I'm back!

Well, back in civilization where I can post pictures anyway! Wow, a lot has happened since I last posted and all of it awesome! Spring break was a blast. Jo-burg was a little scary with lots of high security fences. The cultural activities were really cool though. The Hector Pieterson and Apartheid museums were rough, but Maropeng and the Cradle of Mankind were really awesome. From J0-burg we flew to Cape Town, a beautiful city. On the first morning I took a train to Simon's Town and then walked to Boulder Beach where there is a colony of penguins. Yes! There are penguins in South Africa!







The next day I went rock climbing at Silvermine, just outside of Cape Town. It was a great climb with phenomenal views. And then I went shark diving! The water was freezing!!! But the sharks were incredible!!! The visibility underwater wasn't great, but from the top of the boat I got a great view of several Great White sharks, one as big as 4.5 meters. I was in the water with these huge guys and it was unbelievable. We also cruised past Seal Island and saw a colony of thousands of seals. They were really cute jumping out of the water and swimming around. I was kind of hoping one would get eaten...but nope.




I spent the last day in Cape Town wandering around the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, a truly lovely place. We had a nice picnic and spent the afternoon wandering around looking at the plants and birds and truly bizarre statues. From Cape Town we drove to the coastal reserve De Hoop.