Today began with a hill run in Bo Kaap, one of Cape Town's oldest and muslim neighborhoods. It is famous for its brightly colored houses that are Dutch in style. The hills were brutal but the scenery was lovely.
Today the conference was really interesting for a variety of reasons. In the first session I sat by a gentleman from London. As soon as I said hello, he asked if I was an American and then asked me about the election. What followed was a conversation about the election as compared to Brexit. The sum was the impressive parallels from his perspective as well as the objective ones we know. I also presented today at the conference. I think it went well. In the session I met a few people from the states and reconnected with several I had met in residency. I have been very impressed with the quality of this conference (even the prostates yesterday. It was all good stuff. It is just that I don't like prostates).
After the morning session, I took a quick taxi to the Waterfront to grab a healthy lunch and then a quick taxi back to meet up for a wine tour. There were a variety of people on the tour, not just attendees from the conference. In fact only 3 of us were conference people, a doc from Duke, a tourism representative from Abu Dhabi, and me. Our guide was a Khoikhoi woman who spoke to us in her native tongue which to me is fascinating. It's sound is so appealing, cute, fun, sensual, definitive... If this was on Rosetta Stone or Duolingo it would win over Spanish Every. Single. Time. Click click click smooch click.
At the beginning of the tour we learned more South Africa and its history. South Africa is divided into 9 provinces. We were in the Western Cape. The Western Cape is known for its diverse climate.
When she introduced herself in khoikhoi (swoon) and then in English, she told us that she was from the oldest township Langha, population 83K. During apartheid black people, coloureds and asiatics were evicted from certain areas that were designated as "white only" and forced into segregated townships. As in everything coloureds had better townships because they were seen as "second best" after whites. The townships are located in what's called the Cape Flats. There are 15 townships associated with Cape Town. By her estimation the townships are residence to the millions and millions of people. She says the actual census for the townships is very inaccurate. They are each organized with their own schools, civil services, etc. She added that the townships are very safe, which I have since been told is absolutely not true (of note along some of the townships on the way to and from the airport there are signs that say: "High crime area. Do not stop.").
We kept driving towards Stellenbosch and arrived at our first winery, Zevenwacht. On the way we learned the first winemaker in this area was in 1659, but that it was not until French migrants who were escaping France in 1688 that winemaking here really took off. South Africa is known for its brandy, sweet wines, and pinotage. The harvest is in February and always in the morning or late in the evening. The most memorable thing about this particular winery is they put out slip n slides for the kids to play on while the parents do tastings. Forget the tasting, if they had let me I would have been slip 'n sliding until the forced me to quit. This winery paired 4 different wines with cheese.
Next we toured the town of Stellenbosch a quaint town in wine region also home to one of the Cape's universities. I wish we had had more time to wander. The street art alone was incredible.
We continued on to Marianne, a boutique winery. Everything about this place was fantastic. The landscape, the people, the fact that they paired their 4 wines with bilatong. That's right. Wine and better-than-jerky-times-a-million paired!!! How could it not be wonderful? They had three different meats to try: springbok, gemsbok, and beef. The conversation here was dominated by the shock of the election and more comparisons to Brexit. After this we headed back to Cape Town which was a littler over an hour drive.
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| http://mariannewines.com/ |
Back at the conference center I ran into some people that I knew and ended up joining them for dinner on the waterfront which consisted of calamari and steak. Dinner was great. One of the guys I just met spent a large portion of it planning my travel bucket list. He has been in the operating room in 31 countries (some of which barefoot) and has traveled to many more. I left dinner stuffed the brim with a new life plan.
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| http://mariannewines.com/ |
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