Seeing the peninsula and more of Cape Town

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As for my travel entry! Here are some more pictures form the Peninsula tour! The light house is no longer in service and there is another one which is built on a lower cliff. I shot a video of a penguin walking at Boulder Beach however, I don’t believe I can post it! Sorry, but they are so adorable when they walk… if you can just imagine!
When we visited Robben Island we saw more penguins and some elk.
Here’s one of my favorite pictures from the Freshers Braai we went to on campus. Jess and I went to a Sundowners (going to the beach to watch the sunset) the week of orientation. While everyone was playing rugby, soccer, and other beach games we went rock climbing.
Funny story: We found some really big rocks right in the middle of the big waves (we had to do some tunnel crawling to get there) and I was taking some pictures of the waves. I wanted to get a good video and we saw this wave turning in the ocean thinking it may be a good one. As it approached it looked doubtful so I didn’t shoot a video but then… it was the biggest wave yet! I took a picture of it, not at a good time though because we had to run from it. We were then stranded on this rock while the waves curled back into the ocean. They were some of the most amazing waves I have ever seen!
This Sunday I am going to the Kirstenbach Botanical Gardens again, but here are some pictures from when some of the girls and I went for Jess’s birthday. It was great because we got to walk through a perfume garden and smell some amazing plants and look at/read about many traditional plants that are still used for healing. They have concerts every Sunday and we hope to hike there and catch a show with the rest of our program.
Monday after class we went downtown to Green Market Square. Green Market is a large open area which is covered tent after tent with vendors of African sculptures, paintings, jewelry, etc. Of course it’s easy to get ripped off but you have to do a lot of bargaining which is fun. I felt bad though because I went just to look. While we were waiting to leave we started talking to some boys begging for money, and they told us to buy from their friends stand. They play soccer and are studying in school. It was cool because we didn’t just walk on by and say we had nothing to give but got to know a bit about them. Many of the vendors come in from the townships and every day cart in boxes of these hand made goods, while other make them on the spot. I noticed pretty much everyone had the same things which will make bargaining easier I hope.
I took a few shots of the gardens which are in the back of parliament. One of my favorites is of the school girls walking through the gardens. The educations system here revolves around uniforms, public or private schools.


CAPE TOWN NEWS! When I arrived on Feb 1st the mountain had just finished burning. Someone was driving along and threw their cigarette out the window which started one of the worst fires in recent history. This is their dry season and it has rained… once since we have been here. Today walking back from town we noticed the mountain is on fire again. I have not heard why but it’s so weird because it is so close. My house mates friend joked that it was a tourist.
Although I understand many fires are good and they help to replenish the earth, it is unfortunate when senseless errors are the cause of more serious destruction. The fire this time is by Keirstenbach so I hope they get it under control before it gets close to the townships and botanical gardens!

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