Studio Villamil

 All my photos are in the cloud.  WiFi is weak for some reason, so loading photos is impossible. So I may have to wait till home WiFi is available. 

  Slave Island, from where enslaved people were sent on their journey to the “New World.” Monument built (by North Korea) at enormous expense ($27 million in 2014) to commemorate 50 years of independence from France, while medical facilities and schools were sorely lacking).  And 17% unemployment.  Two photos taken from the exact same location: Long abandoned mid rise housing construction in modest areas  (not pictured) and full steam ahead Sunday working waterfront or water view high rise projects.  Beach view parks without apparent beach access.  But the people are talented sand artists and board gamers.  And friendly and resplendent. 

  Cape Town is another place where the ship staff warned of street crime even in the central business district. Didn’t feel that way walking through a prosperous waterfront area back to the ship, except once when walking through a cloud of fragrant smoke. And we didn’t get a chance to try things out at night because we had to get back on board by 5:00 PM to sail at six - Not! In the center of the photo you can see spray coming off the top of the white caps, an indicator of Force 8 near gale winds. No big waves because inside a protected harbor, but way too much wind for a 9 floor cruise ship. Even fully laden cargo ships struggled.  So we waited  All night. All the next day into night. And because of restrictive immigration rules, no one could get of the ship after having returned for the scheduled 5:00 pm back on board. Particularly hard on staff who could have had shore leave. 

 Otherworldly for sure.  A small city adjacent to an immense desert National Park.  The entrance to the harbor has you sail past sand dunes initially lined with beach front villas.  Image should be clear, probably fine dust in the air. The harbor then gives way to shipbuilding and bulk cargo loading -  coal, etc. One of the features of the area is the Flamingo lagoon shown on the Google earth photo.  It is a beautiful place.  The ship staff advised safety concerns about going into town on your own especially after dark. One sign at the entrance to a nice looking community read “No loitering, prowling, no jumping on vehicles.  On the way to the Park we passed the Walvis Bay Golf Course   A caution sign on the highway out of town said “Sand” But then we got to the Park  And then sunset on the way back. 

 From some vantage points, Cape Town is a beautiful city.  This range of hills is known as the 13 Apostles   Blue tinge is photo taken through bus window. Hmm.  But if you went to the Stellenbosch Vineyard (we did not) you would have passed thousands of tin roofed shacks. We did see young men standing at intersections waiting for work (one held a paint roller on a long pole, advertising his trade. Also a significant number of unhoused, some being ignored and some being approached by police.  A triangular road sign with a cyclist on it on a road alongside a golf course told a story: “High Crime Area - Ride Together” Leaving Cape Town was another story. The harbor area has a narrow entrance and while there is protection from waves there is  none from wind.  But we’ll get back to Cape Town later. 

 It’s a good thing that our lovely youngest daughter wasn’t born in South Africa. If she was, we might have had to change her beautiful name to “Gqebehra” which is really hard to say. The “Gqe” sounds like a sharp click. (Sort of like clucking like a chicken, but a much sharper sound.  Try it and send me a voicemail of it.) The sound of the full name is “Click Berra”.  Anyway. The day started out gloomy, and we spent some time circling around outside the harbor, gathering information.  Or courage- we had missed the last two port tries.  The day started out gloomy (rush hour traffic in top photo), improved greatly during the day, and ended with a spectacular light show.  In between we visited Pumba Private Game Preserve. PGRs are sort of like Jurassic Park but with the predators out amongst the prey animals. There are some predators but not a lot.  And no huge herds of migrating animals. But it was fun.  Port Elizabeth seems like a relatively prosp...

 When we had to bypass Richard’s Bay because of the weather, we headed down the East Coast of Africa intending to visit Durban. Approximately half a day’s sail. The ship was trying to accommodate a large number of passengers who had signed up for multi day off ship trips to Zimbabwe safari parks and Victoria Falls. Their plan was to fly from Richards Bay to Johannesburg and then travel somehow to Zimbabwe. And rejoin the ship at a later port . The journey was still possible from Durban.  But not this Durban. We arrived, the harbor pilot came on board and ultimately the decision was made- too much wind and currents. Our next scheduled stop is Port Elizabeth - old name- a day’s sail further south. No idea whether the off ship trips are still possible. 

 After a bumpy night we arrived in the vicinity of Richard’s Bay RSA.  It is a major coal exporting port and we were advised to keep the doors to our balcony closed to avoid coal dust. (In the Cos Cob section of Greenwich just West of where we lived for years a coal burning power plant had existed for years including the early days of our time in Riverside. The white railings on our porch knew it.) Well, our doors can be left open, unfortunately although it is not exactly veranda sitting weather.  The harbor pilot got on. And discussed with the Captain the situation- some strong currents, strong winds and a narrow port entrance: Then the harbor pilot got off And the announcement came:  unsafe to enter the harbor.  Oh well for us, but several friends had been scheduled to get off for a several day overland excursion to Victoria Falls and safari land. Bummer. 

 Chinese fishing nets are a type of fixed fishing net used in China and India.  They lift up and down and when they are down fish obligingly swim in. Floating debris does as well. They can be used only at high tide, which it was not. The ones seen from shore in a touristy area with pesty vendors.  Some  of the vendors were selling fish. We were there at 11:00 AM on a very hot day. The fish were on ice, but it was HOT!  We didn’t see anyone buying. The guide said that local residents would be coming out to buy later in the day. Fortunately, in India they make a lot of very spicy curries. 😎