Friday, November 18, 2011

onward

Hi guys! Just wanted to quickly check in... Today we went to wine country, about an hour out of town into the valley, mostly since one of the vineyards has a cheetah outreach program that breeds and raises cheetahs you can pet. Turns out you basically just stroke the back of a sleeping cheetah, which I guess is about as close as you want your kids to get to a cheetah but didn't really qualify as the "cheetah encounter" they advertise. It was hot and Nate and Aya were not at their finest, and Davi just preferred watching the cheetahs roam around ("more cat, more cat"). All was not lost though, the vineyard restaurant was in a beautiful setting with a nice, small playground that we all enjoyed, and for some reason the PR rep at the vineyard decided we should be in her photo shoot so she asked if she could bring us lunch and wine and take our picture. Uh, yes, you can do that.

En route we passed the first real shanty town we've seen, Khayelitsha, it is absolutely insane that these things are real, permanent electrified tin roofed huts for hundreds of thousands of people going on and on as far as you can see. You basically just drive by the setting of District 9 on your way to the lovely vineyard with the restaurant that sources its own produce and livestock. Kids didn't seem to notice it.

Anyhow, we had to have a second look at the penguins and now we're in a rush to get the kids to bed, so... over and out. We leave tomorrow for the northeastern, more "African" part of the country, we hope to meet some Zulu descendants and have a brief safari. Not sure how easy internet access will be so if you don't hear from us, assume we haven't been eaten by lions and we'll see you next week!

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