Penguins and wine and cheetahs and whales (pt.1)

These last four days have been busy. No, that's an understatement: These last four days have been hectic! Waking up at 7:30 every morning has not been easy considering how packed our days have been. Let me explain:

Friday was our wine-tasting tour, and what a tour it turned out to be. We travelled to the world-famous (so I was told) Stellenbosch region in the Winelands--home of the South African exclusive Pinotage grape--to start our tour off with some champagne. Bottles were popped by 10 AM. Yeah, it was gonna be that kinda day. Our tour guide gave us a crash course in Snobbery, showing us everything from how to hold your wine glass to how to taste the wine itself. However, he ultimately told us that the best wines are the ones we like to drink, regardless of price, and that the critics can go jump off something high. Decked out in his Portugal hat and jersey, I thought he was pretty cool. Especially since his version of wine "tasting" was more of a wine "everybody drink as much as you can before we head out to the next place".

After getting our buzz off more wine and cheese at another estate, we stopped by a cheetah farm. In the US, we farm cows and pigs; in South Africa, they farm cheetahs…just kidding, that's just what they call their cheetah rescue facilities. Since almost all of the cheetahs there had grown up or spent most of their lives in captivity, they were very tolerant to having human workers within their fenced areas. One lady even asked us if we'd like to go in and pet one of the them. Everything sounds like a great idea when you've had a few:

We headed home after one last visiting vineyard, but not before grabbing some wines for the road. Thanks to the lack of an open-container law, neither of the two open bottles made it back. I'd tell you more about the weekend, but due to a recent complaint from Rohit Kabra that he can't read more than 250 words in a single post, I will explain the rest in three more parts. Thanks for for you opinion, Rohit. I always try cater to those with handicaps.

-kav