Hey everyone!

Sorry that its taken me a few days to update about South Africa. The ships email has been TERRIBLE and every time I finish typing everything to email to my blog, it freezes and kicks me off. Gotta love it here. This is why I never use my minimal amount of internet time I have on the ship because its soooo slow its not even worth it. Anyways, about Cape town...

 

 

CAPE TOWN IS THE MOST AMAZING PLACE IN THE WHOLE WORLD!!!

I kept referring to it as Disney world. It is such a beautiful place with so much to see and do. I don't think for this post I will tell you what I did each day but rather just some highlights because I know most people are just curious as to what I did overall not all the annoying details that I love to put into my stories. If you really want more detail, email me at asflewelling@semesteratsea.net!!!!

 

So basically we were supposed to arrive into Cape town on Thursday however the winds were so bad, 50 knots and higher, that we couldn't dock. We spent the day on the ship literally watching movies allll dayyyy longggg. It was quite boring. The next day we finally got to dock at around 12. The sight of cape town with table mountain over looking the entire city was absolutely breathtaking. An image I cannot get out of my head. Mark my words, I am going back one day! Friday was spent just searching around the waterfront area, getting some food and such. We went to table mountain that night for the sunset. We had planned on hiking it but there was a U2 concert in Cape Town which held up traffic so bad we had to take the aerial car up instead just to make sunset.
Seeing the sunset on top of table mountain overlooking the harbor and the city... breathtaking. No, breathtaking cannot describe it. There were clouds literally getting stuck on the mountain as they passed and slowly draping down the mountain like a waterfall almost. It was incredible.

 

Some other things I did the next few days was mostly shopping around and exploring the city. I saw a lot of key things about south Africa such as Cape point, the cape of good hope, 2 wineries which were absolutely amazing. Now I really like wine when I absolutely hated it before. I went to boulders beach which was home to so many African jackass penguins. They were so cute!!!! I also got to visit an orphanage. We didn't get to play with the kids because they were all napping which was really a disappointment but one little boy, no older than 1 1/2 kept staring at me and I kept making a monkey face at him and he would giggle so cutely and try to do that face and he couldn't and he would just giggle some more. He was amazing, I just fell in love with him. After that we got to ride bikes through a township which was really cool. It was basically like the slums of South Africa which was really interesting to see not inside a bus. After we got to play soccer with the kids from the township which was so fun! Although I am absolutely terrible at soccer, I have to say I did really well. I even scored the winning goal for my team!!! (Anna Meyer, I know you'd be so proud) There was a little girl on my team who was about 8 or 9 who really attached to me and when I left she was like you're not leaving forever are you? and I was like unfortunately I am but I'll try to come back one day I promise and she cried telling me she didn't want me to leave. That was really upsetting. :/ Its hard when you attach to the kids in countries and you know you wont ever see them again.

 

Lastly, the most EXCITING THING I HAVE EVER DONE.... I rode elephants. Which most of you probably already see the pictures since ive already posted them but oh my gosh what a feeling. It was really so amazing. We got to this amazing almost resort where you can sleep above the pens where the elephants sleep at night which is just cool to even think about. They also do weddings and everything there and showed us all around the ceremonial buildings which was cool. We got to get up on the elephants and rode on them for about an hour where they just walked around grazing and such and we just did whatever they did. They even ran a little which was really interesting and really hard to stay on! After we got to feed them basically whole pineapple not even peeled so the pointy stuff and all. I got to hang out with little baby elephants and their moms. Holy big. It was so weird knowing they could literally crush you but they were so gentle at the same time. After that we went to Wild Cat Park. We got a tour around the facilities seeing animals and such and then the continuation of one of the greatest days of my life... I got to go into the adult cheetah pen and pet the cheetah. It was amazing. just feeling the cheetah purr was so crazy. (im starting to run out of words like crazy, exciting, indescribable. :P)  After we went into the white lion cub pen. Literally this was an out of body experience. They were ADORABLEEE!!! We got to go in and pet them but were annoyingly shooed out really quickly but they ended up bringing us back in because they didn't get good enough pictures of us so lexi and I were so excited. We got back in and they were so playful just biting my flip flops and nibbling at my ankles and fingers. OMG SOOOOO CUTE. One just put its huge paw on my foot which literally covered my whole foot even though it was so small and just looked at me and started licking me. (Mom, can we get oneeeeeee?) :D After we went into the cheetah cub pen and got to pet those too but they weren't as fun at the tigers but still adorable. After this incredible day we ended with local south African fast food. Wow so good. Their burgers had 1000 island dressing on one side of the bun and bbq sauce on the other side. and their French fries had an amazing seasoning on them... I am literally CRAVING this right now.

 

So basically South Africa was AMAZING. I wish I had 2 weeks, a month, a year there. I still don't think it would be enough. If you EVER get the chance to go there, please do. Its so beautiful and full of history and absolutely breathtaking with the views. Basically, I LOVE SOUTH AFRICA... even bought a sticker to prove it :D

 

I will be in Mauritius tomorrow for the day which I will only be laying on the beach all day soaking up the sun. If anything exciting happens I will post about it but most likely nothing will just sitting on the beach but we will see. After that is INDIA! yay!!!!!!

 

Missing everyone so much! Love ya all!

-Alicia