Feb 24th – Later in the Day Cape Town

Feb 24th – Later in the Day Cape Town

At 4:00, we took a hike up a mountain/ hill called Lion’s head. It is the smallest of three mountains in Cape Town. The other two are Devils Peak and Table Mountain. Surrounding the wine lands (North up Cape Town) are 13 mountains known as the 12 Apostles.

Ev and I did Lion’s Head with a touring group and guides that were mostly college kids from South Africa and two that were studying abroad from the US. It was really nice chatting with them as we climbed; it took about an hour and a half to get to the top. As we ascended, the tour guides would point out the gay beaches, the family beaches and the beaches for college kids.

At the top, we ate dinner provided by the tour group, took a lot of pictures of the sunset and chatted a lot. One of the students is a medical student and was explaining to us that there was not enough medical staff around to meet the need that is there especially because of the high prevalence of HIV. I believe the percentage was 18%.

He explained that the last president completely denied that AIDS was a problem and many people did not get the care that was needed. It is often that people who are positive get ostracized and he considered it modern day leprosy. He also talked about the political system a bit. He explained that personally he votes for whatever party that proved to be a worthy opposition to the party presently in power. He also said that there were hundreds of smaller political parties which is unlike our main 2 party system.

We started to descend after the sunset, the lights of the city next to the mountains was breathtaking. It was difficult getting down at night. All the guides had headlamps but they did not use them efficiently. The guide I was with would walk in front of us but then would get too far ahead so we couldn’t see. At one point when I was walking next to him, he would look at me with the lamp on and kind of blinded me. It was fun though and we made good friends.

A girl and one the guys were singing “Scrubs” songs together all the way down. Most of South Africa watches American TV shows but they are a couple seasons behind because of the government or something.

The guide I was talking to (Karl) started a business to go to foreign universities to recruit college kids to come to South Africa and work in the townships. He said a lot of the psychology majors and people with the talents to work in the townships that are from South Africa have to work and do not have the resources to volunteer their time to go to the townships. He lost his job recently so he has not been able to travel and recruit but I took his card so that I could keep in contact. Also on the way down, we saw 3 scorpions!