for anyone who's interested, I'm sorting through and putting the best pictures of the trip in a set on my flickr account (I am still figuring out exactly how it works):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jjwalsh3/sets/72157627484002383/
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Sunday, September 4, 2011
27-29/07/11
Peter drove us to the bus station early that morning, but not before one last stop at McDonald’s. The trip to Maputo was long but uneventful and once we arrived we took a chapa to the USAID compound where Erin and I were staying at Polly and Moha’s. Originally we were only going to stay a night, but then Erin learned her best friend from her PCV group was going to be traveling through Maputo and so we decided to stay another day so Erin could meet up with her. I took advantage of the extra day to go by the immigration office and ask some questions about renewing my visa. We had already split up with Scooter and Ann as they would be spending the next week running the REDES conference.
Erin and I left on the third day, taking a chapa to the egde of the city and then hitchhiking from there. The first ride we got was great: a fast, nice, air conditioned car, with a Mozambican driver who had lived in South Africa for some time and so spoke very good English. We talked about politics and then listened to some of his music: American hip hop, but way before our time and he was disappointed when we barely recognized any of it. He took us to Xai-Xai and from there we got a second, much quieter ride with an Asian couple.
When I arrived back at the mission, it seemed completely deserted. It was the middle of a two week holiday so no students were at the school and all the orphans had gone to live with whatever relatives they had elsewhere. And Scooter was gone.
Erin and I left on the third day, taking a chapa to the egde of the city and then hitchhiking from there. The first ride we got was great: a fast, nice, air conditioned car, with a Mozambican driver who had lived in South Africa for some time and so spoke very good English. We talked about politics and then listened to some of his music: American hip hop, but way before our time and he was disappointed when we barely recognized any of it. He took us to Xai-Xai and from there we got a second, much quieter ride with an Asian couple.
When I arrived back at the mission, it seemed completely deserted. It was the middle of a two week holiday so no students were at the school and all the orphans had gone to live with whatever relatives they had elsewhere. And Scooter was gone.
26/07/11: Day 10 in Cape Town and Traveling to Joburg
It was pretty depressing as we spent the last morning in Cape Town slowly packing up our things and saying goodbye to a hostel that had come to feel very much like home over the past few days. Even the backpackers felt empty though, with all of the friends we had made already left. For breakfast we finished up any leftover food from all the groceries we had bought at the beginning of the trip and then for lunch we went to a Japanese restaurant from which the taxi picked us up and took us to the airport.
A smooth slight and a short wait in the Johannesburg airport later, a man from the hostel we would be staying overnight at picked us up and took us to the mall where John and Yvette would be picking us up again for dinner. In case there was any question of whether we were in Joburg or not, during our wait at the mall we managed to see a guy get arrested for robbing a store, the police handcuffing him to a shopping cart before taking them away.
John and Yvette took us to their friends’ house where we were gracious welcomed. We ate delicious butternut squash soup, vegetable lasagna, and baked apples and met Jesse Eyesensnorts, their cute rescue pug named for his cartoonish, bulging eyes and characteristic sniffles.
A smooth slight and a short wait in the Johannesburg airport later, a man from the hostel we would be staying overnight at picked us up and took us to the mall where John and Yvette would be picking us up again for dinner. In case there was any question of whether we were in Joburg or not, during our wait at the mall we managed to see a guy get arrested for robbing a store, the police handcuffing him to a shopping cart before taking them away.
John and Yvette took us to their friends’ house where we were gracious welcomed. We ate delicious butternut squash soup, vegetable lasagna, and baked apples and met Jesse Eyesensnorts, their cute rescue pug named for his cartoonish, bulging eyes and characteristic sniffles.
25/07/11: Day 9 in Cape Town: the Wine Tour
Paul, Carlos, and Samir were all headed out that morning so we said our goodbyes before we left on the tour. The tour guide picked us up right outside the backpackers and took us directly to the first vineyards. We had managed to convince Patrick and Dennis spend their last day on the tour with us rather than hiking up Table Mountain as, with the vicious winds that had been buffeting the city and the clouds that had been covering the plateau top over the last few days, they were liable to get blown off the mountain and wouldn’t be able to see anything even if they made it to the top. We turned out to be right; the countryside vineyard gave us a spectacular view of the city and mountain which was still capped in cloud.
For the tour, two South African tour guides took us and another group or tourists by five vineyards over the course of the day, teaching us about the history of the South African wine industry and how one properly samples wine with the 5 S’s (Sight, Smell, Sip, Savor, and something else).
It was at the third stop that the estate owner commented on Scooter, Erin, and Ann’s matching purple scarves that they had purchased earlier that week, asking if they were some sort of team. “Yeah,” responded a slightly buzzed Scooter, “Team Awesome.” “That’s such an American response,” he replied.
After a full day of sampling wine, our tour guides gave us a short quiz on wine industry trivia we had supposedly picked up on the tour. But while Patrick and Dennis got our team quite a few points for creativity, it was the other group that won the bottle of wine.
For the tour, two South African tour guides took us and another group or tourists by five vineyards over the course of the day, teaching us about the history of the South African wine industry and how one properly samples wine with the 5 S’s (Sight, Smell, Sip, Savor, and something else).
It was at the third stop that the estate owner commented on Scooter, Erin, and Ann’s matching purple scarves that they had purchased earlier that week, asking if they were some sort of team. “Yeah,” responded a slightly buzzed Scooter, “Team Awesome.” “That’s such an American response,” he replied.
After a full day of sampling wine, our tour guides gave us a short quiz on wine industry trivia we had supposedly picked up on the tour. But while Patrick and Dennis got our team quite a few points for creativity, it was the other group that won the bottle of wine.
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