“CAPE TOWNNNNN CAPE TOWNNNNNN”

Sorry about the delayed blog posts. I really overestimated the amount of wifi connection I would have in ports, and balancing writing, classes and traveling is harder than I thought!

When SAS shows up to a port, we make ourselves known. Whether it’s the girls wearing brightly colored and patterned elephant pants when no one native to the country actually wears them, or the fact that we are majority white college students – either way, we stick out. In India, we covered the newspaper’s front page so everyone we met asked “Ship? Are you from the ship?” The World Odyssey rolls up and dumps 600+ college students into one place for five days; and after 126 voyages, the countries the program frequents are ready for us. Ever since social media boomed a decade ago, the power of “user generated content” from SAS alumni’s Instagram’s alone has provided a surplus of revenue for certain tour companies, clubs, and restaurants. One example of this is Adventure Cape Town. I truly think if SAS didn’t visit Cape Town twice a year, this company would be bankrupt.

Adventure Cape Town has become a SAS tradition not for the faint of heart. It is only for adrenaline junkies and adventure hounds – aka all SASers. On this program you do sky diving, bungee jumping, paragliding, safari, river rafting – and the list goes on. Every semester, hundreds of new SAS students do these heart-racing activities, and I for sure was not about to miss out on all the buzz.

The packages are extremely pricy unfortunately and last the entire duration in port, so my group of friends decided to book the things we wanted independently to save money but still get the rush.

My few days in Cape Town were some of my favorite days I have had on this Earth. I can’t even begin to describe what joy it is to travel the world with your best friends who value the same things. I have never been around people who thirst for adventure and hate complacency the same way I do. I love being able to walk around with no destination in mind, and enjoy every second of our journey along the way. I don’t think I’ll have another five days like those in Cape Town ever again in my life. The memories we made in this beautiful country are ones that give me the lump at the base of my throat from holding back tears and give me goosebumps that will never go away. I know this is getting a little sentimental, but this country and the people I experienced it with changed my life. I hit a peak of joy like I’ve never had before, and I achieved a perfect balance of culture, adrenaline, nature, relaxation, and friendship in this port. Here’s a little recap of my unreal few days in Cape Town.

WINE TOUR

My group of friends rented an Air BnB for the week in Camps Bay South Africa. This area is the type you see in movies where people are on a beach vacation. It was unreal. We had a complete view of Table Mountain, Lions Head, and the beach. We sipped on mediocre mimosas and sat in the hot tub with the vibrant sun set as our backdrop almost every night.

The first night we decided to scope out the known bar street in Cape Town to see what it was all about. We spent about 2 hours there and between the literal crack heads dancing in the streets and weird bar atmosphere, we decided to leave. We also had a full day wine tour the next morning at 9am so we obviously didn’t think this through.

Aleah’s Instagram caption from the wine tour was “Speaking for the whole group. The full-day wine tour was uhhhh.. rough” and that about sums it up. We had amazing wine and cheese and the vineyards were absolutely incredible but no one was feeling 100% that day. The picture of Aleah at the 3rd tasting is an accurate representation of the mood.

I love a good wine though so Annie and I were picking everyone else’s slack up so it wouldn’t go to waste. It was a long day but we ultimately had a great time walking around the vineyards and got a good laugh out of it!

SKY DIVING

So remember all the adrenaline stuff I was talking about before, yea this is where that comes in! My brave friends all decided to go sky diving and only one of us had done it before. This has always been a bucket list item for me and it was finally coming true... in SOUTH AFRICA!! We had to Uber to this random field in the middle of no where and I’m pretty sure our driver’s white car was a nice shade of brown after our excursion. We tipped him for a car wash, no worries! We roll up to this random airplane hanger with a crooked sign that read “Sky Dive Cape Town.” The workers rolled up about the same time we did with their long surfer hair and bare feet. They escorted us inside, out some music on and just acted like it was another day on the job. It was so relaxed it was almost comical.

My time to jump out of the plane came up and my instructor, Jason, came over to put the harness on me. This man was a character lemme tell ya. He starts putting the harness on me and telling me how when the song playing in the background comes on at a club his shirt comes off. “This is South Africa’s version of hick music!” I was dying. Walking to the airplane, the instructors were joking about drinking the night before and I couldn’t tell if they were serious or not. Either way, I committed to jumping out of the plane and if I didn’t live to tell the story, it’s a hell of a way to go out.

The plane lands for us to get inside of it and were packed like sardines in there it was so small. The garage-like door on the side was the only barrier between being in the dingy plane and plummeting to the earth. The pilot was messing with us and dropping the plane mid-air so we’d hit our heads on the roof.

