The storm brought forth it's finale on our third day in South Africa - gale force winds, hail and rain. During the hail storm, we were at the Two Oceans Aquarium,  watching the penguins freak out due to the noise the hail made on the tin roof over their habitat. It was pretty funny. They would look up, nervously, at the ceiling and then waddle in and out of their little huts. It was like the cartoons where one of the characters would run back and forth in a panic until the more level-headed character gave him a good slap across the face to calm him down. But sadly, no one could calm down these little guys. 

The hail only lasted about 5 minutes and then things went back to normal, but some of the penguins remained cautious and confused.  Here are some photos/videos:

The penguins above did not trust the lady feeding them and she eventually gave up. I think they were paranoid from hail storm and they had a baby in their cave.

The aquarium was the perfect activity for a rainy day. We saw lots of different fish - many from the Indian Ocean which were new to us. They had a great shark exhibit and at 3pm we watched the divers feed the sharks.  This sounded great in theory, but it wasn't as exciting as we had anticipated. 

After the Aquarium, we drove to the Hotel Mt. Nelson for high tea. This was my first time having high tea and I enjoyed it very much! 

The clouds started to break apart by sunset, but it was still raining & windy.  We drove to the west side of town and watched the sunset from the car which was spectacular! I didn't have my good camera with me, so the pictures don't do it justice.

Penguins & Rainbows
The next day was far less rainy, so we decided to drive down to the Cape of Good Hope. On the way, we stopped at a penguin colony and enjoyed watching the penguins in their natural habitat. If it didn't start to rain, I could have watched them for another hour!  

BaBOOn!
After visiting the penguins, we drove throughout Cape Point National park, where we saw many different animals and stunning views of the ocean.   At one point, I was taking a picture of the cliffs and a baboon appeared very close in my lens. I was so startled, I let out a little yell, grabbed Chris and ran away.  We then turned around (from a safer distance) and I snapped a couple shots of the baboon.  There were some locals parked nearby that found this very funny and told us that as long as we didn't have food in our bags, the baboons wouldn't bother us.  Although we didn't have food on us, we still didn't feel any better about being 20 feet away from a big baboon and walked back to the car. 

Our pictures might be hanging in Pakistan
When we were at the Cape of Good Hope, a bus full of Pakistani tourists pulled up.  There must have been 30 guys, taking pictures and enjoying the view.  Chris and I were navigating our way across the rocks to get back to our car when two of the guys stopped us and asked for a picture (they didn't speak English - they just showed us their camera). Chris figured they wanted him to take a picture of them so he smiled, said yes and went to grab the camera. One of the guys said no and pointed at him and the other guy. Chris was confused and then realized the other guy wanted a picture with him. So he posed for the picture - smiling with some random dude from Pakistan. Then the guy gave his friend the camera and stood next to me indicating he wanted a picture with me.  Before I knew it,  he was next to me smiling and his friend snapped a picture.  They thanked us and then ran toward the ostrich and started snapping photos with the bird.  

We started laughing once we got back to the car, thinking about the stories they might tell about us when sharing photos from their holiday. They didn't even know what country we were from.  We imagined the voiceover when they shared the photos with their families - Here is the Cape of Good Hope, here is an ostrich, here are some odd looking foreigners - the man was 8 feet tall and the girl had crazy hair, here is a rainbow.  I wish we took a picture with them!

A Beautiful Drive
The rest of the drive was just stunning. Check out some of the photos below. 

We finished the day at the Royale Eatery, a gourmet burger place on Long Street, before heading off to the Winelands the next morning.

Our second morning in Cape Town was a daze, due to head colds, jet lag, and the storm that had rolled in. We dragged ourselves out of bed for the hotel's complimentary breakfast. When we arrived in the Taj dining room we were shocked by the variety of delicious food - fresh fruits, eggs, traditional Indian breakfast, cheeses, sushi, different pastries & breads, and fresh juices.  We truly fed our colds. 

We spent the remainder of the morning relaxing (or in my case sleeping). In the afternoon, the downpour turned to drizzle, so we walked a few blocks to see the District Six Museum. 

Here we learned a lot about Apartheid and South Africa's recent history.  District Six was a diverse neighborhood in downtown Cape Town until the 1970's, when the apartheid government forced 60,000 inhabitants to leave and move to townships located further outside the city.  The pro-apartheid government gave a couple reasons for the removals:

1) They made it illegal for races to mix, saying interracial interaction bred conflict.  This was a very diverse neighborhood so they separated everyone to facilitate compliance with the law. 

2)They deemed District Six a slum full of crime, prostitution, gambling and drinking. They said it wasn't even fit for rehabilitation so it had to be destroyed. 

