Jo'burg

This is our third day in Jo'burg and as you can tell, we are already getting hip to the lingo. We will be here for another 2 days. The good news is that we have finally figured out how we are getting up to Kili. The bad news is that we won't be going through Botswana and Zambia. Instead, we got a flight to Nairobi, Kenya that leaves Monday morning and will find our way four hours south to Arusha. We are hoping to be on the mountain by the end of next week.

So, we are getting to know Jo'burg a bit. After staying one night in a more expensive motel the first night, we found a much more affordable hostel: Eastgate Backpackers (53A Van Der Linde Road, Bedfordview/ tel: 011-616-2741, cell:082-936-2396. ZAR 80 per person for dorm beds). This place is located in a safer suburban neighborhood 10 minutes walk from Eastgate, supposedly the largest mall in Africa. We did not exactly come to Africa to visit a gargantuan consumer mecca. Mall rats are the same everywhere. But, this is a safe place in a city where safety is a big issue. We've heard that Jo'burg is the murder capital of the world. Apparently, all business has moved away from the city center and the Eastgate mall near us is more like the city center. The downtown has been described as a ghost town where only the very poor and criminals dwell. Many skyscrapers can be seen from a distance, but you won't see any people in business suites walk in with their lattes. We've been told that these buildings have been abandoned except for squatters paying rent to Mafia organizations. We don't particularly feel like testing that limit so we are keeping our distance.

So, we've hung out at the mall for food, money change, travel arrangements and Lattes. We've had two Lattes here and they were gourmet to the core. Perfect taste, artistic froth and your own maitre'd all for less than $2. Most other goods have been comparable in price here, but high quality coffee is way too cheap. Bad for our caffeine habit.

Some coffee sipping observations. Our lattes were served in clear glasses and were segregated, espresso floating over the milk. Ironic. All of the waiters were black. Most of the clientele was white. Economic apartheid?