Peninsula Tour!

The world renowned hop-on hop-off busses here won the city tour of the year award last year and we decided to take advantage of that and take their mini peninsula tour around the cape peninsula. We got on the bus at 9:30 sharp and made our way out to the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens. (Props to my mom on her awesome macro shot!) These gardens are a UNESCO world heritage site and is the 7th best garden in the world. The gardens only display natural vegetation from the cape area called fynbos. The weird thing is that this area is very small geographically but has more species than all of Great Britain's plant kingdom. We spent the morning touring the gardens and had lunch at the Kirstenbosch Tea Room. Here I had Moroccan poached eggs and my mother had a grilled vegetable sandwich. The highlight of our lunch however was when mom opened our bottle of 'tomato sauce' and it exploded in a 4 foot arc over our table all over the ground and a splatter up a mans jacket which was hanging on the back of his chair beside us. Luckily our fit of giggles didn't give us away and after a photo we slipped out of the gardens and back onto the bus. I wish I could see his reaction when he found it.

After that we went to a Township Tour. Townships here are shacks or Shanty Towns where all the black refugees, homeless, and people out of country who were here in work camps basically build themselves little shacks outside of the city from shipping crates, wood, and perforated aluminium. They all have power free from the government but otherwise they have no plumbing. They share 4 outhouses for 50 families and have made salons and 'pubs' in their area. It is very sad though it is like the Detroit of slums. The quality of life is unbelievable. The

houses are smaller than my dorm room in Fort McMurray and that's just the room. Families of 5 or more can live in there, sharing one or two beds.

After the tour there we went to Hout Bay which is a working sea port halfway down the peninsula where we had fresh fish and chips with loads of tomato sauce and tartar. YUM! By this point my face had started turning red and the sun got me looking a little lobstery. It was a very mild burn but I had some pealing results. After that we took the scenic drive up the miles of beaches in the suburbs of Sea Point and Green Point where they are building the big stadium for the World Cup. Once I got home and put some lotion on my face we went to my new favorite restaurant (one of 2) called Mojito. Here I had a ginger and chilli mojito with fresh chunks of ginger root and a big chunk of green chilli. It was hot and refreshing. I had a fiery Island curry with chicken, cuban flatbread, and coconut coated banana. Momma had a delish Jerk chicken pasta and then we had banana fritters for dessert.

All in all another Great day!

Thanks for reading and feel free to comment ;)

Mackenzie Putici