05-07-2011

This one may feel a little like a tourist brochure. It definitely did when I wrote it.

Time Magazine, a few weeks back, had an article in its culture section about the film industry in South Africa – and how Hollywood is starting to take full of advantage of everything it offers. South Africa is jaw-droppingly beautiful, and has every type of scenery imaginable. I wasn’t surprised to read that. What did seem pretty cool, though, was this little bit of information: the South African film industry is already a billion dollar (dollar, not rand) industry employing over 25 000 South Africans. And growing. For a country with a government that, in the State of the Nation address earlier this year, announced that job creation was its number ONE priority, it seems like one industry is really pushing for that.
And where is this based out of, you ask? Not Jo’burg, the biggest and busiest city in the country. Not Pretoria, the capital steeped in heritage and history. And certainly not Manguzi.

Nope, this is the Mother City herself, the glistening tip of South Africa’s Coast. That’s right: Cape Town.

Being in Africa for almost a year now, I’ve gotten to travel a bit around the country. I’ve been to five out of nine provinces, and have seen pretty much every major city, some more than others. And I must say, from at least an attraction standpoint, Cape Town takes the cake.

To the curious traveler, I’ve got to warn you. Cape Town doesn’t always feel very… African. The buildings look a lot like lower Manhattan, although everyone seems to have a more laid back feeling. And not to sound bad, but most of the people don’t really look all that…well, African. It has a lot to do with the rich and often turbulent history of Southern Africa, especially in the days when it was passed back and forth between the British and Dutch. Slaves and indentured workers from Malaysia and the South Pacific were brought into Cape Town (back when it was still the Cape Colony) to work for the colonials. Over the generations, mixing between the native San, and the white and Asian people led to an entirely new and uniquely South African population of Cape Town ‘Coloreds’. And with them came the birth of the Afrikaans language – a mix of Dutch, Malay, Arabic and native African tongues (one thing I learned in Cape Town: the very first written Afrikaans was written with Arabic lettering, to use by the Muslim population). It’s interesting, given the sentiment tied into Afrikaans now as a language exclusively white South African, that it was never really a ‘pure European’ language at all.

And that’s why I like Cape Town – if South Africa is supposed to be the Rainbow Nation, then Cape Town is the city to see it. I love the village, but it is great to see the face South Africa tries to paint to the rest of the world.

And Cape Town’s heritage is famous and infamous. Right in the bay, visible from the hills above the city, lies Robben Island. Robben Island is famous the world over as the prison of former president Nelson Mandela. It had been used as a political prison for decades, acting almost as a training ground for the elites of modern South Africa. And what I loved most about this tour was that the tour guides we had were all former prisoners themselves, at one time or another. Many had met the great revolutionaries that have changed the country completely in the last twenty years. Everyone in the group could feel the connection to South Africa’s past making it one of the most unique tours I have ever been on. After all, it’s not many places where the guide points to a prison cell and says “and this bunk? This bunk was mine.”

The views off of both Table Mountain and the Cape Point were breathtaking. From Table Mountain, you can see the entire city stretch like a blanket beneath you, and the bay curve around the lonely Robben Island sitting directly offshore. And Cape Point, which a large sign proclaimed as the ‘Southwesternmost point of Africa’ (potentially the worst slogan I’ve ever heard…next to the can of Baked Beans that says “It’s the best you can do.”) offered even more amazing views of the entire cape terrain including Hout Bay and Kemp’s Bay.

And the beaches? Well, to be truly honest, I didn’t really care about seeing the Cape Town beaches before I left my village. I have access to the most beautiful and temperate private beach I’ve seen in my life. The Durban beaches were way too crowded for me, and the beaches in the Cape were about the same – although the water coming off the southern tip was MUCH colder. We stopped at a beach for about ten minutes; long enough for me to put my foot in the other side of the Atlantic just to say I had. For anyone who doesn’t live in northern KZN / does not have a perfect private beach of their own, the experience is probably a lot better – go for it. Just don’t stay in the water too long, amanzi ayabandayo.

There’s one thing I did not expect about Cape Town, although I guess I should have: Cape Town is expensive. At least, by South African standards. In Durban, I could get by on about a hundred rand a day, which was definitely not true for Cape Town. It’s more tourist friendly and caters to plenty of international clientele with money to spend. I’ve got no problem with this; tourism brings in revenue to support the growing infrastructure for the impoverished, and tourism is a leading sector in employment in the country. For me, though, spending what money I’ve got – remember, Peace Corps wants you to live in the village at the village standard – can be tough when it runs low. I usually feel like I get paid plenty of money to get by very comfortably in the village, but pretending to be an American tourist again becomes a bit tougher. If you plan on coming to Cape Town, and you want the full experience, be ready to spend some cash.

So overall, what are my feelings on Cape Town? Well, let me put it this way. I spent about a week in Durban over the Christmas break. When the last day came, I was pretty much ready to get back to the village. I felt like I had gotten enough of Durban for at least a few months, and was ready to get back home. But when the last day came in Cape Town, I wasn’t quite ready to leave. I felt like there was still too much to do and possibly never enough time to do it all. If I can go back before I end my service, I definitely will. And if not, when I get around to getting back to ZA, I’ll be sure to make a stop in Cape Town. Even if for nothing more than jazz and yoga again.

I’d recommend this place to anyone who comes out to visit South Africa, although be prepared – Cape Town is distinctively South African while at the same time not South African in the slightest. If you go, mention my blog. Maybe they’ll give me a discount next time I pass through.

Since I’m talking about vacations, I’ve attached a youtube link for a trip with some other volunteers a few months back. We walked from one of the beaches near Manguzi about sixty km south, to a place called Sodwana Bay. It was right at the end of the sea turtle season – we passed about two dozen nests along the way. The beaches were also completely unpopulated; these are the private beaches mentioned earlier.

Anyways, enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTyddWMc1a0

Ryan