Hop on and Off

---

Today we had no real plans to do anything in particular. At breakfast we discussed taking the hop on and hop off bus tour as it headed around the entire city. You know, the big large red double decker ones, where you can't help but look touristy. I had never been on one before and Jared mentioned only experiencing it once in London. As always the price was reasonable and it stopped at some of the stops we were interested in seeing. One in particular was Table Mountain. Lucky for us the bus stopped right by where we were staying so it was extremely convenient. Once on the bus we thought instead of Table Mountain we should go to Kirstenbosch National Botanical Gardens to see the new Canopy Tree Walk that was just built and completed in 2014. In addition to that, we found, a World of Birds and Monkey sanctuary. Our last two days in Cape Town didn't have to be rushed so might as well right?

The hop on and off tour bus actually deemed to be a pretty convenient way to get around the busy city. It basically stopped at all the must see places in Cape Town. One place in particular I had read about was the Greenmarket Square, which advertised itself as an African arts and crafts market with ethnically inspired clothing and jewelry. This market happened to be off the infamous Long street, the one previously described in the last blog. We got off the bus and walked down the cobbled stone road to find the same ole touristy crap. This area was not very populated and we were approached numerous times for money and help. At one point in time, one of the vendors told the pan handler to leave us alone and to go on and get (as the southern's say). As we were walking around the numerous tents we began to realize all these ethnic crafts are mass produced and it was Sunday so everyone had a "good price". Jared had found an African mask that he was interested in, and the vendor told him they were handcrafted and carved by his grandfather. HA! A couple of tents later we saw the same ones. If you are going to SA avoid this area, its not what it appears to be. Needless to say we didn't stay long and we were back on the bus.

Our next stop was the Kirstenbosch Gardens. As beautiful as this sounds, we were on one mission only and that was to find the Canopy Tree Walk. At this point we are now starting to get irritated by all the rude foreigners. Yes I said it, the foreigners are rude. American's are the most polite travelers in my opinion. People were pushing and shoving in and out of line, and if you didn't move out of their way, they would run you over with their strollers. Jared and I decided going into the gardens, we were going to have the same mentality and curb the politeness. After a brisk walk through the gardens we found the awaited Tree Walk. Of course it was packed full of our favorite tourists. This walk is kind of disappointing as its not very long, however a very neat vantage point through the trees. After the short walk, we strolled along with the gardens on our way out. Being as this is South Africa's start of winter there weren't that many flowers, or plants in bloom. After knocking a few strollers and people out of the way, we were back on the bus to the Birds of Prey exhibit.

One thing to take note is the ever changing climate of Cape Town. You will be in sunny warm weather one minute and the next cloudy, misty cold weather. The weather changes at any given moment. We were now in the ideal McMillan type weather (raining and cold). We arrived at the World of birds and noticed no one else was getting off the bus. As it was advertised through the audio tour as a "must see" we thought this was strange. Then it hit us, the stench from all the bird shit! We paid our 60R and entered into what look like Joe Dirt's back yard. Lots of cages and oh god the smell. We walked through their circular pathway that lead from one stinky cage to the next. Oh and if you could make it past the smell you would noticed birds above your head who were about to shit all over you. What we would call Pigeons in America are known as birds of prey to South African's. They were everywhere you looked. You were trapped in a cage with them. It was a maze to dodge the amount of shit that could potentially end up in your hair or clothes. Oh and not to mention the rats that were running everywhere, even dead in drains. I would love to go into the historic detail of why this exist but then you might not laugh as hard as i did at the last paragraph. Once out of the bird cage we were on a mission to find the monkeys. Walking through this trailer park of birds, we noticed everyone else felt the same way about the smell as we did because they were all covering their noses. We could not find the exit so we proceeded with caution to the monkeys.

First off we should be clear about what type of monkeys they have trapped in here with the birds. They are not the monkeys you see at the zoo, nor do they look healthy. They are all tiny, and I did not document what type of monkeys they were, so I apologize I just wanted to have my interaction and get the hell out. We went into a cage where we could make contact with these fury yellow creatures. We were told not to touch the monkeys, but somehow they could touch you kind of like a strip club. They would jump out of trees onto you, and some were even trying to bite through your pants. We sat on a bench, so the farm help could throw seeds at us, attracting the monkeys from all over the place in order to get the perfect picture.. To me this was extremely amusing. They would pounce on you and dig through your clothes and hair. After our short interaction we were out of there. Lucky for us the bus was waiting and we were gladly back on. We just couldn't get the smell out of nose!

Once we were back on the bus we decided we had enough and went for cocktails and dinner. We found a really cool outside cafe that had wifi and stopped in for some cheese, wine and of course beer. We sat and people watched for about an hour. Dinner was simple at a place that was recommended from the lady and off to bed we went!

Pictures to follow.

---