Morgan's Year in Cape Town

Needless to say, the World Cup was an experience of a lifetime. I expect I’ll have a hard time trying to put the feelings and atmosphere I experienced into words, but I’ll try…

Natalie and I arrived back in Cape Town on opening day of the World Cup. The whole city was buzzing with anticipation (and literally buzzing with vuvuzelas as well) and the excitement was palpable. After arriving back just in time to watch the South Africa game at home, we met up with Julia at her apartment to get ready to go downtown and join the party. Julia lives in a really nice apartment situated on one of the hillsides above Cape Town and she has a deck with a view of the whole city bowl. Going out on her deck, all you could hear was a dull, constant hum from the all vuvuzelas being blasted downtown. That pretty much lasted all month – haha, poor girl! One of the great things about having so many people out and about for the World Cup was it meant it was safe to walk the city streets at night. It was a great atmosphere in Cape Town, and I’ve honestly never felt safer walking around at night. We were able to walk from Julia’s all the way downtown to Long Street, which would have been a terrible idea under normal circumstances. We first tried to go to the big fan park (conveniently located right next to the m2m office) to watch the night game, but it was too full so we just headed for a bar on Long Street instead. Long St was PACKED, of course – thousands of people covering the streets and spilling out of each and every bar. It was just so much fun to see so many people from all of over the world out celebrating together. A night to remember, for sure!

With all the initial games of the World Cup, a good portion of every day was consumed by watching soccer – what a rough life! We alternated viewing sites from friends’ houses to the fan park downtown to m2m’s boardroom (which was converted to a screening room with couches and a popcorn machine for the duration of the tournament) to fun bars and restaurants. For the England vs. USA game, a friend from work managed to rent out the top floor club of the ABSA building (one of the tallest skyscrapers in Cape Town with a very fancy club on top) for a bunch of us Americans from work to gather. It was a great party! I don’t think I’ve been so patriotic in my life, but it was really fun to get into the spirit of the games. Of course I was also rooting for (or I guess I should say “supporting” – no one in SA seems to understand when you ask “who are you rooting for?”) South Africa – such a shame they couldn’t progress very far! For the next USA game, our friends Jen and Andy had a big party at their house in Sea Point and then we all walked from there to the stadium, since most of us were going to the England vs. Algeria game afterwards. The stadium was really fantastic and everything ran very smoothly. For that game, we even had 4th row seats, on about the 6 yard line! It was pretty amazing to be sitting right behind all the press and the corner flag. When players would throw in the ball on that side, they were just literally right there. Haha, and Wayne Rooney was so short in person! It was so different to watch the game on the ground level, live. It gives you so much more appreciation for the players’ skills and the speed of the game. TV doesn’t do it justice sometimes. Even though the game itself was 0-0, it was still a really great event.

Jen and Andy's amazing balcony braai before the game

Notice the festive soccer ball cake!

Outside the stadium at night

Enjoying the views inside before kickoff

The England and Algeria teams lining up

The vast majority of the stadium was rooting for England, but to make things more entertaining, we sat next to the large Algerian section. Despite being sandwiched between the Algerian fans and the English fans (who have notorious reputations, of course), everyone was really friendly and in good spirits.

Attempted action shots

We were sitting right behind all the official press people

You probably can't tell, but Wayne Rooney is the really short one in the wall towards the right

That's the England bench, so theoretically, David Beckham is somewhere in the picture, haha!

The next game we went to was Portugal vs. North Korea. That time, we walked from the m2m office downtown all the way to the stadium. Most of the walk took place on the official FIFA “fan walk” (a designated path through the city that FIFA outlined and where traffic was mostly blocked off), which was actually quite fun. Walking with thousands of other excited fans, you really get into the spirit of things. And of course vuvuzelas were everywhere. Actually, the vuvuzelas really weren’t that bad live in the stadium where the noise could dissipate relatively well – the only place where they were truly unbearable was inside small enclosed quarters like bars and restaurants. The only bad thing about the Portugal game was the terrible weather – rainy and quite cold! The stadium had an overhanging roof which kept most of the rain off during the first half, but didn’t provide much help later on when the wind picked up. For that game, we were sitting in the first row of the second level section (out of 3 tiers), right on the half line. Those were great seats for watching the flow of the game. Once again, being there in person made you realize how much of the game you miss when you watch on TV and they only show a small portion of the field at one time. Of course this was the 7-0 blowout game, which was very entertaining to watch, though I felt really bad for North Korea.

