for a while we all went to a club called Mercury. It was awesome! Such good music and the locals were all really fun to dance with. Bridget got into a dance battle with some local girl, which was hilarious. Not really sure who won but it was a friendly competition. After a long day and long night I headed back to the ship to get some sleep for shark cage diving!
Day 5 February 28th: SHARK CAGE DIVING! I woke up bright and early with three of my guy friends to embark on a shark diving adventure. We drove two hours to get to Gansbaai, which has a ton of Great White Shark activity. Once we got there we had to sign our lives away and got a safety briefing, breakfast, and walked to the boat. I am not going to lie I was getting really nervous and kept thinking to myself why am I don't this again? Once we got on the boat they weren't kidding when they said the water was choppy. As we got closer to our destination near the reef/shore a handful of people were already throwing up because of being seasick. I have the wonderful privilege of living on a ship so it really didn't bother me that much. One of the guys I was with ended up getting sick but stuck it out and went in the cage. It took awhile to attract the sharks. They threw tuna chum in the water and a massive piece of tuna connected to a line and also a black foam seal that floated on top of the water. We sat there for about 20 minutes with nothing and I was worried we weren't going to see anything. Boy was I wrong! All of the sudden there was one shark, then two, then three. We saw a total of eight different sharks, and we saw at most three at a time. My friends and me decided it was time for us to get in the cage. I put on a wetsuit, water shoes, and goggles. As you can imagine I looked great! When I was climbing into the cage with shark fins popping out of the water I was surprisingly calm. The water was freezing and I was put in between a lawyer from London who just got hired at Wal-Mart and a guy that I had just met who was on Semester at Sea. I was happy the guy from London was on the end of the cage and not me! The guy on my right was a Semester at Sea kid and I thought he was going to have a panic attack. He was flailing his limbs and couldn't find his footing. I told him where to put his foot and to breath and calm down because he was freaking everyone else out, who knew I would be the one to tell someone to calm down while in the middle of the ocean surrounded by Great White Sharks? So we were above water until the guy in charge of the bait and the guy in charge of the plastic seal told us DOWN DOWN TO THE LEFT! Then we would all hold our breath and go down by locking our feet under a bar to help us stay underwater. The water was pretty murky so all of the sudden a massive Great White Shark would be right in front of you swimming by. It was surreal. It was crazy and hectic above the water with the shark coming out of the water to try and eat the tuna, the shark guys yelling telling us when to go underwater, people yelling in awe as these huge sharks ran into the cage or came out of the water with hundreds of teeth ready to bite into something; but underwater it was peaceful, serene, and I felt oddly calm as these enormous creatures glided by. I don't mean to sound cheesy because I sincerely think Great White Sharks are the most graceful, powerful, and magnificent animals I have ever seen. The fact that I got to be as close as I was in the cage, was indeed incredible. At one point there was a big wave that jerked the cage and my hand slipped out of the cage and in that exact moment the bait came right by my face along with the open mouth of a Great White Shark. I screamed underwater and quickly pulled my hand back and cam up for air. The guy from London looked at me and said "…holy s***" haha it was pretty funny and scary at the same time. After I got out of the cage I had a great view of the sharks coming out of the water to grab the bait. It was such an awesome experience and I recommend everyone should do it at least once in their life! I want to get scuba certified now so I can actually dive with sharks without a cage. I got back from shark diving in the late afternoon and showered and went out to the best dinner ever with Bridget. We went to Camps Bay to the Tuscany Beach. We ordered bruscetta, sushi, gnnoci, steak, and good drinks. It was really good food and it was also really cheap! Then we went back tou our friends rental house in Camps Bay, out to a bar called Caprese, and back to the ship to sleep!
