"Cape Town is the place for me"

This past weekend I went back to Cape Town.  My parents were scheduled to fly in on Saturday night and spend a few days there before visiting me in Durban.  As Ali had gone home for Christmas, this was her first time there.

Before picking up my parents at the airport, Ali and I had decided to go skydiving.  We were both so excited (and nervous, but mostly excited).  Right as we arrived at the hangar, we were told that the wind had just picked and they had stopped jumping about half an hour earlier.  They had tried calling us but my phone was off.  Of course it was off.  I was so excited (and nervous, but mostly excited) about skydiving that I had forgotten to turn it back on after our flight into Cape Town.  Naturally we were extremely disappointed.  But that's ok, because we rescheduled for Monday morning (the only possible option).

So instead we decided to visit a cheetah rehabilitation program just off of Stellenbosch and it was AMAZING.  The cheetah was just like a gorgeous oversized cat, that happens to also be the fastest animal on earth.

Me, Ali, Enigma the cheetah and a staff member

As we drove away following our visit, Ali goes, "I am allergic to cats.  I wonder if I am also allergic to cheetahs..."  Shortly after her face got a bit red, "Yup I am allergic to cheetah."  But come on, how cool is it to know that you are allergic to cheetah.

After picking up my parents from the airport, which played out like a scene from "Love, Actually," we were ready to explore the Cape Peninsula. So we woke up early Sunday morning and began our tour by driving through Camps Bay and Hout Bay.

Somehow our tour managed to coincide with some sort of bicycle race that made the drive through the narrow winding road along Chapman's Peak quite difficult.  Ali, who was the designated driver, managed exceptionally well.  She didn't get distracted by the beautiful scenery and pristine beaches that we drove by or hit any cyclists along the way, so she gets thumbs up from me!

Right before entering the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve, we stopped outside an ostrich farm.  One curious ostrich quickly approached us hoping that we may have food.  Little did he know that he would immediately become a model for my dad's extensive picture-taking.

The Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve was absolutely stunning.  Though Cape Point is not the southern most point of the African continent, as is commonly misconstrued, it is definitely breathtaking.  Legends of explorers, sunken ghost ships and raging storms that we had read about in our guide books added to the timeless feeling of this part of the world. 

After Cape Point, the next stop on our tour was Simon's Town.  A colony of African penguins (or Jackass Penguins as they are unfortunately also known as) has settled and resides on Boulders Beach, located a couple of kilometres south of the town. People can visit the colony and even have the opportunity to swim with the penguins by the little cove beach.  Ali was incredibly excited as penguins are her favourite animals.  In fact, here would be a good time to point out that she has everything penguin - penguin towels, penguin keychain, penguin travel buddy.  Apparently every year she also sends out penguin Christmas cards.  So I am confident in saying that our visit to Boulders Beach was likely one of the highlights of her internship in South Africa.  I must say that the penguins were incredibly cute.  They looked like they were all dressed up in their little tuxedos with nowhere to go.  In fact I think this picture looks like a penguin wedding.


"You may kiss the bride!"


We were very excited to go in the water with the penguins, however we quickly changed our minds.  Two reasons: 1) the water of the Atlantic Ocean was freezing cold, 2) penguin poop.

After our peninsula tour, we quickly changed, had a bite to eat and prepared for our climb up Table Mountain.  Just enough time had passed from my last visit to Cape Town to forget how awfully tiring the climb was the first time around.  To add to that, the sun was still pretty strong and the weather was quite hot.  As we began our ascent up the Platteklip Gorge we quickly ran out of water, but remained in good spirits.

Though the estimated climbing time was 2.5 hours, we managed to get up to the top in exactly an hour and a half.  I must say I am very proud of my parents for being in such an amazing shape.   Finally making it to the top after the strenuous neverending climb gave us such a sense of relief, and fulfillment, but mostly relief.

Of course the view from the top was once again amazing!

On our second night in Cape Town we stayed in an area called Camps Bay, which Wikipedia calls "an affluent suburb of Cape Town."  It is located on the opposite side of Table Mountain from the City Bowl, where we had previously stayed.  The area was trendy, busy and beautiful.  It felt like we were in Miami, the Caribbean and the French Riviera all at the same time.  We had dinner in one of the many restaurants lining the main street.  The seafood was fresh and delicious.

On Monday morning I woke up bright and early as I was excited (and nervous, but mostly excited) to go skydiving.  Until I heard the distinct sound of thunder in the distance.  Within minutes a crazy thunderstorm passed over Cape Town, complete with lightning and heavy rain.  So I thought, "Great!  If a little bit of wind interferes with jumping I can only imagine what a lot of rain can do!"  The only thing is that within the next hour the weather proceeded to miraculously clear up - sunshine and blue skies.  It was just in that key hour when we needed to leave to make our reservation that the weather had been so awful.  To add salt to injury the guy running the skydiving centre actually called me to ask whether we are still coming because they are in fact jumping.  By this point it was too late, as the drive up takes an hour, Ali had her Robben Island tour booked for 1pm and I had to catch my plane back to Durban.  So skydiving - FAIL!

Instead I ended up going on a sightseeing tour of Cape Town with my parents.  We started off at the V&A Waterfront.

Nobel Square at the V&A Waterfront

The tour took us through some areas of Cape Town where I hadn't been before, including the Company Gardens, Woodstock and District Six.  District Six was named the Sixth Municipal District of Cape Town in 1867.  In 1966 it was declared a white area under the Group Areas Act of 1950, and by 1982 some 60,000 people were forcibly removed from their homes and their houses were flattened by bulldozers.  Sound familiar?  Likely because either (1) you are aware and concerned about human rights issues, (2) you are South African, and/or (3) you watched a movie called "District 9" about aliens directed by Peter Jackson that was actually inspired by these real life events.   To this day District Six remains a desolate and empty area though there have been talks and a move to have some of the residents returned. 

At the end of the day Cape Town is now a wonderful and vibrant place.  It is definitely one of the most beautiful cities in the world, where people are friendly, kind and easy-going.  In fact, after spending a few days in Cape Town my parents agreed that I should go on internships more often.  They decided that I should go to Southeast Asia next, preferably Cambodia or Laos.  I told them I would think about it.

Before our sightseeing tour ended I heard a song, the lyrics of which stayed with me:

"Cape Town is the place for me, its charming climate suits me to a tee, Durban is pretty and so is Joburg city, but Cape Town is the place for me..."