COS trippn' stop 2: Cape Town - Free Walking Tour (2nd): Bo-Kaap

Since we liked the first Free Walking Tour so much, we decided to go on another one through the Muslim district of Bo-Kaap. We even got the same guide, Ken! 😃

The homes in his district are very colorful, giving it a cheerful atmosphere. Ken told us how the colorful homes began. The first home to bring color to the otherwise gray-housed district was the pink and white home shown below. There was a doctor and his wife living there. The doctor gave. his wife money to go to the store to buy paint to pain the house with, but he didn't tell her what color(s) to buy, so she took the liberty of buying the colors she liked: pink and white. The doctor didn't complain and they painted their home in those colors. Since he practiced his career out of his home, it quickly became known throughout the neighborhood that the pink and white house was the doctor's house. So it became a source of good advertisement for the doctor's business. Well, his neighbor, the local tailor, realized how popular the doctor and his business was due to his pink and white house, so he decided to paint his home bright yellow. Sure enough, his business grew also because everyone knew that the tailor was I. the bright yellow house. Soon after, others painted heir homes bright colors as well...not necessarily for business purposes, but it became more of a competition in the neighborhood for who had the most colorful pretty homes. And it remains to this day. 😍

A view of Table Mountain for the colorful neighborhood.

The first mosque in Bo-Kaap.

This is the first hospital in the world to perform a heart transplant!! ❤️

COS trippn' stop 2: Cape Town - VA Waterfront

This area of Cape Town is known as the VA Waterfront. It kind of reminded me of Disneyland without the cartoon characters, because of all the cute buildings and shops.

The VA Waterfront is the gateway to Robben Island, the prison where Nelson Mandela and his fellow anti-apartheid activists were held. We tried to visit it, but the tours were sold out until September. (So if you ever come here to visit, make sure you buy tickets well in advance).

COS trippn' stop 2: Cape Town - Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens

These gardens are world-famous and well worth a visit! It's divided into different sections: plants for food, medicinal plants, aromatic plants, threatened/endangered plants, etc.

A view of Table Mountain, desigur. 😃

 

Gravesite of first director of the gardens, Harold Pearson - located in the garden itself!

Here is a cool slithering bridge, designed to represent a Boomslang snake, which walks you over the garden canopy & gives you fantastic view of the gardens, Table Mountain, & Cape Town.

Sheila (RPCV Malawi), Coalee and Stacy

COS trippn' stop 2: Cape Town - Jackass penguins

We visited the Jackass penguins! Yes, that's their actual name cuz they sound like donkeys when they talk, which I can confirm cuz I heard them 😄.

The penguins arrived a couple decades ago on this beach & never left. It's a rare occurrence of wildlife kicking out the humans rather than the other way around (meaning, once they arrived & didn't leave, the people decided to protect them and are no longer allowed on the beach where the penguins reside).

COS trippn' stop 2: Cape Town - Table Mountain

Like i mentioned in a previous post, Table Mountain can be seen from many different places and angles in Cape Town. Here are a few:

Observatory

Minibus station

Minibus station

On a walking bridge

Waterfront 

Waterfront

Waterfront

Bo-Kaap Free Walking Tour

COS trippn' stop 2: Cape Town - Free Walking Tour: District 6

So, these posts are a bit out of order...Stacy and i are blogging together for the first time since starting this blog, so we're a work in progress :op. 

That said, this is on the plane from Jo'burg to Cape Town (the previous post we're already in Cape Town...opa!). Notice the happy smiling faces before they die in a firey &/or drowning crash. Pleasant.

Our first glimpse of Cape Town! YAY! :oD

This is the building where Nelson Mandela gave his first speech after being released from prison.

Cool street art. It represents the decades from the sixties thru the nineties of how South Africa looked politically during those decades. Our Free Walking Tour guide, Ken, said there are plans to paint over it soon with something more up-to-date.

More great street art. Like the statue in Jo'burg, this also represents the women that protested apartheid together...notice the baby on the back.

This is St. Mark's church which stood its ground and refused to relocate during apartheid so a college could be built there in it's place (because it's prime property for the area). The church was offered to be moved stone by stone and rebuilt exactly the same in another area and $1 million. They refused. Then they were offered $2 million and the "hassle-free" move. They refused. So, the college built around the church...and the church stands there til this day as a functioning church, surrounded by a college campus.

Table Mountain can be seen from many different angles in Cape Town, and in many different places there are these big yellow frames framing Table Mountain behind it. I liked the Nelson Mandela art in the frame with Table Mountain behind it.

This is world-famous Charly's Bakery...world-famous for it's cupcakes and quiches! So of course we had to go! Even the building is super adorable!! :o]

The cupcakes did not disappoint. On the left is the lemon meringue cupcake (my fave of the 2) and on the right is the vanilla w/chocolate fudgey center topped with chocolate ganache and sprinkled with peppermint (Stacy's fave). They were expectedly delicious!

Notice anything unusual about this photo?

There's just a random statue of a cow standing inbetween 2 buildings. Interesant.