why do humans pay for danger? such a strange species.

I forgot to mention one quick thing from the township tour – we ran out of lollipops and one little boy didn’t get one.  He was very upset…until the kids who got them started sticking theirs in his mouth.  Sharing.  It was so beautiful.

Also, seal lions hung out outside of our ship every day…each

ANYWAY!  My second day in South Africa, I woke up at 5am and met up with eleven buddies to go shark cage diving!  Drove two hours through winding mountain roads, with the sun rising slowly over the townships and shantytowns.  Men walked to work and the clouds were so close to the earth that they sat on top of the mountains.

When we arrived, we had a quick breakfast of croissants, OJ, eggs, coffee (real coffee!), and yogurt.  We were then debriefed on the process of cage diving, yadda yadda, and got on the boat.  Bumpiest ride ever!  It was super cloudy that day, and the wind was going wild.  We drove out to a nearby kelp forest where there were about five other boats chumming.  As soon as we had suited up, the first group went in…a shark had already appeared.

I have videos and pictures from everyone else – so it’s kind of redundant to say “we got in, saw a shark, they got in, saw a shark,” so let’s just skip that and say that we saw a total of six sharks – one was 3.5 meters and another was a baby.  The footage was insane.  I’ll post some when I get back to the US…they’re way cooler to see than describe.

Otherwise it was really cold, even with wetsuits and footies, and the back of the cage was almost entirely open, which made me nervous – especially when one shark was obviously circling us, trying to figure us out.  I was impressed with how peaceful they were, hardly man-eaters!  We were out for about three hours, then drove back to shore for lunch and the viewing of the day’s video.  Drove home two hours, yadda yadda.

Met up with Noel and her friend Missy and set out for the free jazz festival in Greenmarket Square.  Well, we never made it.  Instead, we met up with Noel’s friends Lindsey, Laurel, and Emily and went out for some amazing burgers at a nearby restaurant.  Afterwards we went to a Che Guevara-themed bar – so funny.  There were posters that said things like “ condensed dictator soup” with an Andy Warhol-esque print of Che, then sandwiches called Che Revolution, Castro Revenge, and Hemmingways (spelled so wrong).  We danced there for awhile, then I left them to go to Tiger Tiger with Christina, Bridgette, and Brooke (ran into them, obviously).
Tiger Tiger had the longest line of the shortest skirts I’ve ever seen.  Plus it was in a mall.  We opted to go bowling instead...then ended up playing pool (I suck so badly) and video games in an arcade downstairs.  Got picked up at 11:30, went to sleep.  It was actually really fun, don’t get me wrong.  I was running on three hours of sleep.

The third day I woke up early to go on an SAS-sponsored trip to the Aquila Game Reserve.  It was awesome!  Even though it was more or less a glorified zoo (I hear you have to go farther north for real wildlife), we managed to see ostriches, hippos, white rhinocerouses, spring bucks, Egyptian geese, zebras, African elephants, elands, wildebeast in the wile, and then leopards/lions/cheetahs in a special quartered off area.  Not to mention that my Jeep had an awesome group of people in it – Will, Brian, Amy, Jeff, other Emily, Drew, Ashley, Mike, and Dani.  Everyone was joking around the whole time and having fun with our guide Gabriel.  Not to mention that we ran into Jenn, Colette, Elle, and Kaelyn horseback riding.  Highly recommended reserve – their brunch was incomparable.

After getting back I got gussied up and went out with Jenn, Rachel, Elle, Amy, and Colette.  Jenn and Elle decided to spring for a really nice dinner, whereas the rest of us settled for cheap.  I had mussels.  Delicious.  After dinner we went to Long Street and met up with Lesucco, the amazing inter-port student, and some of his friends.  He took us to a backpacker bar – so fun!  My type of bar!  There was a room where people could chill out and play pool, then a small dance floor filled with enthusiastic dancers, and a balcony overlooking Long Street.  The crowd was a great mix of people as well – very friendly travelers and locals alike.  We were there for a long while, until a girl I don’t know very well got really sick.  I spent 45 minutes taking care of her, then decided I wanted to go home.  I still had an amazing time though.  One guy gave me his business card and told me to stay in his guesthouse in Ghana with him.  I may or may not have laughed in his face.

When we got back, Jenn and I stared at the seals for a while and just talked about how amazing the world is.  Went to bed.  How exciting, I know.

Day four was wine tasting day!  $35 for an all-day tour of three wineries, including tip for the guide.  We started off at the Fairview Winery – a place where they make their own wines (obviously) and their own cheese (thankfully).  We sampled five different wines and I ordered three bottles to be sent to my mom’s house.  We were also given eight or so types of cheese (heaven) and I bought two packages of garlic goat cheese.  Best cheese of my life.  I’m bringing a package home to eat with Abbie.  Jenn said I talked about the cheese like I talk when I see a cute guy.  This says a lot about me.

We then went into Stellenbosch, a nearby town, and shopped around for about an hour.  I had a delicious chicken Caesar salad (so necessary) and another ice cream-packed iced coffee.  Then to the next winery that I forgot the name of, where we were at the top of the mountains.  Five more wines.  Beautiful.

Drove to Spier for five more wines and I PET A CHEETAH.  Had a fun ride back, then went back to the ship for a moment, met up with my table of 10 for Mama Africa, a restaurant Pat recommended to me.  I ate a combo platter of crocodile, kudu, ostrich, springbok, and game sausage (springbok and kudu mix).  My favorites were ostrich – it was red meat, surprisingly – as well as crocodile.  After dinner, Amy, Colette, Rachel, Nick, Elle, and I sat in an internet café for an hour where I got to videochat with Taylor, Christi, and Ben!!!!  It was such a highlight.  I miss my friends, man.  Then we went out drinking.  Big surprise.  Nothing too big there.



I’m sick of writing.  Day five coming up later.  Let me just tell you that every day in South Africa was the best day.  Normally when traveling I have a day where some things are off, but none were like that in South Africa.  Every day was perfect.