Getting ready for Portugal vs. North Korea

The fans below us

First the team flags come out

And then the teams file out

Kickoff

There's Ronaldo!

More attempted action shots

And more Ronaldo shots, haha!

Celebrating after one of many goals

After the game

On our way out

The final game I went to was Netherlands vs. Cameroon (Natalie had unfortunately already left by then). I was really looking forward to that being a good game, but unfortunately by that point Cameroon had already been knocked out of the tournament. Still, it was another exciting experience to be there and it’s always fun to watch all these amazing players. We sat in the same area as we did during the Portugal game. A vast majority of the crowd were supporting Netherlands (pretty much the entire stadium looked like it was ready to go hunting – bright orange as far as you could see!), but I was hoping Cameroon would pull of a win. I guess it just wasn’t their tournament, though the 2-1 loss was entertaining to watch.

I’m sad I wasn’t able to stay in South Africa for the entire duration of the tournament, but even just to have been there for 2.5 weeks was an indescribably amazing experience and I’m very grateful. I’m so glad South Africa pulled off a successful tournament (though of course there are many arguments to be made about whether it was a good use of South Africa’s money to host the tournament…) and mustered up so much national pride, which I was very glad to have taken part in. What a perfect ending to a wonderful year!

Well, I’m seriously behind the times, but have been encouraged to share my last couple of big experiences while I was still in Africa. I’ll try and just make it short and sweet and be sure to share some pictures :)

My friend Natalie arrived the day after my last day working at m2m and we immediately jumped on a plane to Maputo, the capitol of Mozambique. Our aim was to relax and enjoy some warmer weather before heading back to Cape Town to experience the World Cup. Mozambique was a former Portuguese colony, and it’s the first place in Africa that I’ve traveled to where English wasn’t widely spoken. Most of the touristy places had English speakers, and that in combination with the fact that we both had decent Spanish knowledge didn’t make it too hard for us to get by. The country gained its independence from Portugal in 1975 but then suffered through a very destructive civil war lasting from 1977 to 1992. It is just now starting to become a major tourist destination, famous for its beautiful beaches.

Our first afternoon in Maputo was quite hot, but nice. We checked in at our hostel and explored the city by foot. Maputo was very different from Cape Town – not nearly as developed. Still, there was a lot of culture to enjoy (an interesting mix with the Portuguese influence) and it was fun to experience and explore. Also, Mozambique has great food. Lots of fresh, spicy seafood and chicken. They are particularly famous for their peri peri sauces and prawns.

Walking around the city, we ran into some sort of big religious parade

Since we had to catch the 6am bus the next morning, we tried to go to bed pretty early. The noisy roosters (and noisy fellow hostel-mates) didn’t make for a great night’s sleep, but we managed. When we got up in the morning, we comfortably piled into the minibus waiting outside our hostel that was supposed to take us to the hostel on the beach up North. With the bus about half-full of other people from the hostel, we figured we would be on our way. Not exactly. We proceeded to drive to the minibus rink in Maputo where our driver walked around for about an hour trying to fill up the bus with other passengers. By the time it was all said and done, we had absolutely no space whatsoever and weren’t exactly looking forward to spending 8 hours in that condition…but I guess we couldn’t complain too much considering we paid like $15 for the ride, as opposed to a $500 plane ticket! It was actually quite fun to experience all the hustle and bustle of the taxi rink at 6am – so many people walking around, trying to sell you things through the bus window – everything from sunglasses to hair clips to bananas to cashews to bread…you name it!

The taxi rink

The bus ride was definitely long, hot, and dusty, but it too was interesting. Always so many sites to see outside the window! Mozambique was really fun to see, and I’m glad Natalie had the chance to experience it – definitely “real” Africa, as opposed to Cape Town.

Natalie's very cute seat- (and sometimes lap-) mate

After a long day, we were dropped off at our hostel in Tofo, the small beach town we were staying at. We had to plan ahead a bit because there are not ATMs in Tofo and very few businesses take credit cards, but we managed. It was a great vacation spot. I loved the fact that it was really underdeveloped – even though it was a destination beach and diving spot, there was not a single large resort to be found – just a handful of quaint little lodges and our hostel. It was definitely a vacation done on the cheap – we paid about $15/night for our little beach bungalow. It was a little hut with just enough room for 2 beds and a dresser. It was very rustic – just a little grass hut with sand floors, situated right on the beach so you could hear the waves all night long. I loved it!

