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Speaking as one has never lived for food, one of my best memories of South Africa will be their food and service. The table setting, presentation of meals and “just now” service always made for relaxing meals. “Just now” in South Africa means that something will come or happen now or usually at some later time. So again, we woke to another delicious breakfast at our Cape Town hotel. As I am not a coffee drinker, I have so enjoyed the African rooibos tea that is served everywhere. We decided to head out early to the famed Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens, home to about 9,000 of southern Africa’s 22,000 plant species. The weather again cooperated but we toured only a small area of the expansive garden area. It is on the edge of Table Mountain National Park, so it and the other peaks made a spectacular background. Apparently many of the flowers we see in stores and florist shops in the US come from this area. We saw a group of yellow Bird of Paradise flowers, a new variety recently named for Nelson Mandela. Birds were everywhere and a few baboons were seen in the distance, thank goodness.
We repeated our drive back through a high end community of gated homes with electric fences, razor wire and security systems – an obvious example of the large class difference in the country. We also passed some on of the shanty villages with homes created of corrugated metal, scraps, plastic and cardboard. Some still have no plumbing or electricity or if so, only to select places. Apparently since the end of apartheid, living situations are somewhat better.

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