Cape Town, South Africa

When I woke up yesterday it was so foggy that you couldn’t see one foot off the ship. Every few minutes a fog horn was sounded. Although this was annoying, I understand the necessity. We had to wait off the coast of South Africa for about an hour because of this, so everything got delayed about an hour. At the diplomatic briefing they told us about all the safety regulations we should follow for the area. This is our first port that has a crime level of critical, the highest it can be. Also, crime is on the rise here, not the decline. When we finally pulled into port Table Mountain became visible, although clouds hovered over and sat on the top of this flat-topped mountain. Table Mountain is the best known landmark in Cape Town, and we plan to hike it later this week. The dock where we are is awesome. The last two ports have been industrial ports, with cranes and shipping boxes everywhere.  This port is similar to Baltimore Inner Harbor, but just a million times better. It is called the V&W Waterfront. There is a huge hotel right in front of the ship, and attached to it is a huge mall, almost as big as the Plaza at KOP. I mean this thing is massive! There is another mall about 2 blocks from that as well. Stuff here costs about 85% of what it would in the US. I have to be careful because it has been a month since I have done descent shopping in stores I know, and they have all of the upscale names within 5 minutes of the ship here! There are also some Curio shops and tons of restaurants and bars in the waterfront area. At noon I left to go to Robben Island on a SAS tour. We walked to the ferry and then left on a half hour boat ride to the island. Robben island is home to a prison like Alcatraz. During the apartheid era political prisoners were held here. Before that time normal citizens were held in jails there, and previous to that the island was used to house lepers so that they “didn’t infect the general population.” Most of the tour guides on the island are former political prisoners who have returned to help tell the story of the island, and our tour guide was one of these men. We took an hour bus tour around the area to see the geography of the island. There are also remnants from World War 2, when the island was used to protect Cape Town from a possible invasion. On the island there is also a 9-hole golf course that was used by the jail masters. This golf course, however, is now destroyed by the many rabbits that used to inhabit the island. A few years ago they had to kill 10,000 rabbits in order to control the population. After the bus tour we took an hour walking tour through the maximum security prison, where the political prisoners were held. We saw Nelson Mandela’s cell which was amazing to see. There is such history in one little cell block. Our tour guide was imprisoned for simply belonging to a political party. Political prisoners got sentences of 10 and 20 years, nothing in between and no one was ever let out early. They were fed poorly, treated poorly, and tortured. They were forced to do mining work that destroyed their eyesight, our tour guide included. Their mail was even censored to the degree that sometimes all that remained of the letter was Dear –and Love -. They also mentally tortured the prisoners by writing fake mail from the “wives”of the men saying that they wanted a divorce. Many men went insane. After this tour we went on Penguin Boardwalk and saw the many penguins that inhabit the island.  They are so cute! After the Robben Island tour I went back to the ship to get ready for the night, and then a group of us left for dinner. We ate dinner at a Steakhouse that served wild game, but the only exotic thing that was ordered was Alligator. I tried it, and it was quite good. Chewy, fishy chicken. I got a salad that had a mayo dressing, fried croutons, avocado, and this odd-ball cheese that was sweet. We managed to get free champagne because the restaurant next door was trying to get us to go there and offered us champagne. After dinner we went to a local brewery and there weren’t too many SAS kids there which was great. We tried this shot called the Springbok which tasted like mint and chocolate. It tasted like a milkshake. Delicious. I had an awesome first day in Cape Town, but I can tell that I am not going to even get to do half of what is available there. Miss you all and wish you could experience this too!