Day 2- Cape Town and Table Mountain

The actual pictures looked terrible

Goeienaand (Good evening)

We woke up bright and early this morning to hit the hotel breakfast before a sunrise hike up Table Mountain. The breakfast here is phenomenal, with honey straight off of honeycomb, fresh bread and pastries, greek yogurt and toppings, cereals, a cheese board- and then the menu comes out. We're planning on arriving earlier tomorrow to take full advantage.

A picture cannot do it justice

After breakfast, our tour guide (who has lived in every country we are visiting) picked us up, and we drove to our hike. As we walked up, we saw dawn over Cape Town (when we weren't looking at our feet, the trail was similar to Adirondack trails). Additionally, he pointed out several local bird and flora- fun fact, Cape Town is home to one of the worlds most diverse (and smallest) floral kingdoms. Me and my iPhone are not skilled enough to get pictures of the birds.

Once at the top we took a tour around. Many tourists had cable cared up so it was a lot more crowded up there. Also, it was really cold (we bought phenomenal hot chocolates for ~$1 apiece). Additionally, we spotted "dassies" the closest living relative to the elephant. There's a picture of one in the gallery below. They look like oversized guinea pigs (I found them adorable). At about 10:30 it was time to absail.

Absail, or repelling, is simply walking down a cliff face. Only the American tourists (like us) are stupid enough to do it. There will be funny photos to come (uploaded to Facebook by Absail Africa), but we didn't take any- too busy holding onto the rope for dear life (not easy with freezing hands). While it terrified me (especially when the cliff went away and you were just repelling straight down), it also offered incredible views out over Camp's Bay.

Dangling Devon

Post absail, and the walk back up, we took the rotating cable car down. There our driver picked us up, and drove us back to the hotel.

After a brief break to thaw, we headed out to the District 6 museum. District 6 started out as one of the only integrated districts in Cape Town. During apartheid, the government razed it, and to this day most of the grounds are empty. District 6 residents now inhabit many of the shantytowns we saw yesterday on the outskirts.

After the museum, we got lunch at KFC (how American of us). As we were eating, an anti-Israel parade walked by. As they shouted "Screw America", we decided that if anyone asked we're Canadian. We made another visit to greenmarket square, where after buying a 250 rand souvenir (~15$) the vendors were all over me. After that, we headed back to the hotel, passing the varied architecture of Cape Town along the way.

Next up, a traditional African dinner at Mama Africa. We went all in here, getting the Vegetable Samoosa's, Ostrich Steak (surprisingly tender), and Kudu Steak ("tastes like beef"). Just as the band was starting to play steel drum versions of Lean on Me, and Baby, we headed out.