Day 4!  Really more like  a Day 2, honestly, but I’m sticking to the numbering system we already set up.

Today was a little bit…  real?  We started off around 9 am with a tour of the Langa towship with Chippa of Siviwe Tours.  We’d been told (and we now agree) that a township tour is a must-do/must-see.  Beforehand, it felt like it might be a little exploitative/voyeury, but it didn’t feel that way doing it and was important to have that perspective as we experienced the rest of the country.

Our guide was born and raised in Langa and still lived there, and he was fantastic.  He was pretty thorough in discussing the history and development of the township, and by the end was comfortable giving his less-varnished (though maybe not unvarnished) opinion of the current government and the leading figures in the history of the country.  I don’t have much to offer about the problems and solutions the people face, by which I mean anything.  It was jarring going from our straight-from-IKEA downtown apartment to the sheetmetal-and-cardboard of the township, and we kept it in mind throughout the trip.  We didn’t take many photos.

Afterwards, we went to the waterfront, which was like pretty much every waterfront area anywhere- beautiful, clean, gelato options, t-shirts.  Then we ferried over to Robben Island, the site of the prison where Mandela and tons of other political/other prisoners were held.  The tour was given by an ex-inmate.  Our group was’t terribly chatty, unfortunately, so most of the opportunities to ask questions were met with silence.  There were also a handful of Afrikaners who didn’t speak English, which we just didn’t think existed.

Dinner that night was at Kloof Street House- fantastic food in an amazing, beautiful old house.  I took a pretty epic photo of our wine, but that was pretty much it.