Cape Town

Scenic Cape Town

One of the prettiest cities in the world, Cape Town is truly an allegory of Milton’s Paradise Lost.

The crystalline waters of its coast painted in a stunning turquoise blue which gently meets the sun-soaked beaches of Camps bay creates a perfect backdrop for the lost sailor searching for Kaapstad.

Once near the city, the dramatic view was unfurled from a postcard to reality. The day was sunny and very windy. The same wind had brought a layer of cloud rolling over the table mountain to abscond its beauty from the tourists till it felt it was really necessary to reveal it. This layer of cloud is locally known as “Table Cloth”. The first day went uneventful. The sun rose very early next morning; probably to grab us from the bed in to the van which was to take us for the city tour. My first stop was the scenic Camps Bay. The 12 Apostles, a chain of hills, created a perfect backdrop for the bay which already had an effusive way to display its splendor. The tour continued onwards till the Cape of Good Hope-formally known as Cape of Storms- a pretty ironical place for me as our car’s tire was punctured while reaching to the point. Evidently, I couldn’t find any good hope. Later that day we got back into our hotel to revive our brain from the impacting images of this beautiful city with a good night’s sleep.

First night in Brazil.

On December 26, 2009 I left my base, Iquique, to visit one of the most perfect creation of God; Brazil. With its stunning scenery of lush green cliffs merging with the crystallene waters of the majestic Atlantic ocean, there could not have been a better place to be in. As soon as I reached the mega-metropolitan city of São Paulo, my ability to extrapolate the nature of the country by looking at the charismatic nature of the people on board my flight proved efficient enough to justify my first impression of the country. Although the taxi fares were excessively high, the joy of reaching to the world famous "Avenida Paulista" or in english, Paulista Avenue, made me overlook the petty worry as a chance to reach faster. Once in Avenida Paulista, there couldn’t be anything to stop you. From the astounding metro stations to the illuminating edifices, there was plenty to see. As I walked down the avenue I came across various corn sellers, selling delicious corn with “Manteca” or butter. Sooner than I expected, I saw something that I supposed was to surprise me, and I was right. It was a startling garden with green neon light creeping around the trunk of trees like snakes trying to curl around to get hold of the perfect apple. Unfortunately it was closed. Soon after that I was back in my hotel to covert the tension of my journey into sound sleep which was to be woken up by the warm Brazilian sun.