21st of December, 2018, to 13 of February, 2019.
(Written in 22nd of February, 2019)
Last night I cried. I cried very hard. But if I am not mistaken, it was the first time I cried like that for happiness. Not those few tears which fall from your face when you have a great laugh, no. That real crying which makes you red as a tomato and block your nose that you cannot breath. I was thinking about my life and what I have been doing.
I had the insight of how I am bloody happy about what I am doing and how far I came already. Eighteen countries maybe not sound pretty good for many people who already traveled much more than that, but for me, for someone like me who came from the circumstances where I was born and raised, oh girl, that is a miracle. And now I am in Egypt? A few days from a visit to the Pyramids and The Egyptian Museum and (if Loki helps me!) The Abu Simbel?
So then I finally decided to write about Cape Town. For those who were not in touch with me during my long stay in there, are not familiarized with my bad thoughts about it. You see, followed bad events happened to me in there, most of them related with me leaving the country, so I started to think that was something wrong, something blocking me to leave. And I was so pissed. But then last night I realize how that does not matter, how life gives us lots of troubles all the time and we just deal with it. And the best way to deal with it is stop murmuring all about it. And I also remembered something really nice that someone told me one day: if someone did something not nice to you, why keep remember of that person? Do not waste you precious life time. Keep remember those wonderful people who were with you and I assure you, you will be much more happy.
So this post will be just about all the god things that happened to me in Cape Town. I still will give you some tips about what not to do to avoid some of the bad things that happened to me (the ones that it could be my mistake, of course) and the mainly tip about safety it was already written and published here (when I was “almost” mugged) so you can read all about it.
My first three weeks I spend with friends from Saudi Arabia. My Couchsurfer, Aziz, offer to host me and during the time I met lots of his friends from there. It was a lovely time that open my eyes (again) about how we can be prejudiced about something we do not know. I had no idea, for example, how sweet and kind man from Saudi Arabia can be. And in some conversation with them, in how (even that sounds sexist sometimes) they just want to treat their wives like queens, who do not need to do anything apart of enjoy their lives and should not even to worry about have dust under their nails.
I also fell in love for one of them. I all those countries I have been passing through, people keep asking me what will happen if I fall in love. I keep tell them I will not. So what now? Well, I did and I survived. Nothing happened between us apart of a beautiful new friendship, and I did not suffered for that (in parts because I learned how to deal with the situation already, do not worry, I will tell you how to do it too) but I enjoyed all the moments we spent together.
During that time, I was going to Yacht Club a few times, I made contact with some captains, and I made a mistake in not going with one of them. You see, here it comes the first tip: if you have a goal of leaving a country by a specific mean, when you get the opportunity to do it, take it. Even if it is not to your main destination. Things can be arranged in the future and you can go to that particular place later. It will still be there, I promise you. Well, not so sure about really old monuments, like Machu Picchu, or something similar, but in most of the cases, it will. In my case it was even worse! I wanted to go to Europe, right? Everybody was telling me that is very difficult to find people going from Cape Town to Europe. The main route is Brazil or Caribbean. What is fine because from March to June everybody with a sail boat is leaving from the Caribbean to Europe. So I should take the offer of a really nice French man, called Pierre, and had gone to Brazil and from there to the Caribbean. I did not. It was my first week, I thought I could find someone going to Europe, I could enjoy a little more of Cape Town… my mistake.
I had to leave Aziz’s apartment because his sister was coming to visit. I finally met Lesley then, Paula’s friend, and one of the most incredible person I ever met. I supposed to stay with her and the family for a few nights but I ended up staying for almost two weeks plus a “coming back” few days later. Les and her husband, Brent, were amazing with me and I loved my time with them. The kids, Sam (Shambu for the closest ones) is so cute that is impossible to describe, and Tom (Tom-Tom for the closest ones) is the best friend you can have plus a proper gentleman. We had a very nice day at the Waterfront and I even went to the Big Wheel and a ride in a boat! They also brought me to the Yacht Club a few times, one of them to go in a race! Yeah! It was very sudden, one of my request for CS told me he was coming and I asked if I could come too (extra tips about that in the end of the post). I just can say that I was blessed for stay with Lesley and her family. They are incredibly lovely and friendly, making every day I spend with them a beacon of joy.
Because of the my lovely Palmer family, I met another wonderful person, Chris, one of the most gentle person I ever met. He brought me to (finally) hike the Table Mountain and even that those 10 hours made us very tired, it worth it every moment. Chris also drove me for a whole day around the Peninsula, when I finally could visit The Cape of Good Hope. It was a lovely day!
