Some of the fellow MBA'ers getting ready to catch the ferry to Robben Island.
He couldn't resist.
Robben Island is a small island about 15 miles off the coast of Cape Town. Since the end of the 17th century, it has been used as a place for isolation for mostly political prisoners. It was also used as a leper colony in the 1800s. Nelson Mandela was it's most famous prisoner and this was the place he spent 18 of his 27 years in prison.
After about a 45 minute ferry ride, we arrived at the island.
They had these big pictures hanging on the wall right when you stepped off the ferry which showed what it was like for the prisoners when they arrived.
Once you exit the ferry, you immediately load a bus which is where you stay for the majority of the tour. Jonathan and I ended up on a different ferry and a different bus than the rest of the group. It was South Africa's Freedom Day which is the day they celebrate their ending of apartheid. We boarded a bus with a big group of South Africans representing one of the political parties. It was so interesting to listen to the tour guide and hear their thoughts on Nelson Mandela and the ending of apartheid. They were so grateful that someone had common sense.
There is a small community that still lives on this island. They have some rule that all buildings on the island have to be built with the slate and limestone that is quarried right on the island.
This church is a popular place every Valentine's Day when they host multiple weddings for anyone who wants to come and be married.
This is the limestone quarry that the prisoners would work at. They attribute Mandela's cataracts to all the lime dust from this quarry. The prisoners would use that little cave opening as a bathroom. Lovely.
Nelson Mandela's prison cell
The courtyard where the prisoners were assigned to do hard labor most of the day.
Our tour guide made a good point. Since most of these men were political prisoners, isolating them all in one place probably wasn't the smartest idea if the government was trying to keep them from having any influence. They were able to talk amongst themselves and work through various ideas so when the leaders were ready to talk, they had their plan in place.
After the tour of the island, we boarded the ferry again...this time with the group...and headed back to Cape Town for the next tour of our day, Table Mountain.
They call this Table Mountain because, well, obviously it's flat like a table, but often in the afternoons the clouds come in and it looks like a table cloth on the mountain. After the ferry, we were scheduled to take a tram to the top of Table Mountain.
This was at the base of the tram
They were these really cool trams that rotated 360 degrees the entire time you were going up or down.
At the top
Just a couple hours earlier, we were out on Robben Island, now we were at the top of Table Mountain. It would have been fun to hike it up or down, but we didn't have time.
At the end of the day, this nice security guard came up to Jonathan and wanted to see who was taller. We made them go back-to-back, and it was close, but Jonathan was just a smidge taller. He found his African twin.
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