Saturday Wine and Marimba

Among the many reasons that CIEE is a stellar program to do study abroad with is that they organize legitimately AWESOME day trips throughout the semester, the first of which was on Saturday. We went up to Nelsons’ Creek, a vineyard in Stellenbosch (a huge wine area right outside of Cape Town), for a tour. The vineyards were gorgeous (see below), and lunch and the wine tasting was great. Apparently, vineyards are one of the big employers of Zimbabwean migrant labor during picking season, since grapes picked by hand are much better than the ones picked by machines. Also, it seems that the global recession has been great for South African vineyards, since South African wines are cheaper to produce than the popular wines in Western Europe. Avid wine drinkers are apparently switching from French to South African wines to save some money, and Nelson’s creek is having its best year in a while.

A view of the vineyards- breathtaking

Sara, Sean, Brigid, and I tasting a rose. The black thing is a spit bucket but she told us we didn’t have to use it (thank goodness)

Grape Vines

Crate storage

Saturday night we went to Mama Africa, a completely amazing place for live African music. The marimba band, Marimba Vibrations, was amazing. The group I was with even bought a CD to share. There were 4 drummers and 2 xylophonists, as well as two singers, totally unmic-ed. People were switching between all the drums and singing and dancing on stage, and I was pulled on stage to dance- a ton of fun, but god help Brigid if she reveals those photos.