Arriving in Cape Town was exciting. A place I’d never been to with people I didn’t really know. Cape Town greeted us with a scenic drive through the waterfront district. It’s a bustling financial hub as we passed offices for KPMG, PwC and EY as well as Ferrari and Audi dealerships and some banks. The mall around the corner from our hotel housed luxury brands like Louis Vuitton, Dolce and Gabanna and Gucci. It is clear from talking with the guide, Fuzzy, that Cape Town is a bustling metroplex with a clear distinction between the upscale, westernized areas closer to the coast and the shantytowns located more inland. On our drive through the mountains along a winding coastal road on the way to and from doing some penguin watching, I was surprised at the diverse landscapes on the coast with rolling hills and rocky mountains right near beaches. The highlight was getting to go to the top of Table Mountain, the beautiful backdrop of Cape Town. The view from the peak gave us stunning views and was the first of many times this trip where the wonder of the nature just made me take in the sight. I breathed in the crisp mountain air, looked over the ancient cliffs and bounded over the rocks. From the peak you could appear as if you were in the clouds and also see down to the coast and across the entire city. As we flew to Zambia, we saw a completely different side of Africa than the westernized waterfront of Cape Town. Flying into a small airport, we walked off the plane and onto the runway to enter customs. The drive from the airport to the lodge located on the Zambezi River took us through the center of Livingstone and didn’t have the wealth or resources anywhere close to what we had seen in Cape Town. Livingstone and Zambia in general relies on a trifecta of economic veins: agriculture, copper mining and tourism. Another shift was the proximity to wildlife. We witness monkeys outside our rooms and rode past alligators and hippopotamuses on boats. On our first safari we saw elephants for the first time and even came across a group of seven white rhinos. 9 of the 11 rhinos in Zambia were in this park, and they are highly endangered. It was interesting to learn that they are guarded 24/7 by armed rangers just 50 yards away— protecting them from poachers trying to harvest their keratin horns. Seeing the wildlife up close was a brand new experience and by the end of the first week I kept having epiphanies that I was in a national park in Zambia with all the natural wonder on display.
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