This sprawling metropolis netted two days in port. As we sailed into port the iconic Table Mountain glowed. We used the HOHO bus to visit the Cape of Good Hope where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet and was sailed by Vasco da Gama opening the spice trade to India. The next stop was Simon’s Town. The documentary from Netflix “Penguin Town” had excited me to see these African Penguins, about two feet tall and weighing about 11 pounds. In the documentary they swarmed the streets and nested in gardens. A bit disappointed to see the colony of 900 all grouped on the shore. Today we did two walking tours, one in the Bo Kaap and then the history of Cape Town. The history of the Bo-Kaap reflects the political processes in South Africa during the Apartheid years. The area was declared an exclusively residential area for Cape Muslims under the Group Areas Act of 1950 and people of other religions and ethnicity were forced to leave. The choice of color is said to be attributed to the fact that while on lease, all the houses had to be white. When this rule was eventually lifted, and the slaves were allowed to buy the properties, all the houses were painted bright colors by their owners as an expression of their freedom. We strolled the gardens from Queen Victorian times and found the Jewish complex and visited the Holocaust Museum.
No comments:
Post a Comment