South Africa!

DAY ONE
My roommate and I started the day bright and early to watch the sun
rise as the ship pulled into Cape Town. This was the first port I've
woken up early for and... it might be my last! I definitely like my
sleep, but it was very cool to watch us pull into Cape Town, with
Table Mountain in the background. We also saw seals play around our
ship as we pulled into the dock, so that was really cool.
Today was my last FDP for Marine Biology: a trip to the Zandvlei
Estuary, Boulder's Beach, Cape Point and Cape Peninsula. Zandvlei is
a wetlands area, and it's one of the most diverse places on Earth.
You wouldn't necessarily guess that by just looking at it though: It's
quite pretty, but basically just looks like a lot of grass and some
ponds. We did see several different birds, and in the visitor's
center our guide brought out an endangered leopard frog. After that,
we drove to Simon's Town, right by Boulder's Beach. We had a
delicious lunch of fish and calamari at a local restaurant. Next, it
was time for penguins! I wasn't sure how close we could get to the
penguins, or even how many we would actually see. As we walked into
the beach, right by the boardwalk, were already a couple penguins!
They were just chilling, and they didn't even care when a large group
of people would just stop right by them to take pictures. The beach
itself was very pretty in its own right - the water was a lovely shade
of blue, and was also a nice swimming temperature. The boulders made
the beach very pretty. However, the real highlight was when we saw
more penguins! I was surprised to see a penguin right by the crowded
beach. My Marine Bio teacher had gotten a map of where to go to see
even more penguins, so we climbed over some boulders and waded through
a lot of water. It was more than worth it! At some parts, we were
literally swimming with the penguins, as they would come swim right
next to you. Then, when we got to the next beach, there were dozens
of penguins all over the beach! These penguins have the life: They
just spend all day sleeping and swimming at this beautiful beach. I
really wanted to steal one, but couldn't make it work.
After the penguins, it was time to go to Cape Point. It was a short
walk to the top, where there was a lighthouse. The views here were
gorgeous. Then, on the drive back, we saw some African wildlife! It
was a pre-safari. We saw a couple ostriches hanging out by the beach,
zebra, and even baboons crossing the road. (Baboons are similar to
bears in Colorado: There are a ton of warnings to not feed the
baboons, and apparently they are quite the nuisance). That night, I
went out to eat at the V&A Waterfront with some friends. The
Waterfront was very nice - it was a short walk from our ship. It has
a lot of really nice restaurants and shopping. However, it does feel
very Americanized, but it was a fun place to go out to. After dinner,
we went to a club on Long Street. Long Street has more nightlife than
the waterfront, so a lot of clubs are here. We went to one called
Concept, and it was a lot of fun. There were a lot of locals there,
and it felt pretty similar to some American clubs I've gone to. It
felt like a smaller version of the club Beta in Denver. While we were
dancing, I noticed that literally no couples were dancing together.
Everyone was just dancing by themselves or in groups, which I really
liked! We got some good dance circles going, and had a very good time.

DAY TWO
Today, I left for my safari. I did an SAS overnight safari at the
Garden Route Game Lodge. It was a four-hour drive from the ship, but
the drive itself was quite pretty. We passed some townships, which
were incredibly contrasted with the rest of Cape Town. The Game Lodge
was very nice. It had a very cute pool, and the lodge overlooked the
game reserve, so if you looked into the distance you could see
giraffes and other wildlife, with the mountain range in the
background. Seeing mountains in the distance reminded me of
Colorado! One of my friends said, "It would be so cool to wake up
everyday and see mountains in the background," which I thought was
funny, because that's what I get in Colorado! I guess I just live in
the best state.
We had our first game drive that night. We separated into different
groups, and drove around the game reserve in open 4x4's. My group's
guide, Ronald, was very cool and informative. The first thing we saw
were elephants! They have two elephants living here, and they might
have been my favorite animals. Did you know that elephants revisit
the graves of family members to mourn for 30 years after they've
died? They are very smart, and our tour guide emphasized how he
really feels that elephants have a conscience and are very self-aware
animals. Next we saw the giraffes, and they have a little family
here: A mom, dad, and a two-year-old baby girl, who is about half the
size of her parents. Apparently the mom was pregnant with another
baby while we were there, but you couldn't tell! We also saw zebra,
antelope and buffalo. Buffalo are the most dangerous animals of the
Big 5 (the Big 5 is a hunting term, and describes elephants, leopards,
lions, buffalo and rhino), but crocodiles and hippos are the most
dangerous animals in Africa. We also saw the lions, which have their
own area in the reserve because they eat so much. Ronald gave us many
warnings about the male lion - apparently he's chased Ronald before!
We stayed a safe distance away, and when it was time to leave, Ronald
booked it out of there! On our way back to the lodge, we saw the
family of rhinos, who were just hanging out by the road.
For dinner, we had a buffet back at the lodge, and it was delicious.
We spent the night hanging out with everyone in the hotel lobby and
bar area.

