Left Wilderness and drove toward Hermanus today. we made stops in Albertina, known for aloe stuff, as well as Heidelberg for a tasty lunch at a farmhouse. Hermanus has some great sandy beaches, and is renowned for whale watching, however, it's not the season for it right now. we spent the afternoon walking one of the top 10 beaches in SA...quite windy, but beautiful, with mountains on one side. i now understand why everyone we have met has a pity look on their face when they learn that becky is living in joburg (a land-locked city).
we went to a bar for drinks and to watch the sunset, where we struck up a conversation with a young guy about the state of SA. he (as well as other's we've met) believes that SA is going downhill. there's a real unempolyment problem there, especially for white men....some sort of affirmative action thing. however, recently there were some reclassification on race --which is really not just based on race, but social economic level as well, and he (who looks completely white, but insists that there were some Malay blood in him way back) has declared himself "coloured" (it's the term for anyone with mixed races) in order to have more job opportunities. becky said she had to fill out some forms for work, and had asked what she should put down, and they told her "white" (she is 100% Chinese).
our "waitron" (as the wait staff is called here) for dinner, Marco, another young white male, also confirmed how hard it was to get a job in SA. he is currently living and working in Richmond, Virginia, but is back for visa reasons.
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