June 14 2011: Cape Town, Robben Island, and Quiz Night

Today we got the first taste of that South African winter that they promised! It's cold today, about 55F, and rainy. You can't even see the mountains. We had class inside all day today though, so it didn't really affect us too badly. Since it's not that nice outside I decided to stay in this evening and work on getting caught up.  Yesterday was the first class excursion for our program. Early in the morning we loaded up two charter busses and drove the half hour back through the cape winelands to Cape Town. On the way the busses on the N2 drove past miles and miles of South African townships. On the way in I guess we were so excited and tired that we didn't really think much about them, but this time it was like watching a car wreck. For miles and miles you just couldn't look away. It was pretty much silent on the bus as we left the winelands and entered the cape flats where the townships are located. The contrast between the Stellenbosch and the winelands in general is thrown into sharp contrast with the cape flats as you drive back into Cape Town.

 This is the view out my window of the cape winelands as we leave Stellenbosch.

As we drove towards the Cape the view was really humbling. Here is one of the townships in the cape flats. They go on for miles and miles. The picture really doesn't do justice the the immense levels of poverty. The houses are simply thrown together from whatever can be found, mostly scrap metal, and crammed together. This is one of the reminders of the longtime Apartheid government.






Shortly after leaving the flats we arrived in Cape Town. The little ferry to Robben Island left from the Cape Town harbor, so that's where we drove to. The water was pretty choppy on the way to Robben Island, and it was lots of fun standing at the front of the boat! Robben Island was actually pretty far out from land, and it took nearly an hour each way.

Robben Island has served as a leper's colony, a military base during the Second World War, and notoriously as a high security prison for South African political prisoners. It was a sort of cross between Alcatraz and Guantanamo. Almost all of the most famous South African leaders spent time there during the Apartheid years, including most famously Nelson Mandela.

 The first view of Robben Island sailing up. It's actually way bigger than I expected it to be. It not only housed the prison, but also a village for the military personnel, the guards, and their families, which included a grocery store, a church, a school, and a post office.










One of the coolest things about the tour is that all of the tour guides are former prisoners there. The live in the village now, along with some of the former guards (who I was told also give some tours) and the maintenance staff of Robben Island (it's a world heritage site now, and runs like a museum). Our guide didn't say why he was in, but he was a political prisoner during Apartheid, and he told us that he used to work in the kitchens.

 This is another one of the prison barracks on the Island.

The waves were huge on the island, and the coast is covered in sharp rocks. I can't imagine how hard it would have been to try to swim off, but they told us that there is a race every year from the island to the mainland! The currents are really strong and it takes over four hours to swim the whole way.

After a driving tour around the island to the guards village, the leper colony area, and parts of the former military base, we were dropped off at the prison where the guide walked us around on foot.

This is the cell where Nelson Mandela spent most of his time on Robben Island. I tried to get a picture but there were lots of crazed South African tourists who kept pushing me out of the way. He is a hero here, so I don't really blame them. It made it really hard to get a good shot though.

This is a picture of the stone quarry where the prisoners worked mining lime stone.















After the tour we left Robben Island and sailed back to Cape Town. We didn't have much time left, the boat ride was very slow coming back against the wind. We got a little bit of time to look around the Victoria and Alfred (V&A) Waterfront. It's a Cape Town landmark and apparently one of the "must see" things. All of the restaurants and shops were really expensive though, so a few of us just walked around and looked around the waterfront.

 A picture of me with a cannon.

 You could see some of Cape Town's mountains in the background. I was thinking: where else can you see mountains like that on the coast? You can see that the clouds are starting to come in. That's the cold front and rain that hit last night!

 This is a picture I took of one of the buildings on the waterfront. We had some time to kill, so me and some friends walked around taking pictures while most people ate. I decided it made much better sense to eat back in Stellenbosch where I can have a good meal for less than R30. (I was actually able to have lunch for 10 the other day. We went to a Donner Kebap place in town! That's barely more than $1USD!)

There were a lot of really nice yachts and sailboats sailing around Cape Town. This is another picture of some of the V&A buildings.

Here we are hanging out at the waterfront. Some tourists asked me to take their picture and offered to take one of us in return.










After the waterfront we drove back to Stellenbosch. Apparently every Tuesday here is "quiz night" at one of the local restaurants. It was like a trivia game. There were small prizes for the winner, although my team wasn't really that good. We hope that next week we'll do better. The questions were really hard though. They ranged from topics on Celtic mythology to South African pop culture, to science, etc. Pretty much everything was free game!  I guess I've got to study up on everything for next week's quiz!