Table Mountain and African Disney

On our third day in Cape Town, we went to Table Mountain because the sun had finally decided to shine. If you go up Table Mountain when it is cloudy, you can't see anything, so we had been waiting for a sunny day and boy did we get it! Kristin talked me into hiking up the mountain and I was a little concerned, being in flip flops and carrying now water, not to mention the fear for my safety that we had heard about, but I'm so glad I went! The views were absolutely amazing and the exercise was just what my body needed. I guess this hike can be quite dangerous at times with muggings and such, but on this beautiful Saturday, there were tons of people all around us while we hiked. Almost at the top, there was some water streaming down the rocks and I had to take the opportunity to try to add some moisture to my system - yummy!















At the top, the views were incredible. You could see as far as your eye could go in all directions. There was a beautiful blue sky, beautiful blue water and one of the prettiest cities in the world. The island that you can see in one of the pictures is Robbin Island. We didn't have time to make it there, but this was where Nelson Mandela, among many others was exiled and imprisoned. While at the top, I was temporarily turned into a dassie. However I got turned back before heading back down in the cable car. Once back at the bottom, I had to catch a picture of these beautiful trees with the peak in the background. I don't know what kind of trees these are, but they were beautiful and all over on our trip. If anyone knows, can you please leave a comment here to help me out? I searched, but wasn't able to find it. We also went and saw a view of Table Mountain that explains why it's named as it is - cool!























We next went to a couple of wineries out past Shan's house and they were great! The wine is so different than the wines that we are used to in California - it was great to get to taste them and bring a little home. They have a blend found only in South Africa currently called Pinotage - yummy!











That night before we left the next morning for travels away from Cape Town, John and Shan took us to this AMAZING restaurant called Moyo. We later read a review that said it was like an African Disney World. I liked to see it more as a view of some of the older culture of the tribes in South Africa, but I guess it was pretty touristy nonetheless. The restaurant was wonderfully put together with tents all over, mixed in with beautiful trees and lights, etc. etc. When we were seated at our table, a women came up and offered us a bowl of rose water to wash our hands - it smelled so good! She also came around and painted our faces in the way that their tribes would paint their faces during special occasions, like weddings. Our server was a very nice guy from Malawi. In South Africa, they refer to the rest of Africa as "up into Africa" and this guy was more how I would have pictured an African than most of the people we met in South Africa. Funny how our perceptions come to be what they are. I had asked for a typical South African drink, so John asked our waiter and he brought me this really yummy drink made with Amarula, which is a liquor common in South Africa. It is made from the amarula fruit that elephants eat in the wild and then mixed with cream and tastes a lot like Bailey's Irish Cream - my drink was great! Nancy (who is my angel) found her own angel at this place as well. Nancy, Kristin and I played around with hats and being goofy and these are always pictures that I have to share. In finality, I want to show Shan and John and say that they were the most wonderful hosts ever! Shan went out of her way to take us to see all of the best things and took good care of us. John took all of us girls out for a great night on the town and I so appreciated it all. Thank you guys SO MUCH!
















































Definitely the best part of Moyo was the music and performers. This is what I think of as Africa and it was really cool to see. I don't know if this type of music and dance is still very common there or whether the development and Westernization has made it less common, but I loved it.

South Africa - Cape Town

A last minute trip to South Africa brought me on a 26 hour travel day to get to Cape Town, South Africa. The jetlag was hell for a few days, but the sights were amazing. On the first day after our first night there, we went down to the waterfront of Cape Town. It's really touristy, as was everything we saw, but it was pretty. The weather was weird the first couple of days. Since it's summer there, they usually have hot, sunny weather, but we had cooler, cloudy weather. It cleared up after that, though. Down at the waterfront, there was mainly a lot of shopping and eating. We went to a market with products by local people and they had pretty cool things. Since Scott and I are about to buy a house, I couldn't really take into the buying though - just looking! There were the coolest statues and we saw an artist painting on wood boards that was the coolest art I think I've ever seen. Kristin likened it to a mix between African and Matisse - very cool. No pictures of it, though - what was I thinking!? At lunch, we heard a local guy shaking a drum like thing and playing a flute - I loved watching him and listening.

