South Africa Trip - Day 12: Returning to where it all started (6/15/10)

Today is a day for penguins!

Flew back to CT and then get down to Simon's town backpackers hostel down the coast from CT in what was a long and expensive cab ride. We check in, drop off our bags, and then head out to see the local penguin colony; I was super excited as it sounded like you get to mingle with penguins from what I read. We get there and it was not what I expected; its a park with elevated pathways that you have to stay on, however you do get to see many penguins, just don't get to get too close to them as I was hoping to.

The gang on the hostel balcony.

View from the hostel balcony. Not a bad view for our final stop.

Interesting street name. So we celebrated their openness.

We must be getting close.

Made it. Now lets try not to get too close. Your finger and wallet will both be hurt.

The penguins had these lil houses they could lay down in. Was cute.

Found a penguin I could pet. It wasnt as travel size as the other ones but it was a penguin :)

Me with all my lil penguins. Love them! I kept wondering if the 500R fine was worth just jumping over the railing and playing with the penguins until they came and stopped me. I did not do it, but I sure would love to.

After this we went down to the southern cape point (cape of good hope) and explored that area a bit before returning to the hostel to grab dinner down the street, have some beers and reminisce about the awesome trip we have finished as the others leave tomorrow.

They are excited they have baboons. I wonder where they are.

Oh there they are right in the middle of the street. Must have a death wish.  There were more up in the trees and what not as well. 

My bro and I at the Cape. We finally made it down here despite the baboons best efforts to stall us. 

Just a couple dudes enjoying the view of the southern point. 

Look at those clouds at the cape.

My bro and I down at the water's edge. 

View of the cape. Looks spectacular.

The gang at the Cape of Good Hope. Last picture of the trip of the 4 of us together.

South Africa Trip - Day 11: Soweto then WC match (6/14/10)

Sign as we enter the Soweto neighborhood. 

Woke up early so we could fit in the tour of Soweto before the WC match. Exploring the area is very humbling and amazing. Our guide took us around and into some of the shanty towns where we were able to see that these giant ghettos are pretty impressive; people are friendly, they have many of the normal community establishments (we went into one of the bars and got some beer where they had a little pool table and some neon signs), and we even go to play soccer with some of them which was a lot of fun. 

One of the shanty towns. We had seen some of this in Cape Town on the first few days, but here, they are in giant swaths throughout JoBerg. The highest congregation of them being Soweto.

Some artist painted the old smoke stacks. I thought it was a great idea and good use of previous buildings that are no longer useful. 

Us walking through a shanty town. Our driver guided us around and was also a pretty awesome tour guide. 

Here he is giving us a tour of some of the buildings for the shanty town. I believe this was the bar where we bought some beers for the road to the game.

Sidenote: that is one of the reasons I really love soccer – all you need is a ball, as I travel I see people playing soccer on all kinds of terrains, with all kinds of goals, and a range of shoes (sometimes bare feet is all that is needed). Another impressive aspect of these shanty towns is their sheer size; I think they cover more area then the city I am from and have significantly more people, a true city within a city. I imagined a small group here and there like in cape town; you really need to see it to really grasp the size of Soweto. Got to see the house Mandela used to live in, as well as some museums which were informative and great to visit. We then headed to the main stadium (where the final will be held) to watch the match between Holland and Denmark; lackluster game with the first goal being an own goal (Holland won 2-0). 

We are high tailing it to the game. The walk from the drop off to the stadium was quite the distance. It felt like we were walking forever before we got there.

We finally made it to the stadium. Now time to go in and catch the action.

Vuvuzellas are the devil's horn. People are enjoying the action.

Final score of the game. 

The gang after the game with some creepers, soon to be friends hovering in the background.

Was a great atmosphere; during the game – flags waving everywhere, people cheering and in a generally festive vibe, after the game – a South African guy came up and offered to paint our faces with green and yellow paint (all but S let him). After the stadium cleared out and we were ready to leave, we headed over to get picked up from a gas station; as we waited we hung out with some locals and some foreign fans where some shared their beers with us as we just talked to even more friendly and fun folks. 

Creeper felt bad about being in our picture, so he offered to face paint us. He wound up face painting a good dozen people after the game. 

Creeper does good work. My bro and I after the game before we start heading back. 

Some people we met in the parking lot as we waited for our ride back to the hostel. They had some beers and offered to share some, which was really nice of them. It was like a post-game tailgate.

We went into the city for dinner and watched some soccer in the “quad” where the city had put up a projector on a large canvas to show the games; was nice as all the restaurants/bars around there had plenty of patio seating and the quad itself was full of chairs for everyone to enjoy the games in public. Eventually we got back to hostel to watch some more soccer (its the thing to do during the WC) and took it easy as we have to fly back to CT tomorrow morning.

