Forget Chicago - this is the real Windy City!

When I first visited Cape Town I knew that it would only be a matter of time before I returned. After this visit I know that I want to return yet again, but next time I'd like to come here for at least 3-6 months to live or work or study or just hang out.

Besides being breathtakingly beautiful, Cape Town is also a very cool and funky place. It's also windy. There were gale-force winds for much of my visit, which can actually be very welcoming in the summer when the temperature soars.

Ryan, my roommate from Amsterdam who came and stayed with me in San Francisco (for 4 weeks) was finally able to repay the favor by letting my crash at his place in Sea Point, which is on the Atlantic Coast (west side) of Cape Town. His apartment has amazing views of the beach and Lions Head, the nipple-shaped peak next to Table Mountain. We climbed up Lions Head the other day, which was a nice (and free) alternative to taking the cable car up Table Mountain. The other advantage of going up Lions Peak over Table Mountain is that you actually get views of Table Mountain! We waited until just about an hour before sunset to head up there, and if we had tried to do it any earlier we would have collapsed in the heat.

He also gave me a great tour of the city's nightlife and cool neighborhoods. Observatory (or Obs) is a trendy alterna-yuppie neighborhood where many of his friends live near the University of Cape Town. It's also one of the windiest parts of the city - if I do move here for a while I think that I may have to give it a miss. Ryan's neighborhood of Sea Point has a sizeable Jewish population, which meant that I got to enjoy challah french toast at New York Bagels on the corner a few times this week. Heading past Sea Point you wind up in Clifton Beach and Camps Bay, both of which have amazing beaches, sunsets and a Rivera-style ambiance. Tamberskloof is at the base of Table Mountain and is more laid-back, and also had some great bars.

Other highlights of my days in Cape Town included a trip down to Boulders Beach in Simons Town, which is halfway down the Cape Peninsula. The beach is famous for its penguin colony, and I got lots of great photos. I also nearly got my ear bitten off by a penguin while trying to pose with it for a picture. We went there on Wednesday, which was Valentines Day. Either it's penguin mating season now or penguins also celebrate Valentines Day, cuz we saw quite a bit of penguin sex going on. We also saw some cute post-sex penguin cuddling. You can see my photos when I get back.

We also made it down to the tip of the peninsula to see Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope, which is where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet. I went to beaches on both sides and it's amazing how much warmer the Indian Ocean is. We spent one day driving along the east coast out to the Birkenhead Brewery, which is an American-style microbrewery. South Africans prefer lighter and smoother lagers in the harsh African sun, but it was really refreshing for me to drink a beer with some hops in it.

As to not totally stray away from the city's rich history I did manage to also make it out to Robben Island, which is where Mandela was imprisoned for 30 years (along with many of South Africa's other political prisoners). We had one guide who drove us around the island pointing out the limestone quarry where prisoners worked out in the sun all day, along with Robert Sebukwe's solitary confinement cabin. I impressed the heck out of the guide because I was the only one on the bus who knew who Robert Sebukwe was (he led the opposition to passbooks during apartheid). We had another guide inside the prison named Eugene who had spent 7 years as a prisoner there. I impressed him because I asked him if he had known Dennis Brutus (one of our Semester at Sea professors and the political activist who had South Africa banned from the Olympics). He said that he knew of him, but that he had arrived on the island shortly after Brutus' release. I was really impressed by Eugene. He had not an ounce of hatred or spite in him, and he took great pride in educating people about the history of Robben Island.

I did not manage to visit a township on this trip. I did so when I was on Semester at Sea, and it's just the kind of experience that you only need to do once. Most South Africans think that it's crazy or condescending to go there, but I had a very positive experience when I was there. Although it is kind of intrusive to go into a village of poverty with a busload of camera-touting tourists, many people were very receptive to our being there. Although not proud of their surroundings, many of the people whom I met there were grateful that we showed an interest in their situation. I also met some wonderful children there (see photo on AirTreks home page), and one of their mothers thanked us profusely for coming. She said that it was so important that we were there, because the only whites who had ever come to the townships were police, so that was all that her children knew of white people. She also had a very optimistic view about the world being better for her children than it was for her generation.

