Our second day in Cape Town was a free day, The majority of students attended a Red Bus tour across Cape Town. Upon waking up, each student decided to either explore a local coffee shop or make breakfast at our homes. Afterwards, we loaded a bus and drove to the Red Bus Tour, which drove across the city of Cape Town. The weather was perfect, with the sun shining and clear skies.

One of the stops on the Red Bus Tour was a wine tasting restaurant. Each student was able to try an array of wines, and most bought their favorite bottle of wine to take home. At another Red Bus Tour stop, we visited the World of Birds WIldlife Sanctuary and Monkey Park, where we saw many different animals, including chickens, meerkats, and even monkeys, which climbed on us while we fed them. Afterwards, the students split up to eat lunch and visit local shops at the Cape Town malls.

Meanwhile, several students woke up at 6 am to get ready to drive two and a half hours to go shark cage diving. We were picked up outside of our stay by a driver from the diving company, and we drove through beautiful mountainscapes until we arrived at a town on the harbor. Since we had arrived early, we stopped at a penguin sanctuary, where we looked at penguins being rehabilitated and cared for. We learned about how conservationists build homes for the penguins to encourage an increase in population.

Afterwards, we arrived at the reception building for shark cage diving. As we received a briefing on the diving procedures, we were served a breakfast of croissants and deli meats.

After the briefing, we put on a life jacket and loaded onto a boat with a lower and upper deck. After a 20 minute boat ride into the ocean, we anchored and started to put on our wetsuits. The crew threw a large metal cage into the choppy water, and we were handed masks to cover our eyes and noses. As the crew started to chum the water with fish oil and bait, seven of us were loaded into the cage. We held our breath as we pulled ourselves underwater, where we were able to see and touch sharks, a sting ray, and hundreds of fish. Even a seal passed through.

After 20 minutes in the shark cage, we climbed back onto the boat and drank some hot chocolate. At this point some of us began to feel sea sick. However, after some rest on the front of the boat, we recovered. After we arrived back onto shore, we were served hot soup with bread to warm us up from the freezing sea winds. We then drove back to Cape Town. On the way back, we witnessed a large fire on the side of the road.

After we were done with the Red Bus Tour and shark cage diving, some students went to a local church and then we all met up for dinner at a fancy food court in downtown Cape town. Many students opted for a hamburger with a complimentary scoop of ice cream on a cone. After dinner, we explored the downtown area and headed back to our two homes, where we played card games before heading to bed.

Blog by Joanna Kryczka