The two week vacation to South Africa may have been the best vacation that I ever had. It defied many images many of us have of Africa. First off, South Africa is not a developing country. It is a developed country. We left San Francisco on October 21, 2006 for New York, the to Dakar, Senegal on to Johannesburg, our first stop. Johannesburg is a huge city of over seven million. We transferred at the airport for Cape Town. This is a city much like San Francisco. The legislative capital, the city is where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Pacific. We visited Robbin Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years. Next stop was Durban, an industrial, vacation city on the Indian Ocean. It is hot and tropical. One of our reasons for going to South Africa was to attend a wedding for a London couple. The father has a second home in Durban and he provided a bus for tours of the city and for the wedding. Then we headed for Johannesburg, the industrial capital and a huge city of over seven million people. We complain about illegal immigrants. Of the 50 million in South Africa, 5 million are illegals from Africa, India, China, and even eastern Europe. From Johannesburg, we took a side trip to Sun City, also called Sin City, a resort in the desert, much like Las Vegas. The attractions are gambling, golf, and clubs. Then we spent a day in Pretoria, the administrative capital. There is a panoramic view from the Presidential Home atop a hill overlooking the old city. The six-lane freeway was better than the freeways in the Bay Area. Alone the freeway, one can see new cities being built. There is a huge building boom across the country. The taxi breakdown took place when we were going to Durban from Cape Town. We tried to thumb a ride, but fortunately, the taxi driver phoned his company and they sent another taxi. However, we only made our flight because the staff at the airport was so helpful. At Kruger National Park, which is larger than Ireland, we toured for an entire day. At the Elephant Hotel, we had our own chalet. I took over 2,000 photos with my digital camera. I forgot to include a photo of my dancing at the wedding. Eldoris says that I was just showing off for the women. I will post more on my other blog http://spaces.msn.com/members/OaklandSavant.
