Hello!

I have just left Cape Town, South Africa and words can not describe it. The city sits at the foot hills of beautiful Table Mountain so when we made our way to the port the view was spectacular. Cape Town was our first port that was a commercial port. Right off the boat there was lots of good restaurants, shopping, aquarium and a market, all within walking distance. It was definitely a lot less stressful and more convenient to get around than my past two ports. South Africa was much more familiar to everyone on the boat because it looks and feels a lot like the United States. Granted there are many differences. The country still has a large divide between African American and Caucasian people. You dont really realize it until you leave the port area and see some of the townships people live in. The townships hardly have running water, and consist of huts made out of scraps of materials. One story I found really interesting was a black cab driver over priced a girls cab ride quite substantially, and when the girl disagreed with the price he responded saying your white, you can pay this price. Overall there were so many different things to do in this port it was hard to narrow it down to a few things because we were only there for five short days.

I went on a three day, two night safari at a game reserve called Kariega. I had to fly from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth to get to the hotel and game reserve. I had many different ideas of what a safari was going to be like in my mind but it surpassed my expectations. Where we stayed everyone was divided into groups of four and we all had our own little cabins over looking the reserve. The restaurant and the food were unbelievable. It was a great change from the food I had been eating on the boat for a week! The way we got around the reserve was in a truck that held 9 people that didnt have a top on it so you werent limited to what you were able to see. Each day the safari was split up into three parts. Everyday we would get picked up at sunrise, after lunch, and before dinner and we would go out with our ranger and he would take us on about a three hour tour. Some included a hike and a boat tour as well. Because of the strategic planning of the ranger we were able to see every time of animal imaginable. I was able to see the big 5, which is Elephants, Giraffes, Hippos, Lions, Rhinos and plenty more. It was so fun to be able to see all these animals you only see on TV or at the zoo in their natural habitats. My group was able to see a heard of elephants go to the lake and bath in it. The ranger said he hadnt seen that since February so we were extremely lucky to be able to witness that. Our rangers name was Daniel and he was in his twenties and we asked him if they ever get any other young people on the safari and he said no and that they look forward to the Semester at Sea students. So it was a treat for him to be able to hang out with some students that were a little closer in his age. Overall my safari was awesome. I am so lucky to be able to check that off my bucket list!

The following day after arriving back from my safari I was in the mood to see some more animals, so I hit the ocean and went cage shark diving with the great white sharks. Currently in South Africa this is shark season so it was the best time to go out. I had a two hour drive to get to the point of Cape Town where the boat was going to take us out. We happened to go out an extremely cold and windy day. The swells were massive and I am surprised they even let us go out. It was only a fifteen minute boat ride until we arrived to where we were going to dive. Our boat leaders would lour in sharks in with different kinds of bate and fish oil. Within the first thirty minutes we had a baby shark come visit us which was probably only eight feet long. We were all so excited and ready for more sharks to come. Our excitement diminished after waiting probably another hour with no sign of another shark coming. Luckily before it was too late two great white sharks that were about 15 feet came by. I was in the cage for these two sharks and they were absolutely massive. To be able to see the shark up close is an adrenaline rush. To be able to see the sharks you were yelled at when to dive down and you would meet the shark eye to eye. They came inches away from our cage and one of the fins was basically inside the cage as it swam by. Sharks are mean looking animals, they had scars all over them and one of them had a large scar on its face. The leader said when sharks have scars like that around their face that means it was attacked by a seal. It was a very cold and super cool experience.

That night I had my adrenaline pumping and was ready to continue my night. Another classmate on the boat has a friend that lives in Cape Town so we were able to go to their house with some Semester at Sea kids before they took us out on the town. The house we visited was unreal. It over looked the entire city and was up near Table Mountain. The owner of the house said it was relatively cheap living where he lived in comparison to many big cities in the United States, which I would have never imagined in such a commercial town. We were then taken to their yacht that sat right outside our ship. They hosted a large group of Semester at Sea students to hang out there for the night before heading back to the ship. It didnt feel like real life, and everyone had a blast. I was able to meet a group of kids that were from Cape Town and studying at a near by college. They loved meeting us and they thought our accents were hilarious, while all of us fell in love with the South African accents.

South Africa has many vineyards and is becoming better known for their wine production. So on the last day I went to a winery for one of my business classes. We toured two wineries and were able to do a tasting at both. As you can imagine with a bunch of college students the wine tasting was very interesting. One thing I found really interesting about the wineries was that they house the employees right on site. All employees and their families are given homes that are theirs to keep forever. I dont think they do that in the United States and it is out of the ordinary that it is custom for South African wineries to do that. Also, the first winery told us that China is the upcoming country for wine consumption. Although the Chinese like their tastes a lot sweeter so they had to adjust their wine to enter that market area.

Overall Cape Town was an amazing experience. It is definitely a place that I want to go back to somedaymaybe even live there if I get the opportunity! I have about two weeks on the boat until we arrive in India. Luckily, we get a little day trip in the middle of those long two weeks to an Island called Mauritius.

Hope everyone is doing well back at home!

Ash