10.3.09
We all woke up early this morning and watched us pull into Cape Town. It was absolutely BEAUTIFUL!! I knew it was going to be pretty, but this just blew my mind. Watching the sunrise over Table Mountain was just incredible. Of course we got pictures and then we headed down to breakfast. We ate while we looked out into Cape Town. During breakfast, we had some unexpected visitors. Two seals were playing in the water next to the ship. They were too cute. I couldn’t believe they came up that close to the ship.
After breakfast, I went back to the cabin and got ready to hike Table Mountain. You can take a cable car up and down, but we decided to hike instead. At 8, I went up to classroom 8 so I could exchange money. They said they would be onboard as soon as we docked, but that wasn’t the case. They didn’t get there until about 9:15ish. By this time a huge line has had formed, but luckily I was the 2nd person in line.
Finally I got some money exchanged and I met up with Rosario, Mackenzie, Becky, Kate and Megan. We got off the ship and ventured out into the waterfront. It was so cute! It actually reminded me a lot of Halifax. But it was just such a change to be in a place with real stores and fixed prices and speak English. We found a cab that would take us to Table Mountain. It was kind of crazy because they drive on the left side of the road. Our taxi driver, Charlie, was hilarious. He ended up giving us his card to call him if we needed another ride. We should probably call him because I think Mackenzie left my Nalgene in the back of the cab. It somehow disappeared between getting off the ship and the taxi. Its kind of a bummer, but really it’s a water bottle.
We started the hike and Charlie told us that it should take between 2-3 hours. It was pretty tough. Rosario brought her iPod so she out in her headphones and pretty much ran up the mountain. Mackenzie and I lagged back a bit. Mackenzie turned back at the mountain in Ghana so I stayed back and coached her the way up. I didn’t want her to turn back, which I know at some points she wanted to. I would set small check marks and we would stop and rest there. The worst part of the hike was the sun. It really didn’t help with the fact that we started the hike at 11am. So we had the hot midday sun on us and there was no shade.
We eventually added a 3rd person to our group – Micah. He is from Hawaii. We just took it slow and steady. The best part about that is 1. We actually got to enjoy the view on the way up and 2. By the time we got to the last leg, which was the hardest part of the whole climb, there was shade on one side of the trail. The trail ended by basically going straight up with some very small switchbacks. We had to climb up and over. The difficult part was that the stones were so worn and they were so steep they were slippery. There were also a lot of loose rocks. One thing that I thought was weird was that they more of less caged up rocks and used them as a path. That was a little sketch.
When we were close to the top, we met some girls from the US, but were studying abroad at the University of Cape Town. We chatted with them while we climbed. We finally made it to the top when we climbed out of this gorge thing. The view was breathtaking. There was blue sky and beautiful blue water all around us. The view was much better than I could have ever imagined. We made it to the top in about 2½ hours. We took pictures and it was awesome. There was such a since of accomplishment. I am really glad that Mackenzie pushed herself to finish. It was a very challenging hike and we both made it!! When we were taking pictures, we climbed out onto this rock where there was nothing but sky and ocean behind us and in my gracefulness I rolled my ankle while I was climbing down. Brilliant I know. Micah was so nice and helped me hobble the rest of the way. At least I was already at the top.
There was a restaurant at the top so we grabbed cheeseburgers and sat overlooking Cape Town while we ate. The cheeseburger was one of the best cheeseburgers I have ever had. I don’t know if it was a combination of just being used to gross ship food and the fact that I had just climbed a mountain! But it was good. After we ate, we walked around the top a little more. We did a little shopping and we had to buy our ticket so we could ride the cable car down to the bottom. The cable car is pretty much terrifying. I don’t like them. I have this irrational fear that the cable is going to break. I think secretly Micah and Mackenzie were glad I rolled my ankle. Because now we all had a completely legit reason for taking the cable car down rather than climb down like really hardcore people.
I tried to stall as long as could at the top to avoid the cable car, but eventually we had to leave. I was pretty much freaking out and Mackenzie has it all on video. I pretty much just huddled in the middle and tried not to look outside. It was awful. Not only was there no glass in the windows so there was a breeze. As I was getting used that, the next thing I know the damn floor starts rotating. I stood there looking at my feet until one of the workers let me sit down where the floor didn’t rotate. We made it down in the longest 5 minutes ever. I was glad that it was over pretty quickly, but at the same time we just spent 2½ hours climbing up this mountain and it just sucked at how easy it was to get down. 
The 3 of us caught a cab back to the waterfront. We walked around the little shops, which are super overpriced because the V and A Waterfront is the ritzy part of town. But it is so pretty. Micah headed back to the ship, but Mackenzie and I stayed out. Mackenzie got an ice cream and I guess we are so used to communicating through hand signals, she just pointed to the guy’s in front of her cone. This sparked up a conversation with the guy. It turned out that he has an organization that goes into the shanty towns and videotapes people there that are really good singers. He then puts these videos on YouTube, MySpace and Facebook. This gives them the exposure that they would normally not get. We ended up being interviewed and chatted with them about SAS and South Africa for a while. We finally went our separate ways and we continued to explore. The waterfront is really cool. There is a mall and a big stage and street performers. It was neat, but the stage performer was dressed up like a cowboy and was portraying “typical America.” It was so dumb, but the people loved it. And we wonder why everyone thinks we are cowboys. They also had this thing that I am going to call Water Ball. It was so cool! You basically climbed into this giant plastic ball and then rolled around on top of the water. We tried to do it, but turns out you had to be under 100 pounds…yeah so I definitely don’t qualify. We also tried to find an internet café, but we were unsuccessful so we headed back to the ship for dinner.
We ate and showered and I felt like a brand new person. I had a headache from hell because I only got 4 hours of sleep the night before. We met up with Jennifer and Mackenzie and I went to use the wireless internet at the hotel across from the ship. It was so nice to talk to everyone! Unfortunately, I guess the hotel was mad because they kicked us all out.
After we got kicked out, we walked around to try and find more wi-fi. We never did find any and we ended up just sitting a little bit farther away from the hotel and still using their internet, but the signal wasn’t all that great.
People are really curious about the ship. We had numerous people stop and ask if we were from the shop and then they would ask all sorts of questions about it. They all loved the program and then wanted to make sure that we enjoyed ourselves in Cape Town. Everyone has been really friendly so far.
We got back on the ship and I packed for the safari and then crashed. I have to be up at 5 for the safari!! I am so excited!!!