Cape Town and the Peninsula

This is me blogging last night at our hotel...such hard work!

January 21st

We started our day at the District 6 Museum.  First, let me say that apartheid was such a devastating time for South Africa.  It's one thing to read about it but to see first hand the long lasting affects is absolutely mind boggling.  All of South Africa was changed forever by apartheid.  More than 150,000 Capetonian's lives were forever changed. 

Cape Town is divided into "Districts".  District 6 was like "The Village" in New York City.  It had been a vibrant community of diverse ethnic groups and religions living in harmony.

The Group Areas Act of 1950 declared District 6 as a White Only Group Area.    More than 60,000 of District 6's residents were forcibly taken from their homes and shipped out to the Cape Flats (a miserable place miles from town with no jobs and no homes) before their houses were to reduced to rubble.

Below is a map of Distict 6 which is painted on the floor of the museum.  Now, residents who were evicted years ago, write on a huge map of District 6 laid out on the floor - to show where they once lived.

 A tower of the some of the original street signs from District 6.   

After the museum, we headed out in our car to explore the peninsula again.

Beautiful scenery...

Roads cut into the mountain side

Beaches with sind surfers...

We went to a Visitor Center a couple of days ago.  The girl at the visitor center warned us about the baboons.  She said that they were extremely smart.  She warned us not to put our bags down on the ground while we were photographing them.  She told us that the baboons would grap our bags and open them looking for food and drink.  She also told us to keep our car doors locked as they know how to get into unlocked cars.  We remembered her words.

A baboon out for a stroll... 

A photogenic baboon who was stopping traffic

As the above baboon was distracting all of us, a male baboon got into the backseat of a minivan.  The front seat passengers jumped out and then the baboon got out with their backpack.

The baboon had opened the backpack and was in the process of searching for treats....Too funny!!

A mother nursing her baby...

A baboon "monkeying" around...