We have 3 days in Cape Town so I thought I would type this after my first day. I had been here before but I went on  a day safari instead of seeing the city.

 I  took a tour of Cape Town which included a cable car ride to the top of Table Mountain.  The mountain did have a cloud cover over a lot of it but the view to the city was clear.  Last time I was in Cape Town I was fortunate to see the phenomenon of the table cloth.  The cloud cover actually looks like it is a tablecloth covering the mountain.  That was absent yesterday..  The cable car has a rotating floor so it gives everyone an opportunity to see all angles.

We then took a general tour of the city and there are beautiful areas.  As a matter of fact I didn’t see a bad area.  Gorgeous Beaches with a lot of outdoor restaurants and cafes.  One historical area consists of streets filled with colorful pastel houses.  These are old huts that have been rehabilitated to quaint small houses.  They were originally used to house freed slaves.

The next day we went to the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront area with its many shops including local craft centers.  After a reasonable time we got on the Blue Route Hop on and Hop Off bus for a tour of the outer route around the city.  The mansions along this route are incredible  The beaches are just beautiful with hundreds of seals bobbing around in the surf.  The seals were too far to get a good shot of them with my little camera.

The third day we took a  group visit to the Isiphiwo primary school in Harare, Khayelitshatownship which services over  one thousand students from one of the poorer areas of Cape Town.  On the way we saw where a lot of these students live and this photo is an example of one of the nicer areas.  The structures are called zincies.  They do have porta potties around the outer parts of these areas.  If the family is lucky they live in government housing.  The little houses consist of a small kitchen with the toilet in the kitchen with a wall between the toilet and the rest of the kitchen and one other room which is the bedroom.  Families of as many as 8 people live in these homes.  You do see little zincies next to the houses which apparently act as additional bedrooms.  Sometimes there will be an addition to these little houses.

The children were wonderful and they loved seeing their photos.  Marty (one of our organizers) put on a magic show for the kids and the applause was thunderous.  A sea of little black faces.  They were adorable.  We did take a lot of items for the school and clothing  for the children.  These items were collected along the way.  Many on board bought items and sent them with us to take to the school.

I am now in Walvis Bay  and again I got my towns mixed up.  We had docked at two ports in Namibia in 2010 and I confused Walvis Bay with Luderitz.  Walvis Bay was the jumping off place for the desert tour I took and Luderitz was a quaint seaside port.  Walvis Bay (the city) is a dismal place and I wish I had taken a tour.  We are not going to Luderitz this year.  Anyway, I took the shuttle into town and I believe we stayed at the most 45 minutes.  One lady had her purse snatched and the warnings was not to leave the area where we were dropped off.  Today, I am staying on the ship and I will now post this episode.