Day 21: July 14, Cape Town

First day in Cape Town, and this morning we're off to Table Mountain. We slept last night on the rock-hard hotel beds to the sounds of traffic in the streets... aaah, just like home! (Ha.) Our room is lovely, with a view of the laundromat. Oh, how I miss the sounds of lions and the views of water holes.

First, we took a cable car ride up 3000+ feet to the top of Table Mountain, which towers above the city:
The views are spectacular, and we were lucky that the haze had cleared enough to see both oceans... Atlantic: And Indian:
Even the guide said she was surprised at how clear the view was:
Then, we took a tour of the city, which is stunningly multicultural - really quite inspiring. We saw City Hall, where Nelson Mandela gave his "Freedom" speech when he was released from prison:

And then, toured the local market where we enjoyed many of the local delicacies, including samoosas (spicy meat wrapped in crispy dough - yum), mince pies (meat and spices in a flaky pastry crust - super yum!!!) and koeksisters (fried dough with syrup and coconut - WAY SUPER YUM!) I also bought sour figs, which were a little less impressive (bletch.)
But the market was wonderful, and there were tons of friendly people everywhere:
We also went to a jewelry center, where they demonstrated the process of cutting diamonds and other precious stones. We didn't get much info on the controversial diamond mining practices, which was slightly disappointing, but it was interesting to learn about the process nonetheless.

One new type of cut for diamonds is called the "10 by 10", which has more facets than the brilliant cut. I took a closer look under a jeweler's loop at a 3+ carat "10x10" cut diamond, and it was beautiful, but I think diamonds just aren't my thing (unless you're talking about the uniquely colored ones, which are beautiful.) Honestly, I was more taken by the tanzanite stones that were on display, which were in a brilliant array of deep blues and violets. Gorgeous stones. So I was a doofus and bought one. Dumb-butt. Don't know what I'm going to do with it, but I have a nice sparkly blue rock now. (*sigh*)

After jacking up my credit card bill, we drove through the Malay district, where the people of Malaysian descent live. The homes are brilliant colors, because apparently the workers couldn't find their way home at night, so they painted their homes different colors to tell which was theirs:

Next, we hit a brief view of the waterfront, where we took a ferry to the infamous Robben Island - the prison island where Nelson Mandela spent the majority of his 27 years imprisoned. Here is the lighthouse on the island:
And the limestone quarry where Nelson Mandela did his hard labor (the cave is where they ate, slept & relieved themselves during the day):
And here, the stone pile. When Nelson Mandela returned to the island, he toured the quarry, and at one point, walked away from the group he was with and placed a stone on the ground. Former prisoners came up behind him, and each took a different stone and piled it upon the other. The stones are all different colors and shapes, and are meant to represent the people of the world: All different shapes and colors, but all working together to build something bigger than themselves. The stone pile hasn't been touched since that day:
We then entered the prison itself:
Our guide at the prison was a former political prisoner from Robben Island, and he gave our group a fascinating history of the prison and the prisoners themselves:

On the way back, we spotted animals, including rabbits, otter (eating a fish), and whales in the distance. We also saw our first African Penguins:

Here's Table Mountain towering over Cape Town - a beautiful view at sunset:
And when we docked we spotted a baby seal:
And a few paces down, adult seals relaxing on the docks:I was craving pizza, so we had pizza for dinner, which was OK - but the food is so cheap here! Actually, everything is cheap here.

G'night.