Capetown: Getting a Jump Start

Capetown and we are attempting to get back into the swing of things. Taking a week off in Canada was a nice holiday from our holiday, but the week off, combined with time spent relaxing in Argentina and Chile seem to have made us soft.

Not that being soft is a bad thing here.

The atmosphere in Capetown is pretty relaxed and the backpacker scene here is young and vibrant. The weather is hot and the views of craggy dry cliffs from the surrounding mountains are quite beautiful.

They say South Africa is the rainbow nation, and so far we have seen that. Capetown, at least in the central tourist areas, is a mix of many races, colours and faces. The people are pretty friendly and it is pretty hard getting used to the fact that they actually speak english here, even if the accent can be hard to understand.

The flight here was long and we had stunning views of the Alps and the deserts of northern Africa. Yesterday we spent the day wiping sleep out of our eyes and figuring out cell phone issues. Today we climbed Table Mountain for views of the city bowl of Capetown.

Time will now be spent figuring out where we are going and how. There is a very good backpacking route here, so much that they have a special backpackers bus that hits a lot of the main stops. As with anything that is touristy it is more expensive, but it does go to places that will be a lot harder and time consuming than the regular buses. This is why we mean we have to get back in the swing of things, because the backpacker bus would be easier, but where is the adventure and intrigue? Perhaps we save that for Madagascar.