Bidding Wars

Monday: Shanley and I started the week like any good tourist would, with a guided city tour of Cape Town.  We're NOT talking about one of those big red buses though - we were fortunate to be the only two people on the tour, with our knowledgeable guide Isadore.  We drove south and proceeded counter clock-wise around Lions Head and Table Mountains before ending in the downtown central business district. 

Part of the tour included a visit to a diamond factory, which was pretty impressive.  We learned a lot about Tanzanite too, which is the official stone of Africa and also the birth stone for December.  It is only mined at the base of Mt. Kilimanjaro, making it one thousand times more rare than diamonds.

We spent the rest of the afternoon at the Green Market Square, full of street vendors and other African curio shops.  Shanley taught me the art of bargaining with the street vendors and I caught on pretty quickly.  I ended up buying some souvenirs for less than 50% of the asking prices!

Also of note, we both enjoyed an Ostrich burger for lunch :) It was pretty delicious...