While these were the official reasons given by the government, many people believed they did it because they wanted the land, which is located close to the harbour, city center and Table Mountain. 

In 1968, the government declared Disctrict 6 a Whites Only neighborhood, and by 1982 over 60,000 people had been relocated to Cape Flats township, a very bleak, sad place. We would later drive by a stretch of shanties in the Cape Flats area on our way back from the Winelands/Hermanus - they looked even worse than the favelas in Brazil. 

After removing the residents, the government bulldozed the entire town to the ground, leaving only places of worship. It remained vacant for a while, but then the government built the Cape Technikon (now a Technical University) over much of District 6. 

When Apartheid ended in 1994, the South African government recognized claims of former inhabitants.  The first former residents moved back in 2004 - over 30 years after being removed.  Many people are still trying to get their properties back, but it seems like a long and complicated process.

The museum was built in 1994 to honor the memory of what District 6 was before the bulldozing. There are photographs of families, shops, and schools - everyday things that we all take for granted because we don't think they will just disappear one day. They recreated beauty salons with actual products from the 60's. They also recreated people's homes, hanging pictures of their families on the wall.  

They displayed signs, like the one below, from when the government was removing people of color from the neighborhood. 

They also had video from former residents who walked through the district and shared their memories, including the awful memories of being forced to leave.  They also had tiles featuring poems from those people who were removed and a giant street map on the floor with notes from former residents on the images of buildings where they lived.

This was a very enlightening experience. While we learned a lot about the recent history of South Africa, we probably only scratched the surface.  It's sad to think about how all this happened so recently. If we had been born in South Africa, we would have lived under an apartheid regime until our teens!  While we grew up encouraged by our parents, government and teachers to embrace diversity and tolerance and to celebrate civil rights, the South African government was mandating the exact opposite to its people.  But all that changed in 1994. I remember hearing about Mandela in the news, knowing it was  a big deal but not truly appreciating what this accomplishment meant to the country.

That evening, we went out to dinner at Momma Africa on Long Street to listen to live music.  We were still talking about District Six when we arrived, but all that changed once the band came on - which consisted of a few bongos, a trombone, trumpet, xylophone, cowbell and triangle. They were amazing!  We literally both had fevers, and the only prescription was more cowbell :)

Despite our colds, Chris feasted on a range of local game, which will surely make an appearance in a future post!

After 2 days of plane travel, we landed in Cape Town at 7:30am.  Unlike in the UK, going through border control and customs was a fairly quick process and we were able to pick up the car rental and find our hotel in town within the next hour and a half.  We got a great rate at the Taj in downtown Cape Town and were eager to check in to a nice plush room.  The Taj is a beautiful hotel in an old bank building right in the heart of downtown Cape Town - walking distance from many landmarks and Long Street, known for its restaurants and nightlife.  We attempted to check in early but our room was not yet ready.  To kill some time, we checked our bags and went to a local cafe for some coffee (flat whites!) and a fruit smoothie for me as I had developed a head cold on the plane.  

While waiting, we read the local paper and the big headline was one that was all too familiar to us: BIG STORM THIS WEEKEND. BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES. 

Nuts.  

The weatherman predicted gale force winds, relentless rain and a possibility of hail for the next three days.  I guess they heard we were coming!

After a few expletives, we realized this wasn't that bad. We had phenomenal weather in South America and decent weather in PR. Plus, I had a cold coupled with jetlag and needed some rest and Chris felt he would soon follow my lead.  So it was good that we had an excuse to relax indoors for a couple of days, especially since we had such a lovely hotel booked.

We also decided to capitalize on the remainder of the sunny day at hand, as the rain would arrive first thing the next morning. After our snack we walked to the V&A Waterfront, which is a marina with lots of restaurants, bars and shops. It's a touristy area, similar to Navy Pier in Chicago.  We walked around a bit, and when we sat down on a bench to admire the view of Table Mountain, I immediately fell asleep in the sun (one of my favorite ways to pass time). 

We walked back to the hotel before lunchtime and our room was ready!  A welcome sight after two consecutive nights on a plane:

After a quick shower and change, we decided to take the car out to Kirstenboch Botanical Gardens, which is located 20 minutes outside the city. We explored the gardens for a couple of hours, admiring the view of the mountains and the city. We enjoyed learning about the vast variety of plant species.   We probably could have spent more time there, but were pretty tired at that point.  Here are some highlights from the gardens:

After our visit to the gardens, we drove back along the coast to watch the spectacular sunset!

We arrived back to our room around 7pm and were so tired that we ordered room service and turned in for the night. 

...and it is spectacular! We will write more soon but, in the meantime, here is a sneak preview of what we've seen so far:)