Most people say that the 'new' South Africa looks a lot like the old South Africa, but much has changed for the better and worse. For one, the economy is struggling. That's great if you're a foreign tourist taking advantage of the devalued rand. One reason that I'd consider going back to spend some time there is because I could get an amazing furnished apartment in a nice neighborhood with views of sunsets over the Atlantic for less than $700/month, which is what you need to spend for a CHEAP room in SF these days. It's really tough for young South Africans who want to go and travel, since the exchange rate is so heavily against them. When I was in Australia last year I was delighted at how cheap it was, and many young South Africans, including Ryan, are now heading to Australia to work because of the stronger currency!

Another major problem that the country is facing is crime. Although my experience was totally safe and unhassled, the spectre of crime is everywhere. Cape Town has managed to preserve the safety of its Central Business District (CBD) and neighboring tourist areas with an increased police presence and installation of cameras all over downtown. On the other hand, Johannesburg's CBD has totally deteriorated and virtually all business have moved out of town. There are now 5 star hotels in Jo'burg's CBD that have been abandoned and boarded up. Everyone that I met has had either their car or home broken into (often on more than one occasion), or has been mugged and/or carjacked.

Ryan was carjacked a few years ago in Jo'burg, so now he drives a carjack-proof vehicle. That would be a circa 1980 Renault that he doesn't even bother to lock because no one in their right mind would want to steal it. The radio has been stolen twice. After thieves smashed his window the first time he even put a sign on the winshield saying 'Please do not break glass - doors are unlocked' but that still didn't stop them from breaking the window and stealing his radio again.

On every block of the city there are at least 3-5 guys offering to 'watch' your car for you, since auto theft here is very high (but much more so in Jo'burg). It's customary to tip them a few rand, but since we would leave Ryan's Renault unlocked with the windows rolled down, there was really no point in paying someone to watch it.

As I mentioned in my last TJ entry, many people, both black and white, are quick to blame the crime on new immigrants from Africa. All of the crime in Ryan's neighborhood of Sea Point, and along the beach in Durban, seemed to be blamed on Nigerians. However one of the more positive things that I noticed on this visit was a large population of African immigrants who seemed to be very succesful. They were from all over the continent; Senegal, Ethiopia, Namibia, DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo - formerly Zaire). The Namibians whom I met seemed to be very well-educated and cosmopolitan (and the women were beatiful). Now that South Africa now longer has pariah status, many Africans are eager to come down here to take advantage of the country's developed economy and infrastructure.

It was also fun to hang out with young South Africans of all backgrounds. Most people my age were either in junior high or high school when apartheid ended, so it's a forgotten era to many of them. Most are not concerned with politics, but are concerned with the economy and crime.

Another touchy political issue here is affirmative action. As an outsider, one can easily understand why the policy exists and can also understand why it's so controversial. The current government is definitely talking out of both sides of its mouth, since just this week it was complaining about the 'brain drain' of doctors, lawyers and other professionals heading to Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the UK. On the other hand, it is very difficult for many qualified professionals to find work here because of affirmative action policies, or its simply becomes tedious or unproductive because employers must fill racial quotas in hiring, often with untrained or unskilled employees. This just seems to be one of the inevitable problems facing South Africa, and not anything for which I claim to have a better solution.

Oddly enough Semester at Sea was in town while I was there. It was nice to meet some cool people who were on it now (all of whom thought that I had the coolest job in the world), but we tried to avoid them as much as possible as I did not want to be mistaken for one of the 700 loud obnoxious 20-year-old American college students who had descened on Cape Town for 4 days.

Unfortunately the vacation portion of my trip has come to an end. I'm off to Zimbabwe now, and had to cut a day off of Victoria Falls because I was having too much fun in CT. It was also thunderstorming up there this weekend, so I didn't see any point in going. Zim has been politically shaky recently, and just today President Mugabe expelled the BBC correspondent and a South African journalist. It's probably better that I'll be going through customs at Vic Falls instead of Harare since I hopefully won't experience as much political hassle.

Sharp sharp everyone, and thanks to Ryan for showing me a great time.