Day 6 February 29th: I went on an FDP for my African American psychology class to the Hope Cape Town and Tygerberg Children's Hospital. Hope Cape Town is a nonprofit organization that offers community outreach, education and counseling focusing on HIV/AIDS and TB in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. Tygerberg Children's Hospital provides specialty pediatric care for infants with HIV/AIDS, TB or various cancers. We listened to a lecture from the director of Hope Cape Town and it was really interesting to get a sense of how prevalent and devastating HIV/AIDS is in South Africa. In South Africa 5.6 million people are infected with HIV out of the 33.3 million affected globally. There are 930 new infections per day in South Africa and 850 AIDS related deaths per day. It is so sad to me how many children are infected with HIV or AIDS. I had a myth that people believed if they have sex with a virgin it would cleanse you if you were infected with HIV/AIDS. My professor asked the director of the organization if that were true and she responded with yes she had heard of a couple cases in the hospital where that was the case (how do you think some of them got HIV/AIDS?...disturbing to think about…also in the news awhile back there was a story about how African babies are being stolen out of townships because of this myth and a man who had AIDS stole a baby and raped it…probably one of the more disturbing things I have learned about on this trip. Also very motivating for me to want to get out in these townships and simply educate women and men about public health) but she said she didn't know for certain if this myth if being acted upon. The lack of education in Africa is really sad because a lot of health issues that are creating such devastation can easily be prevented by simple facts and education about health, personal choices, and the science behind diseases. The Hope organization helps to operate the Ithemba Pediatric Ward for Infectious Diseases in the Tygerberg Hospital. Ithemba means hope. It was a really cool and inspirational organization. We got to see the entrance to the ward but couldn't go in for obvious privacy reasons and of course we didn't want to get to the kids sick and vice versa. I donated a handful of stuffed animals I brought from home (thanks Tanner!) and I was excited that they went straight to the kids. The woman who ran the donation part of the organization said she was so happy about the stuffed animals and the kids would be too. After giving donations we said our goodbyes and headed back to the ship. It was the most gorgeous weather in Cape Town since we had been there. I had some time left before we departed Cape Town so I went and did a little shopping at the Waterfront Mall and had a delicious lunch with Bridget and Sarah. We ate at San Marco's and may I just say I think they must have a policy that you have to be an extremely attractive male to be a waiter there. We got a few drinks, I had a long island ice tea, which I will never order again as long as I live, it was disgusting! I had a really good grilled mozzarella, tomato, and pesto sandwich with a yummy salad. Sarah got a tuna salad with potatoes, and Bridget got a chicken, bacon, and avocado sandwich which were all really good! We sadly walked back to the ship knowing we had to leave Cape Town. Once we passed through security and immigration we set sail yet again towards to beautiful island of Mauritius.
Overall I absolutely fell in love with South Africa. There are so many things I wanted to do but didn't get the chance to because we were only there for six days. I have made it a life goal to save up enough money to one day travel there for a long period or time or even live there in the future. South Africa has amazing weather, food, nightlife, culture, people, scenery, oceans, mountains, and activities to do. However, South Africa has a long way to go. The crime rate is sadly very high and I have already heard countless stories of people being assaulted, mugged, robbed at gunpoint but locals, taxi drivers, and the police (scary). Talking to a local he told me "a human life is worthless here in South Africa" The extreme difference between socioeconomic classes is striking. It was either you were extremely rich (and most likely White or colored) or you were the poorest of the poor (all Blacks). While Cape Town was beautiful at first, once you started driving inland you started to see the townships. These townships consisted of shacks that were basically on top of one another with no running water or electricity. The majority of the population lives in these townships that have extremely high rates of crime, rape, and HIV. I almost felt a little bit guilty going to nice dinners, staying at a nice resort while on a safari, and staying at a 2 million dollar house in Camps Bay. Reflecting back on it now I realize that I cannot take peoples struggles and internalize them as my own, but take all experiences rich and poor as good and learn from them. I see the beauty in all of what Cape Town had to offer, even in the townships. I find it heartbreaking the amount of devastations that take place in Africa. I really hope my life journey takes me on a path to South Africa so that I may contribute something to help a beautiful country truly flourish and rid itself of class and economic barriers due to race.
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