Ayoba!

So after probably the soundest sleep we both have ever had in our entire lives, we awoke to our first day in Durban. Located on the east coast of South Africa, the city is the country's third largest and located in the province of KwaZulu Natal. Although it is winter here, the weather is absolutely gorgeous, except for the fact that the humidity is ridiculously high. Yesterday when we arrived, the city's skyline and ocean was obscured by a thick cloud of haze. This morning while it was clear at dawn, by noon the haze had returned. Mike and I chalked it up to urban pollution and were quickly corrected this afternoon by our tour guide.

Our bed and breakfast, Essenwood House, is located in the hillside neighborhood of Berea, which overlooks the Durban skyline. The house, a Victorian mansion, is absolutely gorgeous and similar to the tropical houses of Key West, except for the addition of high walls, a gated entrance, razor wire, and wild monkeys. Of course, Mike and I were all over the monkeys. The B and Bs owners told us they have been having problems with the monkeys getting into guest rooms to eat the fruit out of the fruit baskets. Last night I contemplated leaving the window open a crack in order to lure the monkeys to our room, but not knowing how big they were caused pause. Could we Monkeys take on a wild Monkey? Free fruit was one thing, but what if they got into our backpack granola stockpiles? Instead we just kept the windows and doors closed, confident a monkey sighting should be saved for another day.

After starting off the day with a tasty breakfast of sausage AND bacon, our B and B owner, John recommended that we spend the morning at the beachfront and visit uShaka Sea World and then to Moyo's for lunch. The Durban beachfront was beautiful. As we later learned, a lot of money has gone into prepping the city for World Cup and much of that included a large revitalization project on the water's edge. The sand didn't resemble an ash tray, the water was clear, and kids were surfing at 9:30 in the morning. As part of the Mike and Jen ritual, we dipped our feet into to say we had officially been in the Indian Ocean. Later we found out that shark nets are strung a few hundred meters off shore to keep out Great Whites and other man-eating sharks.

UShaka Sea World, or as it is now known to us, the Sea World where staff outnumber visitors, was new and nice. Mike and I really liked it. As winter is their low season, attendance was low, which made going through the park somewhat easy rather than at American Sea World where you pretty much have to elbow kids to get any sort of view of Shamu. We watched the seal show, where one seal refused to do his act and just jumped into the tank and swam off repeatedly. Compared to the seals, the dolphins were finally tuned act. While the show was a little hokey, it did include such musical gems as "Dolphin: The Steel Grey Hunter" and some other song that literally described step-by-step the process of a female dolphin giving birth. The latter included a video. I won't even get into the lyrics on it. I also discovered that Mike has a crazy love of dolphins, as evidenced by the hundreds of dolphin photographs he took.

After a quick lunch of bunny chow (i.e. Curry stew in a bread bowl) and ostrich burgers, Mike and I went on an afternoon tour of the city. Our tour guide, Melody, who has lived in Durban almost all of her life, did a great job of taking us to the various neighborhoods of the city, and especially to places Mike and I wouldn't know how to get to or wouldn't have felt comfortable going to on our own. Highlights of the tour included the botanical garden, the Indian Market, and the new Durban soccer stadium. At the botanical garden, we ran into Melody's morning tour group, a group of Germans who on their way to World Cup, had dribbled a soccer ball across Europe and southward through Africa to raise money for charity. They looked surprisingly spry as they dribbled and jogged throughout the garden. Also while at the garden, we had our first wild monkey encounter. Small and cute, they bounded around and despite us excitedly running towards them like crazy monkey fans, didn't throw their feces at us. Melody seemed shocked when I told her that a) there were no wild monkeys in America and b) John, our b and b owner, had mused shooting them with a paintball gun at breakast.

As Mike mentioned in yesterday's posting, there really are some sobering areas of economic disparity. Unemployment is rampant (20-30%), homelessness is high and crime is an obvious reality as every home in nice areas is surrounded by high walls and wires. At the Indian Market, we both felt weird haggling over the price of bbq spices with the vendors. While haggling is expected, I am sure that the few rand price difference would mean a lot more to them than to us. There is also an uneasy feeling in the city regarding what the World Cup would mean in the long run. As expressed by multiple people today, the city is looking to the World Cup to help transform Durban into an African sports venue and thus bring further economic improvements to the city. Yet as one vendor at the spice market worriedly noted, tourists to the market seemed low and that the onslaught of tourists with cash hadn't yet materialized. I hope that they do and at least in her case, don't haggle too much.

JSS

View from our balcony/patio in Durban...


Obligatory Indian Ocean pic


View of Durban from a southern pier



I <3 dolphins, especially Gambit...



Monkeys!



Durban's new stadium