My seemingly never-ending journey from Boston to Cape Town finally came to a close this morning. The past two days have been incredibly intense -- 7 hour flight from Boston to London, followed by a 12 hour layover in London, followed by a 12 hour flight to Cape Town -- but as soon as I got in the taxi destined for our temporary hotels I knew that all the travelling was worth it. The 15 minute drive from the airport to the hotel reminded me of all of the different aspects of South Africa that made it such an appealing destination for me. On the one hand you had these beautiful mountains (Table Top mountain, Lion's Head mountain and Devil's Peak mountain -- all three are one day hikes, something I will definitely be doing at some point over the next 12 months), then you had this incredibly gorgeous ocean and then in the middle of it all was Cape Town. A beautiful city. But at the same time, it was hard to ignore the masses upon masses of shacks alongside the road that made up a part of Cape Town's township area. These houses are inhabited almost exclusively by black South Africans and other immigrants who live in absolute poverty. The shacks seem to be made out of a mixture of tin, metal and whatever they can find to patch up all of the windows/ceilings. The whole thing was a pretty immediate reminder of the type of poverty that exists in this otherwise amazing city.
Obviously I don't know much about the city now, but I'm really looking forward to hearing as many details as possible and maybe visiting some time soon.
Not sure when I'll have the internet next but make sure to write me emails and check out this blog!
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