After that I spend a week with another CS in Observatory, a quite interesting neighbourhood. Nicolaas, my host, is building a travel bus, so he can host people and drive them as well at the same time he travel the world for free. In his house, I met a German couple who is in a quite long travel, also around the world, but in their 4×4 home and a Singapore young guy. During that week, I went two times to town: one just to walk around and visit the historical centre (most of places, museums and stuff, you need to pay, but at least I admit it is a reasonable price, about 30 Rands) and another in a fail tentative to get in the Yacht Club. The thing is, the closest way from the Observatory to the Yacht Club (walking, of course) is passing through the Observatory Train Station. Google Maps just failed in tell me that just authorized people can cross the gate who leads to the Yacht Club. I spend several minutes try to convince some (unfortunately very ignorant, in the intellectual meaning) security guards about my situation but in vain. They were so stupid that they let another man passed, with the same story as mine, just because he had a visitor stick from the Yacht Club. A stick! I had lots of them back at home as well…
Lesley talked with a Brazilian friend of hers, Luciana, and arrange for me to stay with her for one week. Lu also had kids so I could give her an extra hand. It was the first time I actually took care of a baby (Martin, her son, it is one year old). But she also has another daughter, Iris, and she is three. I did not spend too much time with them since both were most of the day at school, and Lu also has another lady to help her, so… Lu and Barry were very nice with me as well and since they manage a tourism company, they arrange for me to go in a wine tasting! I could never imagine I would go in one. It was very nice, me and another Brazilian couple (two lovely people, Andrea and Yuri, with whom I spend a very pleasant day, talking and laughing a lot) were drive to three farms (Anura, Hautie Cabriére and Muratie) by the Angola guide Junior (a very enthusiastic and friendly person, who gave me a nickname, “The Adventurer”) and we try five wines in each, with a plus for cheeses in the first one. We had lunch in one of the two very cute towns, Stellenbosh and Franschhoek, but I do not remember precisely which one. An extra line to Barry’s mom, the first senior lady who complimented my tattoos (I thought it was awesome! Maybe because she also had some…) and Lu’s sister, Fernanda, who helped me so much with some amazing winter clothes donation plus an Havaianas!
My last few days in Cape Town I spend back in Lesley’s house. She kindly invite me to go back there. I had to leave the country before the February 18th because my three months would expire and to ask for an extension is far too complicated and expensive for me (notes in the end of the post). Since the boat plan did not worked, I took the cheapest flight I could find: Egypt. And again, Lesley help me a lot, with everything that she could, to finally get me out of Cape Town, haha. I luckily found a family to be Aupair for a while and raise some money since after the flight I would be empty hand. A (Brazilian) girl needs to buy Visas! Not food, Visas!
P.s.1: If you want to go for a race in a boat while in Cape Town, every Wednesday there is a race which starts at 5p.m and it takes about two hours. You can apply to go as no member and wait for someone who needs or a little help (if you have experience in sailing) or just want to make some friends. You can bring some drinks or sweets or any kind of “gift” to the captain for the moment of socialize after the race. Be at the Royal Yacht Club before 4p.m. (when they start to put the names on the list) and get some more information. Be aware: you will need to tell that you are going to the race on the entrance gate (does not matter which one of the two you are coming from) and at the door entrance. The security in this particular Yacht Club is ridiculously exacerbate.
P.s.2: The process to extend the tourist Visa it takes from 8 to 10 weeks to be processed, if it is approved. So you basically need to apply as soon as you enter in the country. Well, that if you like me could stay for three months as a tourist. It will cost something around 1800 Rands and there is still a chance to be denied so think pretty well about it.
P.s.3: My favorite spot in Cape Town it was the Table View, a beautiful beach in Milnerton, a wonderful sunset with the view of the town; you can basically see the Table Mountain from anywhere in town, which is pretty awesome; about that, you can choose lots of different trails to do, long and short ones, but I hardly suggest you climb to the top (usually three hours walking) even if you take the Cable Car to go down; the Peninsula drive is really awesome! Muizemberg is a place to not miss as much as a visit to the penguins; not too much to see in Camps Bay (if you are not a crazy party person); the famous Long Street has beautiful old buildings and lots of pubs to go out any day of the week; another suggestion to that is Observatory: The neighbourhood is famous for the pubs; free walking tours I heard are very nice but remember: you do not need to tip if like me you do not have the money (that is why they are called free tours); the Waterfront can be visit but is not a must (in my opinion) so avoid to go there on the weekends, it is a nightmare of thousands of people.
