Cape Town, South Africa

If Vancouver, Seattle and San Francisco had a baby, it would be Cape Town. It was a mind bender to be 16,000k away from those places, and feel you could get yourself from A to B like a local. It's a beautiful city backed by mountains, perched along a bay and we were lucky enough to be staying a minutes walk away from the waterfront working harbour.




The effects of apartied still lives on in the 1.2 million person township/slum ringing capetown. These people were forcible removed from the city, but kept close enough to provide casual labour. I thought our tour through the township would be depressing, but we met some amazing people and saw how clean they all kept even the shakiest lean-to. I wasn't asked for money, and felt extremely safe. The government is helping people tear down their lean-to's and providing building supplies for basic, but decent, houses in the same spot. They have a long way to go, but the spirit of forgiveness and hard work are strong here.

Above is Nelson Mandela's cell, and one of the many 'guard towers' the aparteid government placed in the townships to monitor the population. Check out 'The long walk to freedom' chronicling his 60 years of struggle.