Cape Town, South Africa

 

The night before we arrived in Cape Town the captain advised us to prepare our cabins for very rough seas as we were sailing around the Cape of Good Hope.  This is where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet.  We were advised to take anything breakable from the shelves and desk and put on the floor or couch to prevent breakage.  Also because of the narrowness of the passageway into the harbor, he would have to bring in the stablizers exacerbating the ship’s movements.  So we were prepared, but it was actually a pretty calm night.

 

                                             Robben's Island
 

 

We loved Cape Town for its beauty and for the friendliness of the people. Cape Town is a city with quite a story.  It is made up of three major ethnic groups, the whites, the blacks, and the “coloreds.”  The coloreds are peoples who are descendants of slaves brought in from Malaysia and India.   Apartheid started in the 1948 with coming to power of the National Party, dividing land between the racial groups.  Many blacks and coloreds were forced out of their homes and relocated.  Blacks and coloreds were forced to carry passes to enter the “white only” areas of the city.   Nelson Mandela (just recently passed away, and Desmond Tutu, lead efforts fight back for equality.  We planned to go to the Robben Island Prison where Nelson Mandela was for 37 years, but the seas were too rough to go by ferry.

 

 

Our visits in Cape Town took us to museums which portrayed this period of time. 

 

 

This woman spoke to us at the District Six museum.  Her family was evicted by force from their home and the neighborhood razed.

 

We visited areas of town that were very affluent and others with people as in “informal living arrangements” (squatters). 

 

 

 

The brightly colored homes in the Muslim area.

 

We were able to take a cable car to the top of “Table Mountain” to view the city and the Cape.

 

 

     

        We were excited to see our friends Jay and Jean rejoin the cruise after leaving in Hong Kong.