Tourists..

After a night of getting only a few hours of sleep, we left for a tour around the Cape. We were in a coach bus with a tour guide giving us information about the area. We got off the bus at certain stops. First, we went to a glass bottom boat tour. Unfortunately, it was raining pretty hard. Most of us tried to squeeze in the boat. We couldn't really see much and we were losing our balance from the rockiness of the boat. When we got close to an island of Seals, we went outside. It stopped raining and the view was amazing. I got some pictures.



Next we drove through the mountains to get to our next stop. We passed areas of houses that seemed to be fully functioning. Most of these houses had gates on the outside of them. I wonder if this is necessary. Some gates and fences even have spikes on them. I wonder if this became a social norm during the Apartheid, or maybe this security is needed. The windows have bars in front of them as well. I wonder if this does stop a lot of people from committing crimes. I can't help but compare this to America. Many suburb neighborhoods take pride in their lawns and the appearance of their house. Here, all you see is a gate. The for sale signs are on the gate for houses on the market. This has to make looking for a house much more difficult. You would not be able to just drive around and scope out the houses. Additionally, many of us do not have gates or spikes outside of our house. The most we do is put a sign up saying that the house has an alarm system. This is the most we have to do to be protected from crime, or the most we have to do to feel protected from crime.

Right next to one neighborhood, there was a township. This township looked like little boxes with metal roofs. It looked overcrowded and unbearable. I was amazed to see this right next to a neighborhood of houses with sturdy foundation.

In less than week, we will be living in these townships. I wonder what the people of South Africa not living in the townships think about us doing this. I talked to Christen about this at dinner. She explained how intimidating it is to drive into a township. I never really thought about this. A lot of people might not know the best way to go into a township. This would come down to a communication problem. It is just crazy to me that the townships are so secluded from the cities, even they are so close to each other physically.

The rest of the day, we went to a national park and garden. We saw an ostrich and penguins! After we took a trail up to a lighthouse, I saw a sign that had a cobra on it with a poison sign. I am really glad I didn't see a snake! The view from the lighthouse was incredible.