On the second day, we drove pretty far around the cape and went to the Cape of Good Hope, which was originally thought to be the Southern-most part of the continent. Another place, Cape Agulhas (that we didn't make it to) was later learned to take this honor. The areas were so beautiful along this route. The coolest thing was that we saw all of these wild animals! We went to a penguin colony and were right up close to them. They are African Penguins and used to be called Jackass penguins.











We also saw these little guys called dassies, or rock rabbits - they were so cute and just sat in the trees eating and staring at us. One poor little thing even fell out of the tree! I guess they jump pretty far too. One person walking by told us that their closest relative is the elephant - wow!











On our drive into the Cape park, we saw wild zebras walking right across the road - it was the craziest thing I've ever seen and the first time I've seen zebras outside of a zoo - how exciting! Shan (Nancy and Kristin's cousin we visited) said that was the closest she's ever been to a zebra and she's been living there for over a year!











We saw an ostrich right by the beach and were able to get pretty close to it too. I was careful not to get too close after learning on a "Dirtiest Jobs" episode how strong their kicks are! We also saw some type of antelope, maybe Bonteboks, but there are so many antelopes in South Africa, it's almost impossible to keep them all straight. walking on the beach - how crazy is that!?











Then we saw baboons just walking down the road! There was a whole family of them and all of a sudden the big male jumped on one of the females and started having sex with her right there in front of us - it was nuts - we saw it all!

We had lunch at an amazing place with a perfect view and the best seafood I've ever had. I'd never had rock lobster before. Actually, I just thought it was a song and didn't realize it was a real lobster you could eat - so tender and yummy! Lots of other good seafood too. We walked up to this beautiful lighthouse too. The walk was pretty tough, but good to get us moving and sweating. On the way back, we saw more baboons - some just hanging out in the tree and a mom and baby walking along the road. What paradise we were in. At least for this silly American who LOVES to see new things. Here are pictures along the way down at the cape - it was so amazingly beautiful all around there and we were lucky because the sun started to come out later in the day.

That evening, we had a braai. What is a braai, you may ask. Well, I'll tell you! :D It's a South African BBQ! Normally, it is like a wood burning stove and is the popular way of "BBQing" there. This evening, the wood that we bought was too damp, so we had to use the American way of burning coals, but it was still super cool. Braai is an Africaans word, which is one of the 13 official languages of South Africa. In this picture, you can see Shan, Nancy, Kristin and I, along with Natalia who was Shan's friend back in Germany and Nicolette who is her friend in South Africa.











These last pictures are views from Shan and John's top deck at sunset one day - so beautiful!

Trips, skunks and homes

I'm now using the blog as an updater tool since I'm not so good right now at keeping in touch with everyone. I leave for South Africa tomorrow, but wanted to make one last post before I took off for an exciting new adventure (only a week and a half this time, so you'll have updates soon). Scott and I had an offer accepted on a house and are currently in Escrow and trying to get the inspections done. I don't want to post pictures yet in case anything goes wrong in the inspections, but we may possibly be moving into a new house very soon - exciting! Scott's brother has also moved out to San Diego from Wisconsin and is staying with us. I know he's excited to come out to our wonderful weather from very cold Wisconsin in February and we're happy to have him here.


And one last piece of news - we caught a skunk! Well, we didn't actually catch it - a pest control guy did. A couple of weeks ago, Scott and I were sitting around wondering what a new, strong smell was. For the next few days, everywhere we went, people could smell it on us and we smelled it quite a lot every time we came home. Apparently, the skunk was under our apartment and sprayed, maybe from getting into a fight with a cat or raccoon or something, but it must have happened right under our apartment. It was coming up through the heater vent and is still not completely gone. But it was caught and the smell is FINALLY dissipating, so we're also excited to possibly be leaving this place soon!