Cindy Blackman Quartet at the Pan African Space Station

First of all, we apologize for the long break since our last post; we’ve been doing some traveling and having some adventures with a good friend from Alaska. So, we have much catching up to do…

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We attended a stellar music festival called the Pan African Space Station a few weeks ago. We’ll share more about it in the next post, but in the meantime, enjoy this clip from an incredible performance by Cindy Blackman (you may know Ms. Blackman from her great work with Lenny Kravitz).

The Internet and South Africa

Something we had to learn how to navigate when we arrived in South Africa from the US, was the Internet.   At home in the US, we bought the internet in units of speed.  The faster you wanted to download things, the more you had to pay.  The amount of time on line was unlimited.  I even remember back in the day, when we first got the Internet, and we used our phone line.  We paid for time then.

Here in Cape Town, it’s very different.  We buy the Internet in terms of bandwidth.  We pay more to be on a page that constantly refreshes.  We pay more for each thing we download.  There’s only a limited amount of bandwidth here, for the whole country, and it seems we’re all competing for it.  We buy Internet time in gigabyte units, and some months we get by with 3, but in other months, when we need updates, as well as our normal online routine, we can use as much as 5.  We had never thought about how much we download or upload before this.

This has made us think about our Internet use in a totally different way.  Maybe, we’re a little more thrifty, but mostly just more aware.  When will South Africa get the kind of bandwidth allowance that the US and Western Europe have?  We don’t know, but that would probably make the World Wide Web a little more accessible to the whole wide world.

Hike Around Table Mountain

Wooden extinguisher

Trail roots

Camps Bay

Four of the Apostles

We took a hike to enjoy the beautiful weather. We drove up to the parking lot by the Table Mountain tram and parked. We asked the woman at the national park station where we should go. We wanted something relatively easy (no ropes and clamp-ons please) that would last about 2 or 3 hours. She directed us to a trail around the mountain. We started along the trail. It was a warm day, and many people were out enjoying the spring. We’ve had a long, wet winter here in Cape Town. We passed many people, kids and adults, on their own, in large groups, with their dogs, just out having a wonderful day.

As we walked, we went to the side of Table Mountain. To our right was the view of Camps Bay, ahead of us were the 12 Apostles (a group of close peaks), and behind us were Lion’s Head and Cape Town. We took in the whole lovely sight.

We thought of Smokey the Bear as we walked, and his slogan, “only you can prevent forest fires”. Good to remember, but I don’t think the fire extinguisher carved out of wood would be much help in an actual fire. Good thing there was not fire to been seen. Just blue skies, gorgeous views, and friendly people.

We had a great day, and we’ll definitely be hiking that trail again.

A Night of Stars

We visited the Cape Town Planetarium to learn about the stars in the Southern Hemisphere. It was the week of Heritage Day, so to celebrate, entry into the museums and the planetarium was free. Heritage Day is a celebration of the many histories and heritages in South Africa.

We walked into the theater, and snuggled into our seats. The lights dimmed, and the theme of the nights show flashed across the ceiling. Do the stars really tell our future? Chris was a little afraid, but the show went on, and he calmed down as soon as he learned that astrology really doesn’t tell our future. Good thing, we had been waiting all day to “meet an unexpected person” and we were starting to get impatient.

from www.iziko.org.za/planetarium/

All in all, the planetarium was wonderful. Looking up and seeing such a different sky than the one we grew up looking at in Alaska was amazing. We did not see the Big Dipper or the North Star, but we found some new markers for our night journeys in South Africa. We learned a lot, and would definitely recommend the planetarium and the museums in the Company Garden in Cape Town.

The sky was beautiful, the show was fun, and the chairs were comfortable. As you can see, Chris was so comfortable he took a short nap after the show. Unfortunately, the planetarium staff would not let us stay the night. All the same, it was fun date and a great time.