Monday, July 14, 2008

Capetown

There were baboons! And they aren't friendly.
Table Mountain
Where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans Meet!!! At the bottom of the World!
Lots of Stairs
THATS ME!

The beautiful Capetown
It was sooooo windy! Isn't the ocean goregous???
The Cape of Good Hope! Our whole group!


Jackass Penguins!!! (thats their real name! they make donkey sounds!)
Arent they funny?
Dancing in the street!



Capetown was awesome. It was definatly the nicest place we stayed. It is a very big city on the very southern tip of the African continent. It is very unique in that it has it's very own floral kingdom that can't be found any place else in the world. It is also a melting pot of many different cultures/tribes like the Zulu, Swazi, Dutch, English, Portuguese... (their are a bunch of others) We learned a lot about Apartheid (extreme segregation) that ended only in 1994. The country is still suffering from it's affects. We learned about Nelson Mandela and his experiances at Robben Island ( a jail for many political people during Apartheid).




We also saw hundreds of thousands of refugees living in tents and on the streets. All of these people have fled from their homeland because of war,and most of them were from Zimbabwe. This is a big problem in South Africa and it causing a lot of violence because the refugees are taking many of the South Africans jobs. It was a sight to see! All of the newspapers talked about "xenophobia" or fear of forgeiners. South Africa already has a huge violence/crime problem and this certainly is making it much worse.




Their are some very beautiful sites to see in Capetown! The two main ones are Table Mountain and Cape Point! They were gorgeous. I was also really bummed that we didn't get to cage diving with the Great Whites while we were there. The morning a couple of us got all ready to go it stormed!! And the day before people died because the boat tipped over! So, we decided that it probably wasn't such a good idea. haha, I figure thats something I'd want to do with Tyler anyway.




5 comments:

Jeni said...

WOW! It looks completely AWESOME! An experience of a lifetime, huh? I can't wait for more pics! Got any of the bungee jumping? Welcome home, sweetie!

Lots & Lots of Love,
Jeni

Rachel said...

AAAAAA-mazing!!!!!! You are so lucky to have taken such an unusual and wonderful trip. Write down every thing you can remember before you forget! I can't wait to read more about it. You rock!
Love,
Sis Mac

Anonymous said...

- that sign about baboons is hilarious!

- what are the stairs for?

- so you actually decided to go swimming with the sharks!? You're crazy! I'm glad you didn't die... :)

Megan said...

Bungee Jumping? Wow I am so impressed! What an amazing trip! Did Tyler go with you? This was a school trip?

Katy Schepis Edmondson said...

AWESOME!!!!!!!! You look like you were having sooooo much fun. That is one for the memory books. Haven't seen you in FOREVER!!!! Was is up?
Katy and Garrett Edmondson