The beach in front of the hostel

The big building on the left was the main area of the hostel

Not a bad place to hang out!

The huts we stayed in

Upon arriving in Tofo, we grabbed a nice dinner in town (about a 10 minute walk on the beach from our hostel) and then enjoyed the beautiful night hanging out in the bar area of our hostel. The hostel was actually quite the hopping place – music going until 4am we were told (though we went to bed waaay before that). We had to get up very early to catch sunrise (since we were facing East and the sunsets weren’t as spectacular), but it was well worth it. So beautiful! And it was especially nice because we were literally the only people on the beach.

Sunrise #1

Tofo is particularly famous for its diving and snorkeling. Apparently it is one of the top ten dive spots in the world, or so we were told. Well, neither of us were divers, but we decided to try snorkeling. One of the most famous things about Tofo is its large, year-round population of whale sharks. Whale sharks are huge, plankton-eating sharks – the largest fish in the world at something like 50ft! (I highly recommend googling them to see some picutres – unfortunately we couldn’t take cameras out on the boat.) Our first day out we were in a group of about 12 snorkelers. Before getting started, the instructors asked “ok, who doesn’t know how to do a beach launch?” and of course Natalie and I raised our hand. I had no idea what they were talking about. Well, it was quite the experience just getting out to sea, let me tell you! The boat was a small, regular-bottomed boat, with big inflatable rubber sides on top so it just looked like a regular raft. Anyway, a “beach launch” involved us holding onto the ropes on the side of the boat and walking it out through the surf until it was deep enough for them to put the motor down, at which point they yelled for everyone to get in and you had about 10 seconds to pull yourself up over the side of the boat (waaaaay harder than it sounds, I assure you!) before the boat sped off through the rest of the waves. We all sat on the sides of the boat, with our feet hooked under ropes on the inside and holding on to the ropes on the side of the boat so we didn’t fall out. On that particular trip, we actually didn’t see anything underwater to go snorkeling with (though at the spot where we stopped to practice, there were TONS of jellyfish!). However, we did find some humpback whales. Having previously done all my whale watching from rather large boats, it was quite the experience to be in a very tiny, low boat! The boat landing was another adventure. They drove the boat in relatively close to shore and then instructed everyone to hold on really tight as they just sped the boat into the sand on the beach, at which point there is a rather big impact and the boat topples over to the side and everyone tumbles out.

The next day, hopeful for a whale shark siting, we once again signed up to go snorkeling. (Well, Natalie signed up to go snorkeling; I signed up to sit in the boat, having discovered the day before I actually didn’t really like snorkeling.) This time there were only 4 of us on the boat, but at least we knew what we were getting into with the launch and whatnot, and we did see whale sharks after all! Even though I was just in the boat, the water was clear enough that I could get a good view, as they often swim near the surface. It was definitely really amazing to see them! The ones near Tofu are juveniles and much smaller (I think the one we saw was only about 4 meters), but still – they look pretty big! We also saw some dolphins on that trip. All in all, definitely a good experience.

Aside from water and beach activities, we enjoyed relaxing and having delicious food, exploring the little local restaurants of Tofu, and also doing some market shopping and taking long walks on the beach. The beach stretched out forever, with amazing sand and absolutely no seaweed to clutter things up. The sand made this really weird, loud, squeaky noise when you walked around (I’m serious!). Being rather nerdy, we also spent one of our evenings attending a scientific lecture on whale sharks at one of the nearby lodges. There are a bunch of researchers who live in Tofo to study the sharks, and it was really interesting to go learn more about them.

More beach and hostel pictures

The bus we rode up to Tofo

A typical Tofo street (no pavement to be found!)

Sunrise #2

Some very colorful boats along the beach

The dive shops and restaurants that lined the beach

One rooftop restaurant we enjoyed

The inside of our little hut

It was sad to have to leave Tofo – such a great place! After 2.5 days, we piled back into the minibus at 4am, this time much more prepared for a crowded ride. It didn’t turn out to be nearly as uncomfortable as the ride up, and the time passed fairly quickly. Back in Maputo, we enjoyed walking around the city some more and eventually settled down at a really nice bar/restaurant to watch the big concert for the World Cup opening on TV. The next day, we hopped back on a plane back to Cape Town, ready to start the celebrations for the World Cup, as it was opening day (more on that very soon). All in all, it was a fabulous trip, and I can now understand why everyone falls in love with Mozambique!

More views driving back to Maputo