Day 5: Vinnos and Cheetos

So today, we took a step back from saving the world and took time out for ourselves and explored a more eclectic side of South Africa. We spend the morning in Franschhoek at the Haut Espoir vineyards up in the mountains. We met the 4^th generation owner of the lands Rob and the winemaker himself, Nickey. Many may think, “Wine in Africa?” I know I did, but I have to say it was quite possibly the best wine I have every tasted. Not that I’m a wine connoisseur, but I know what I like and this stuff was amazing. After the good majority of our group, myself included, “tasted” enough wine to bring us to that happy state, we left Haut Espoir and went to the downtown area of Franschhoek where we ate lunch. A friend and I decided to leave the group for a minute and share lunch at the quaint little Italian restaurant where we have the best Chicken Bruschetta (sp) and pasta I have had in a while. Then it was my mission to find a zebra pelt to put in my living room- after finding out that the zebra was a little out of my price range (about R11,000 about $1200) I decided to settle for the smaller, more practical Springbok pelt to put over my couch at home.

We hopped back on the bus and headed to Spere, where we visited Cheetah Encounter. We had the opportunity to pet and interact with baby cheetahs, which when I heard pet baby cheetahs I though little cubs that I can hold in my hand. Not so much the case- we were with Chompo who is about 11 months old and looks like a pretty grown, mature cheetah. Chompo was a little testy with it being the end of the day and really didn’t want anything to do with us in the cage- but we did get to pet him. Who would have ever thought that I would be petting a cheetah!? We found out from the trainer that Chompo would be going to an American zoo later in the year. All the cheetahs in Spere are born and raised in captivity mainly because if they were to be released in the wild, they would never survive. We were told that cheetahs in the wild have an average life expectancy of about 5 to 6 years, not so long, whereas in captivity the can live for some 12-15 years. Not too shabby, right?

We finally made it back to the hotel: my 2 cases of wine, my Springbok pelt and me. We decided that we would keep with the chill pace of the day and decided to have dinner at the Green Dolphin Restaurant and Jazz Club. The food and music were amazing; the singer was a soulful, C woman who is honestly worthy of singing jazz in New Orleans. Made me miss home a little bit. We ended up meeting up with our new, South African friend, Dovi, again who treated us to drinks at his dad’s restaurant and then came out with us.

Cape Town and South Africa is just mind-boggling. There are so many different landscapes in this area that its like if you drive for 15 minutes in any direction, you are in a completely different place. The people here are so nice and we found out that restaurants believe in nice, long meals. The standard South African dinner in a restaurant lasts about 3 hours, completely different than the rushed dinners we enjoy in the States. But all in all, it is still amazing here and I am loving every minute of it.

Peace, Love and Ayoba!

Travel on,

Seth