PCV: Paid Caribbean Vacation

Ok well as I have heard far too many complaints about the brasil blog and how long it was, I have decided to break the ports up from now on so that you can read them in increments instead of having to read a 10 page novel about what I did in every country.
So much happened in South Africa that it is almost impossible to remember all that went on.
The first day was spent doing the most random things from shopping to going out but for the most part it was just a chill day that we used to prepare ourselves for how busy we were going to be. More than anything we used it as a way to hang out with all our friends before most of them left for safaris.
I spent most of the afternoon on Long St. which is the place to be during the day and the night. It’s the place where lots of shops and restaurants are as well as more bars than I could count. The Rand (their currency) is seven times weaker than the dollar. This means that for every dollar I would have spent, my dollar got me about 7 times further. This didn’t mean that things that were 1 rand here would cost 1 dollar in the US but it usually meant that most things were cheaper. For example: a beer in the states would be about $3 or so in a bar. That is about 21 Rand. You could get most beers here for about R11. So it was about half the cost. Food in most places was very cheap as well. At most places, you could have drinks, appetizer, and a meal for under $10 (USD). The hard part with this was while it was very cheap, there was so much to do that it added up quickly and before you knew it, you had spent a lot of money. So all in all, I spent a lot of money in South Africa, but I would do it all over again in a heart beat and might even spend more if I had the chance. The first thing that is extremely noticeable about South Africa is how nice the people are. This is probably universal but it could have also been the fact that we just showed up in a big blue ship that had a big fat flashing dollar sign that can be seen from the Northern coast of Africa. Everyone knows we are coming, everyone knows where the ship docks and they know more about the ship and things we will want to do than we do. Every cab driver waits for us to come and the sense of anticipation for the arrival of the ship is noticeable from every person you talk to that is trying to make money off of people.