A Week Hiatus

The main theme of this blog post was supposed to be my family visit, but I thought I would preface it a bit with the week leading up to my time with them. 

So, after my long 25 day camping trip, I had a week to catch my breath. 
I didn't do a lot of structured activities during this week because I did not want to have to repeat things when my family arrived (even though everything we did I would gladly do twice).

When our tour group arrived into South Africa, the country was still in its 10 day mourning for Nelson Mandela, or Tata Madiba ("Tata" isiXhosa for "Father" and Madiba refers to Mandela's Xhosa clan name) 
Living in South Africa for the past 6 months has greatly deepened my appreciation and respect for Nelson Mandela and, even then, my appreciation and respect can only barely scrape the surface for what he and those he worked beside deserves. 

Being in Namibia when he passed, I did not witness the full extent Mandela's death impacted South Africa; however, coming into South Africa, he was honored everywhere. 

(Memorial at the V&A Waterfront)

March for Mandela when I was in Cape Town

There were also memorials left for Mandela in his prison cell on Robben Island (see below for pictures).

For the first half of the week, I stayed in Atlantic Point Backpackers (http://www.atlanticpoint.co.za/) which was a short 15 minute walk away from the Waterfront. At the Waterfront you could shop, eat, and view Cape Town's port. I spent most of my time here... 

... and I ate sushi everyday. 

(Which was VERY reasonably priced)

(The view from my favorite sushi bar)

The second half of my week, I spent at Amber Tree Lodge (http://www.ambertreelodge.co.za/) which was absolutely beautiful. 

The upstairs hammock view of Table Mountain

This lodge was about a 45-50 minute walk from the Waterfront (they tell you 30  minutes, but it is a lie) and just down the road from Cape Town's famous Long Street. 

Long Street is, well, a long street full of bars, clubs, and restaurants that is the nightlife core to tourist Cape Town. 

Trust me, it looks quite different during the day. 

My favorite place was called The Slug and Lettuce. It was a small pub which I was a regular customer at with different people on my tour. 

During the week I was able to get together several times with people from my tour and even ran into some friends from PMB.

There were a few activities that I did allow myself:

One activity being a trip to Robben Island to see Mandela's prison cell.
(***Fun Fact*** The name Robben Island is Dutch for Seal Island)

The tour was definitely more than I expected (my impression being hustled into a prison and hustled out again). We had a wonderful bus tour guide that told us the history of the island as we drove around and up to the prison. Upon entering the prison, we were designated to a different tour guide. This tour guide was an ex-prisoner of Robben Island. Hearing the history from his point of view greatly enhanced my experience and made everything even more real. 

Our Ex-Prisoner Tour Guide

Mandela's Cell

The Boat that carried us to and from the Island

(Also the boat that carried the prisoners to the island.**You can see Dias in the new Mandela movie**)

Another activity I did was a sunset hike up Lion's Head for the full moon. I went with a few people from my tour and we hung out at the top and watched the sun set while the moon rose from the other side.

Another hike I did was up Table Mountain. I took advantage of this because there were several days where the mountain was closed down to hikers (or hikers were highly discouraged to go up) because of intense winds and bad weather. 

This symbolic landmark was beautiful as it was exhausting. It was during this hike that I came to full grips with the fact: I am so-very-out-of-shape. However, on the selected route, we took the exact average amount of time to get to the top: 2 hours. 

Here you can see our path up

The hike was fun and meeting people on the trail, of course, was one of my favorite parts. 

My time here was a great way to unwind after the previous month traveling, and exploring the city made me appreciate why Cape Town is considered one of the best and most beautiful cities in the world. 

After my not-so-solo-week in Cape Town, it was finally time for my Mom, Scott, and Ian to arrive....

(To Be Continued...)