DAY THREE
We started the day early with a morning game drive. We started the
drive with some excitement! One of the first animals we saw was
actually a dead antelope - freshly killed by a cheetah. Ronald drove
up a little ways, then came back and the cheetah was there, enjoying
its breakfast! The cheetah would get nervous when it noticed us
though, and he kept dragging the antelope back into the bushes. After
that, we saw a bunch of ostriches. I think ostriches have to be some
of the silliest animals out there. We also saw more giraffes, zebra,
alive antelopes and buffalo. After the game drive, we went to the
cheetah reserve, which is where they keep cheetahs until they are
ready to be released into their reserve or another area. It was a
pretty cool area, with about three cheetahs just wandering around. We
had lunch at their restaurant, and I tried springbok, which is SA's
national animal. It was pretty tasty, but I liked ostrich better.
After some free time of just hanging out around the pool, we had
another evening game drive. This time, we saw the female cheetah.
She was off in the distance, but Ronald got out and started to call
her. He told us this is what they do to fee her, and he wanted her to
think we had food so she would come closer. At first we weren't sure
if Ronald knew what he was, but the cheetah came right towards us!
When she found out there was no food, she just plopped down by the
car. She was very cute, she rolled over a couple times, playing it up
for our cameras! We also saw the rhino family again, and Ronald told
us a lot about the different birds and plants in the area. He was
like an encyclopedia!

DAY FOUR
Our last day at the Garden Route! We had another morning drive, where
we saw a lot of animals again, including the lions. We all made sure
to get a group photo with Ronald at the end! After breakfast we
toured their reptile center, where they actually keep reptiles from
all over the world. Our tour guide was pretty funny - he took a jab
at Australia when he told us they have 7 of the world's most dangerous
animals. He said, "So next time, don't go to Australia, just come
back to SA! We're much safer." After that, we left and made the
drive back to the ship. Shortly after we got back, I left the ship
again with my friends Kellie and Sarah to go to Table Mountain. We
got there around 5:45, so it was too late to hike, but the cable car
was half price at 6, so that worked out. We met up with a friend of
Sarah's from the US who happened to be studying abroad at the
University of Cape Town. We explored the top of Table Mountain and
saw the sunset, and it was so gorgeous. There were great views of
Cape Town and the ocean from the top, and the sun set over the ocean.
After we got down, we went to the Waterfront again for dinner, and
Kellie and I went to an Italian restaurant. We were treated to an
opera concert there, and we had the most delicious pizza! I hadn't
had pizza in awhile, and it was so good! We had an early night,
because we wanted to be ready for our wine tour tomorrow morning at 9!

DAY FIVE
Today was our wine day! We did a biking tour that took us to two
wineries and a brandy distillery. We had some gorgeous views on the
trails, but the biking was much harder than expected! It was a bit
like mountain biking: There were no paved roads, it was all sand, and
there was some uphill that was fairly strenuous and some downhill with
a lot of rocks and logs in the way! We all made it though, even if
our tour guide put up with a lot of complaining! The first winery was
very cute, and that's where we had lunch. The second winery was also
a cheetah sanctuary, so before we tried the wine we got to go say hi
to the cheetahs. The brandy distillery was last, and the first thing
we tried was a delicious brandy cocktail. Although, I have to say, I
think I much prefer trying wine to trying brandy! It was a very fun
day, but even though I put on sunscreen I got very burnt! I guess I
didn't reapply enough times... That night I went out to dinner on the
Waterfront again, and then went to a pub. The pub turned out to be a
lot of fun, and we spent the evening dancing and meeting some very
interesting locals.

DAY SIX
I saved my last day for a laid-back shopping day. I started at the
waterfront, and ran into my friend Lexi there. We decided to go to
the Green Market on Long Street, and I found a lot of stuff there. We
also got smoothies from a place that seemed like it was straight from
Boulder! Lexi and I felt right at home there. It was a lot of fun to
just stroll along Long Street, which definitely has more character
than the Waterfront. We did not want to go back to the boat!
However, once we'd spent our last rand, it was time to go back. I was
very sad to leave Cape Town!