Day 28, Cape Town-Two and one half days left in Cape Town. We are scrambling to see, do and eat everything we want here.

Last night we finally were able to get seats at Chefs Warehouse, one of the top restaurants in Cape Town. It was a fixed, Tapas menu and other than the Tuna in Simon Town, the best meal so far. All of the food has been good, but this was superb. Cape Town is foodie heaven and the most sophisticated city in South Africa.

We have been told that our travels into the rest of South Africa will take us from first world to third world. We can’t wait to see for ourselves.

Today we bused down to the V & A and picked up a few things we are going to need for the rest of the trip.

The Slave Lodge Museum was on our list of places we wanted to visit. So, we headed back uptown.

The lodge was built as a fortress with a large center courtyard to hold slaves for the East India Company.

There is a beautiful monument inscribed with the names of lodge slaves in the museum. Unlike most owners, the East India Company (VOC) allowed slaves to keep their own names. Most of the VOC slaves were from Eastern Africa and Asia. In early Cape Town there was a large disparity in the numbers of men (more) than women, so every night the lodge was opened as a brothel for one hour.  People became slaves in various ways: the desperately poor that sold family members as slaves, slave raiders, those enslaved as spoils of war and those enslaved because of debt. For those slaves transported in ships to Cape Town it wasn’t unusual for 20% to die in transit. Of those that made the transatlantic trip to the American colony, up to 35% could die in transit. The museum also addressed those citizens coloured, black and white that fought for the end of apartheid.  The fight continues as the townships, the agricultural workers and mine workers are still suffering from policies enacted prior to 1994, when apartheid was abolished.

We had made reservations at the African Cafe days ago. We thought it would be fitting and fun to try food from the different countries in Africa. Again a fixed menu, only this time there was so much good food it was overwhelming. We couldn’t compare the meal to the one the night before, mostly because it was so completely different.

After dinner we decided to live it up and go listen to live music at a place called Boston. It’s pretty new and owned by a South African that worked in the US for 5 years. The musician was excellent, he played and sang 1960’s & 70’s hits.

While we were there the sports channel was on and I thought you’d want to know that Zimbabwe beat Australia in Cricket by 5 wickets. I have no idea what that means…..

On the walk home at about 10 pm the city was finally in full swing. Music blasting, restaurants filled and people laughing and shouting.