My time came to jump and I was the last of the three of us to go. I saw Aly fall out of the plane like a dead fish and tumble through the open space and could feel my heart beat quickening. Sitting on the edge was so surreal, and the anticipation is something I can’t describe. You know that feeling you get when the Tower of Doom at Amusement Parks does the baby drop before the real one, it was like that but this time out of a plane thousands of feet in the air. We free fell for about 30 seconds and I forgot the camera was even attached to his hand I was having so much fun. I didn’t even care about all the bugs potentially getting in my mouth because I couldn’t wipe the face of gaping-mouth awe from my face. It was such a rush! Everyone should go skydiving cause there’s really no feeling that compares.

Safari

Let me paint the picture of the morning of our safari adventure: The game reserve is 3 hours away, so the shuttle bus is picking us up at 6am to get a head start on the day. The night before, we go to bed decently early, knowing we’re going to have to get up early. Next to me in our twin beds shoved together to make a queen lays Aly, who is never not on top of things. She has been the conductor for most of the trip and is always the one standing at the door completely ready waiting for the rest of us. In my head, I’m thinking surely Aly has set an alarm for 5am so before I even thought twice about it, I fell asleep, phone in hand with no alarm set. Instead of an alarm, Aly and I are woken up by Gemma saying “Wait, are you guys ready?” I look at clock on my homescreen and it says 5:45am. We had to be at the hotel 10 minutes away at 6am may I remind you. We both scramble out of bed - you know, the dramatic throw of the sheets off your body – and get dressed in time to catch our Uber to the pick-up location. I dumped my make up in my purse, put my wet hair from my shower the night before in a braid and was on my way. I don’t even remember picking out what I was going to wear, I grabbed whatever was closest on the floor and made due.

The night before, I realized I forgot my zoom lens for my camera on the ship and begged Annie to go back to get it. I had both my lens and camera sitting next to my purse on the dresser so I would grab both the next morning. I am sitting on the shuttle and about five minutes into the drive, I have the realization my camera is still sitting on the dresser. I didn’t know whether to cry, scream, or jump out of the moving vehicle but I was feeling a lot of different emotions. Mainly severe disappointment. An African safari is like every photographer’s dream and I was so excited for the clear photos I was going to get an iPhone never can. I was devastated to say the least. After pouting for an hour, I came to terms with there being nothing I could do and that I was going to enjoy it regardless.

We got to the Game Reserve and went on our safari. We saw Elephants and lions extremely close to the jeep, it was incredible. There was no glass dividing us like in zoo’s, they were in the wide open. It was so cool!! The elephant was so close I could’ve put my hand out to touch it. The guides give no guarantee you’ll see any animals up close because they don’t instigate them to come close, they just communicate on where they are in the park. It was so cool we were able to these beautiful animals in a near natural environment.

A girl on the same tour group asked “Do you give the animals names?” and the guide calmly replied, “No, we save these animals from the people who name them.” I sat there with my jaw wide open, and that is what I left the safari being impacted by the most. These animals are wild, and as fun as it is to see them up close in zoos and other environments, their sustainability is the most important and they should live in an environment as close to the wild as they can survive in.

One of the days, Aly and I visited the Langa Township, but I will make a separate post about because I can’t summarize it’s impact in a manner short enough to fit in this one.

Some other honorable mentions were:

We visited Muizenberg Beach and had a beach day which was fun and relaxing. This is the famous beach with the colorful huts. Annie and I hid behind them to block the breeze coming off the ocean and had a great day napping on our towels in the sand.

Don’t mention the words or ask about Shimmy Beach Club… ever. Trust me.

Table Top Mountain was a dream!

If you’re wondering where the title of this blog came from, our lovely ladies from the field office decided to sing a song at pre-port before disembarking in South Africa. One hall always sits in another room because we can’t all fit comfortably in the Union, and the technology in the annex room is subpar. Only one microphone of the four singers was working and it was the one with the worst voice. The only thing the room could hear the entire time was Angel screaming into the mic “Capetownnnnnn Capetownnnnnn!!” Hilarious and resulted in being an over said theme throughout our time in Cape Town.

Overall, I loved this port. I had. So much fun every single day and. Even when I was going from sun up to sun down, I still feel like I missed things. This country is full of amazing things to do and is very easy to get around in. I had similar feelings leaving this country that I had with Japan, I never wanted to leave and was sad when I scanned my ID card back on the ship. I love SAS, but 6 days just isn’t enough.