A Fishy Weekend - Swimming with the Sharks 16/11 - 17/11

 Shark Cage Diving.  Yeah.  We were supposed to do it on Saturday, but since it was raining the company rescheduled it for Sunday.  Instead on Saturday I went to Green Market Square, where people sell crafts in the streets.  It's a place to get your bargaining face on.  I figured I would be terrible at talking back to people for prices, but by the end of the two hours there I think I did pretty well for myself for a first time. At the first stall I visited, I walked up just to take a look and some stone figurines, and the man offered me one for R150. I told him I was just browsing, didn't have that much money in my pocket, and I'll come back when I do. He wouldn't take no for an answer, asked me how much I would want to pay for it.  I got flustered and started to walk away, he called back to me and said he'd give it to me for R50 ($5).  I bought it just to get him to leave me alone.  I bought a few other things from other stalls, negotiating less like a stupid American.

At the aquarium, with "Nemos"

After that a group of us went to the nearby aquarium.  It was pretty cool.  I haven't been to an aquarium since I was in first grade; it was pretty cool.

After I got back from Mass we found out that people were going to the movies to see Thor 2.  I'm not a huge fan of superhero movies these days, but it was only R75 ($7.50) for a 3D ticket and there wasn't anything else going on. I guess it was a little better than I thought it would be.  Spoiler alert (not really) there's a lot of action and a shameful setup for a sequel.

So Sunday we had our rescheduled shark cage diving.  The way it works is they bring you out about 3 km and bait sharks to lure them toward the boat.  There is a cage lowered off the side of the boat, which is mostly submerged in the water, but is enough above water that you can stand in the cage and breath without scuba or a snorkel.  You wear a wet suit and goggles, and when the men on the boat see a shark coming toward the cage you go under the water for about 5 seconds and watch the Great White shark pass by, inches from your face, with nothing between you but steel bars.

Shark and cage from the boat. 

 The experience was overall pretty cool.  It felt surreal, like being in an aquarium except without the glass.  The shark part was pretty neat and not that terrifying.  The worst part was the sea-sickness.  The waves were really choppy, and we were in the ocean for about three hours. I’m by no means a sea-farer, but I have spent some time on ferries and boat tours and have never felt sea sick.  That day was the exception. About half of us spent the majority of the three hours sitting on the side of the boat spilling our breakfast.  It was not pleasant.  It would not have been so bad if we had put the wetsuits on land.  However, they didn’t have us put them on until we were out at sea, so you to go into the cabin (the worst spot for sea-sickness), find a suit your size and squeeze into it while looking at the horizon to calm your churning stomach. It was not the most pleasant experience I have ever been on.  The experience of seeing the sharks was almost worth it.  YOCTO (You Only Cape Town Once).

Underewater photo credit, Gaetana Spina (next to me in the cage)

The drive home was pretty nice – though we slept most of the way our driver made sure we saw some nice views, including some whales and 3 remarkably well defined rainbows.

 

Apparently that's a whale

Rainbow behind a mountain