Simon's Town

        Jacqueline (one of my roommates) and I made plans today to go to Simon's Town on the southern peninsula.  We got to the train station with about an hour until the next train left, so we stopped at McDonald's.  There was a family next to us, and they noticed that we were not from South Africa, so they asked where we were from.   This led to a long conversation with them about what we were doing around the world, and also how much internet and cell phone service costs in the States compared to South Africa.  Things are very expensive in their country, because the companies are owned by people in England.  To make money, England charges them crazy prices to make profit which gets sent to England.  To make a phone call from a landline, you will pay 1.20 rand a minute.  That’s not even an American dollar, but for them it can get very expensive.  An unlimited data plan could cost about 1000-2000 rand a month, which is 100-200 dollars.  To own a cell phone, they also pay 80 rand a month just to have it.  That does not include the minutes, texting, or data.  It is ridiculous.  We talked throughout the whole train ride as well.

          When we got to Simon's town, we stopped at a store where men were making art from recycled pop cans and things.  It was very interesting.  The two of us walked down and ran into some more stores, and then made our way to Boulder’s Beach.  This is where you can see penguins in the wild.  We walked on a boardwalk through bushes and trees, with penguins only inches away from us.  There were penguins all over these boulders, and we took another dirt path over to the rocks.  They penguins were so cute; I was afraid to get near them, but they were not mean at all.

          After this we stopped and got an early dinner; I had a salad and got ice cream.  It was so delicious.  From there we took the train back to the city, and headed to the wharf for some more free internet usage.  I will post pictures of this soon!