The watch party in the square where we ate dinner. I forget who Paraguay played in this game but it was nice watching so many people hanging out together watching a match.

Clearly I didnt hear them say look over here. Too enthralled in the match I guess. 

South Africa Trip - Day 10: Free Day in Jo-berg (6/13/10)

Woke up and S was sleeping with a mattress on top of him. I was curious as to what happened and after talking to some of our roommates, we found out a few things: 1) J somehow fell, mattress and all, onto S and they slept like that for a little bit before J slowly struggled to get out, leaving the mattress there. 2) leaving the bathroom, I see J jump into the first bunk, where I tried telling him that's not his bunk without response so I go to bed. I then hear other people in the room trying to get him out of their buddies bed. 3) After J fails to take Cs pillow, he karate chops a bunk bed which was fortunately empty.  And 4) J got out of bed missing a sock, goes outside for ~5 mins before returning empty handed and returning to bed. 

One of the casualties of the night before. The mattress is missing.

Post long night breakfast. So delicious! 

We all talk about this the next day and none of us remembered any of this, thank goodness for neighbors. Since it was such a long night, we took today as a relax day chilling around the hostel and then going shopping and picking up our match tickets for the game the next day.

First stop, acquiring the tickets for tomorrows match. Check! We are good to go. 

The ticket center had this sign nearby. Gotta make you feel safe no?

This beer has some knowledge to drop. I wonder why we put stuff like this on cigarettes and not alcohol. 

Taking a break from shopping to grab some beers at the shopping center. They were handing out SA flags so of course I took some and flew them with pride. 

This was a group of local students who showed up with their teacher to play many songs. At one point they started playing Toto's Africa, which was awesome. Love that song.  Yet another awesome experience.

Chilling at the hostel that night while watching the matches. 

Those are not all mine? 

South Africa Trip - Day 9: Long day into Jo-berg (6/12/10)

The GWR certificate for the abseiling we are unable to do. Shame!

We decided since no abseiling was possible, we would take horses to view the waterfall we were supposed to abseil down; I will let it be known here that I do not like riding horses as I have had bad experiences falling off them mainly in Peru, so I was not looking forward to this. 

I am ready for the horse. The question is, is it ready for me?

The ride is shaky as the walk is muddy and hilly and my horse seems to be struggling to find decent footing and not listening when I try to communicate what seems like an easy path. We eventually get there and the sights are breathtaking; beautiful, huge waterfall with lush vegetation all around and mountains everywhere. 

One of the many amazing views from the horse trip.

Thar she is. That is the waterfall we should be abseiling down. It is huge!

My bro and I at the waterfall. I guess I should have read the memo about taking off the helmet for pictures. :)

The gang appreciating (and me blocking, sorry) the waterfall. It was definitely appreciated that the weather cooperated for this trek.

Even better was the few signs of civilization were simple fences and ranches and homes that made you feel like you were really removed from it all; I like having that feeling every now again. We head back with the same shaky horses and get back to the cabin to have lunch before we headed back on that road of death to leave L. 

One of the many troubled spots on the road in/out of the hotel we stayed in. Keep in mind this is nicer than it looked the day before. 

So when there arent pot holes and steep cliffs threatening your drive, there is livestock (in this case, donkeys) in the way. We also saw herds of sheep and people walking on said road.

Not all is bad about the road; this view is one of the great things about driving on a rural, mountain road.

Some houses nestled among the mountains. 

I found a soccer field in Lesotho. This picture embodies one of the main reasons I love soccer; you can play anywhere. Love the beautiful game!

Who needs to make a phone call? We didnt stop but there were numerous stalls like this in Lesotho. I wondered if it was actually a pay phone in there or if its just graffiti. 

Way down wasn't too bad as we were going with gravity at all the horrible parts and it was a little drier as it wasn't raining/snowing today. Get back across the border, get into Jo-berg and drop the rental car off before getting a cab to our hostel (Gemini backpackers). Check in, get our bunks (we are in a room of about 10 bunks – afterwards I found out that we paid ~60$ each for a bunk in a 10 bed room; that is what the WC does for lodging), then go to the hostel bar to grab a beer to celebrate our arrival. We get our beers and go chill by the fire outside while talking to our compatriots there to see the WC. @~4am C and I go to bed while S and J keep going with the group.

There was a flame twirler at the hostel, so after a few drinks, I decided to go chat and give it a try. 

I am giving it my all. The guy was freaking amazing at his art. I was spastic and eventually hit myself with the fireball. I never was good at nun-chuck activities