rain last night again, i awoke last night to the sound of the wind beating it against my window... perfect for a great night's sleep, although my roomate says i've been talking in my sleep about lots of strange things... they say the malaria medicine we're taking enhances your dreams quite a bit, so far i don't remember any of them... but i've been sleeping like a rock!

we signed up for a cape tour in a cute little minibus, reminds me of travel in mexico city, but not quite as crowded. it's amazing how affordable these tours are... and other things too, i just finished eating dinner downstairs at a nice outdoors resturaunt... lamb curry with chutney (just like i made for our bookclub kaf... plus they have milk tart in the dessert case and the lady was really surprised when i told her i had tried it before. they have a peppermint crisp that i think i'm going to "take away" after i'm done on the internet) anyway... lamb curry with chutney, rooibos tea and wine (with tip too) $4.50 us. ahhh.

i digress two times. our cape tour was beautiful! i didn't know this until today, but cape town the city is actually on the west side of the peninsula which is the tip of africa... and so we traveled down the west side, to the point of good hope which feels so massive and impressive becuase it is the point that so many people have tried to cross in order to sail accross the world or do some sort of other impressive task. it is where the indian and atlantic oceans meet, and is one of the most beautiful places i have ever seen. different somehow from other coastline, maybe just the feel of being in africa and it being winter and WINDY!!!!. i got some great pictures... hopefully i'll be able to post some on the blog page before summer is over.

it was cool to drive around the suburbs of capetown too... again, there is so much old white money here! i could have sworn several times that we were in europe by the feel of the houses on the hills along the ocean and small towns with quaint brick and wineries. many blacks walk along these highways that have no sidewalks, i assume on their way to work... although our driver was telling us about a very complex "black taxi" system that has really filled in for the absence of a strong public transportation system. i'm reminded of mexico city over and over, where people walk along major highways and build makeshift houses on government land. other things are similar too... the smell of a volkswagen, the look of tile floors.



they closed table mountain again today, so it doesn't look like we will get up there tommorow before we leave. the winds have been really strong, so they close the cable line becuase it is too dangerous. that's ok... i'm scheduled to go for a township tour of capetown in the morning. it has been strange to me to be in africa and yet to be so comfortable and among the rich and the white. where we are we can walk to all these touristy places, to the waterfront and the great resturants and shops and so forth... which is fine, but it's a very limited view of the city i'm sure. i'm eager to see more of a balanced picture of capetown tommorow then. (oops, was that a slip of south african speech? too many hours in the tour bus with british people)

my weary self is craving bed and peppermint crisp... talk once more tommorow and then i'm flying to johannasberg (and then safari), where i have no idea what my internet will be like.

love to all.