Smile and wave, boys

Hello friends! Another adventurous weekend, to say the least. I'm having such a blast filling my days with incredible things to do and see. On Friday we took off right after placement to a small coastal village called Kleinbaai ("Little Bay" in Afrikaans) to go shark cage diving the next morning. I really love going on roadtrips here, always setting off to somewhere I've never been. We took the scenic route there winding between the steep cliffs of the Hottentots Holland Mountains and the Atlantic and Indian oceans. Quite pictureqsue. In the winter here, you can see whales from the road. We enjoyed a beautiful sunset over the bay at a seafood restaurant. (The service here was horendous paired with mediocre food... oh well). Then we went back to our hostel and were simply shocked by the most beautiful stars we had ever seen. You could see the entire milky way reaching its way from horizon to horizon. Absolutely gorgeous!

We had to get up bright and early to get on the boat for shark diving. The bay we dove off of has the highest congregation of Great White sharks in the world. There were 8 of us in total and we were all pretty excited for the trip. However, they forwarned us that the visibility was terrible (only about 0.5 meters) so were pretty nervous that we wouldn't see any sharks. But low and behold, right when we got out on the water, our skipper (who has the most face time in the world with Great Whites) found us some sharks. They are completely wild animals but he drew them in with these stinky tuna fish heads. Sounds like a great breakfast to me.
Is that Bruce???The shark splashing his tailOur shark cage

Then, we spent a couple of hours looking for sharks but couldn't find anymore. In the meantime, we all got really sea sick and there were many pukers off the side of the boat. Not me, surprisingly. But later, they tried going to a part of the bay they hadn't been to in 6 years to find sharks for us, and I finally got to go in the cage. It was so cool to be in the water right next to the sharks, even though they were really difficult to see. However, they lured a shark right next to the cage and I got to see it right in front of my face. All in all, a pretty nice adventure, minus the seasickness, it would have been a very pleasant morning.

After the trip, all worn out

That night, we came home and met up with all the other volunteers. We went out in Observatory, a town right next to ours, to a reggae and sandbar. We even got to play my favorite bar game, photohunt!
Leigh, Gina, Katie, and Ellery

Then today, we spent another day at the beach. But this time we half way down the Cape to Simon's Town, famous for it's penguin beaches. Simon's Town is beautiful, full of precious houses and shops. The water was such a beautiful shade of blue-green, too!


Here are the penguins! They just come up right by you, and the people and penguins are just hanging out all day on the beach. The train ride, bus ride, and 1.5 mile walk to the beach was definitely worth it. I definitely want to come back and spend some more time on the beach here. Another wonderful day and getting ready for an ever better week here!

Keep in touch,
Jackie