A taste of Africa

Today was a day of sightseeing, relaxation and a taste of the African culture. We started early in the morning with a tour to the Cape of Good Hope (the most south-westerly part of Africa). Our tour guide was a funny but knowledgable guy calle Oloof. He entretained us all the way with the history of the area and general information about the country. We had few stops along the way - one of them in a market place, where you could get anything from handcraft souvenirs to diamonds and tanzanitas (a beautiful blue precious stone original from Tanzania). Despite intense interest from Lindy & Robyn (in particular) Paul was the only one to boost the local economy. The route along the atlantic ocean was very scenic with amazing cliffs, beautiful long beaches with white sand and some very expensive real estate - some of them holiday homes for celebrities such as David Beckam. The goverment protects some of the land near the beaches and nothing can be built there. They also protect the maritime species in the ocean and there are areas where fishing is prohibited.  The weather was also great and that added to the beauty of this drive.

We also saw some animals along the way including whales (yes...whales!). They are so used to humans there were guys windsurfing around them...unbelievable! We saw ostriches, cranes, african penguins and baboons -which can be pretty scary if they decide they want your food! They just don't dribble looking at you eat...they'll snatch your food! Oloof was very clear in his warnings not to resist if they decide they want your sandwich.

Not everything is nice and beautiful in South Africa though. There is poverty and unemployement. Along the way we saw a couple of spots where unemployed people wait for someone who needs an extra hand for any kind of job. They pick them up and take them to the work place where they'll make $20 a day plus a meal. Most of these people are refugees from other African nations. Unemployment in Cape Province is down to 30% (from 50%).

After reaching our destination and taking some photos at the sign that marks the latitude and longitude of the Cape of Good Hope (mind you trying to get the Americans to atay sway from the sign wasn't easy!) we drove to Cape Point. We walked up to the light house to admire the view from this high and extremely windy place. After a tasty luch we drove back to Cape Town and saw parts of this beautiful city of nearly 4 million people such as The Cape Town University, the new stadium built for the soccer World Cup and the "One &Only Hotel" - which is really the 'one and only' 6 star hotel in South Africa.

We finished the day with a colorful and rhythmic night at the Gold Restaurant in Cape Town. Before dinner we had a demostration and a taste of playing the drums - a very traditional instrument in the african culture that they used to use to communicate to each other. It was fun although may have some bruised hand for tomorrow's golf! (Not ideal, really!). The meal was accompanied by singers and dancers of african music... as it turned out we had our own star in the group, who had all the right moves and was more than capable of keeping up when invited to dance by the african dancer...Lindy surprised us all, and it was lovely to see that everyone got in to the spirit of the night and enjoyed the experience. Bed time...early start tomorrow for golf! What is the course record at Royal Cape?

Click here to see more photos from today.