CAPE TOWN, South Africa -- It would be tough to describe how fantastic a time we’ve had in Cape Town. Our bed and breakfast is beyond incredible. It might be the best service we’ve ever had at any hotel. And we have traveled a lot.
The last two days, we’ve had a private guide drive us on tours area around Cape Town. First, we journeyed through the wine lands, sampling different local vintages. Today, we drove down to Cape Point, stopping to see penguins, ostriches and baboons.
Thursday, we return to Johannesburg. We'd much rather stay here. We’ve fallen in love with Cape Town, a city that reminds us of San Francisco.
But our team plays Friday in Ellis Park, the historic rugby stadium featured in the movie “Invictus.” We are playing little Slovenia, the team that currently leads our group. A win puts us in a fantastic position to advance. A loss … well, let’s not think about that.
In both Cape Town and Johannesburg, it’s sometimes tough to remember you are in Africa. Both cities differ so little from metro areas in the U.S. Everyone speaks English. McDonald’s is everywhere. The roads are better than in Michigan. No joke.
At the edge of your vision, you sometimes catch glimpses of the another Africa: the intense poverty in the shanty villages, the strikes by security workers at stadiums, the veiled racism that still lingers.
Again, we know we've been a bit lax in writing. Time has been a big factor. The thing about the World Cup is you're constantly moving. Whether it's going to games or finding somewhere to watch games, soccer is always on the brain. And being American soccer fans traveling through South Africa, we are a bit of a novelty, and people stop to talk to us. Plus, with U.S.-England one day in Rustenberg (two hours outside of Joburg) and Serbia-Ghana the next day in Pretoria (two hours from where we were staying), it leaves precious time to sleep.
We also had an unexpected change of lodging plans. We have been reticent to mention because we didn’t want to worry everyone back home, but our tour didn’t turn out as planned. And we knew this immediately after landing.
We are still sorting out what happened, but it seems our little tour group of 20 people was caught in one of the many scams by people and companies promising goods and services and not delivering.
While we were in the air, our tour provider had to scramble to find us lodging after what we were promised never materialized.
The bottom line is we are safe and being taken care of. But it was not entirely what we signed up for. We were moved an hour outside of Joburg to lodges on a quaint game farm. We are told there are giraffes nearby, but we only saw a few springboks and rabbits.
We were in a two-bedroom chalet on the property, sharing it with a friend who came with us. We use the term "chalet" loosely. It’s a quaint, freestanding house but it doesn’t have a TV or heat, just a space heater. And it gets cool at night.
Granted, our breakfasts were amazing; fresh milk, homemade jelly, ostrich eggs and some yummy type of pork make for a filling breakfast. But lunch had been whatever we can buy at Shell stations along the routes to soccer matches. Dinner usually was a hot dog or lamb dog at the stadium. (We've since eaten so much better in Cape Town.)
To a certain extent, we’ve lucky, we guess. The proprietor said the day we arrived, she got a call from a group of 50 Americans who also were scammed and needed quick lodging.
We left for Cape Town on Monday morning, not knowing whether we would return to the ranch, return to the company at a another location or pursue other lodging options on our own.
Since arriving to Cape Town, our luck has turned a corner. We scheduled our time here independent of our original tour group, and it has proved a wise decision. Our guest house is magnificent: an old house built in 1905 that sits at the base of Table Mountain. Our room is spacious and romantic. And when we called and explained that our friend Jon would be joining us (we couldn’t bear to leave him behind in uncertain circumstances), they quickly readied a cottage on the property for him. It was a far better than the rustic “chalet” offered back at the farm.
We’re sorry that we haven’t posted as often as we hoped. Connectivity has been a real challenge in South Africa. Even in our Cape Town hotel, the Wi-Fi signal comes and goes like the rain. “Typical South Africa,” we are often told.
This guest home was a wise choice. They are making life stress-free. They had champagne chilled in our room upon arrival to celebrate our honeymoon. People can surprise you.
Monday was spent walking around the city and getting acquainted with the area. Dinner was at lovely local restaurant, our first meal at an actual restaurant. Then Robert went with our friend Jon to the 1-1 tie between Italy and Paraguay at Green Point Stadium while Amy returned to the guest house for some much-needed R&R.
Now our tour provider has secured us an actual hotel for our return Thursday to Johannesburg. We are told by others on our tour that it’s nice. And an important game awaits for the Americans. Still, we have fallen in love with Cape Town. It will be so difficult to leave.
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