Day 14 of tour - first day in Cape Town

The visual beauty of the scenery in Cape Town is awesome.  It's stunning.  It's almost unbelievable.  I'm not sure our photos will do it justice, but I'm so grateful to have had this experience.

We took a cable car to the top of Table Mountain, over 3,500 feet above sea level.  The wind was whipping ferociously but the clear blue sky, shades of deep blue water, white waves and stunning mountains surrounding the water was one of the most beautiful scenes we've ever seen.

In the afternoon we took an optional walking tour of the Langa township, the largest township in Cape Town.  Our tour guide was a resident of the township, a man who had a degree in horticulture from the university.  He was newly certified as a tour director.  He was working on getting a drivers license.  He was studying to be a traditional healer.  He was honest and realistic about all of the cultural, economic, and social problems faced by the people who still live in the township, but he was also positive and hopeful about the future. The residents of this township, all black, were forcibly removed from District 6 in Cape Town, a vibrant multicultural neighborhood in Cape Town proper to this much more distant location by the Aparthied regime in the 1960's. The colored residents of District 6 were also forcibly removed to more distant locations and separated from their black neighbors. 

In the evening we attended a home hosted dinner in a suburb of CapeTown.  Our hosts are colored people, not blacks, and they frequently host travelers from Grand Circle.  They served a wonderful dinner, discussed their lives and their family, answered our questions about life during and after apartheid, and carefully fielded questions about politics.  Our driver for the night was also talkative and comfortable giving us his opinion on life in South Africa.  We learned a lot about current South Africa today, through the eyes of people who live here.