Durban

During the month of December, things slow down here in Joburg. Most people in Soweto go home to their families in the village. Others go on vacation, which is what we did.

For the first part of our trip we went to Durban for two nights which is on the west coast about 7 hours from Joburg. Durban is the second largest city in SA and is the busiest container port in Africa. It was founded by a Portuguese explorer who came to the KwaZulu-Natal coast while searching for a route from Europe to India. He landed on the coast on Christmas in 1497, thus naming the area "Natal" which is Christmas in Portuguese.  There is much history here between the British and the Zulu tribe. Later the British established a sugar cane industry which led to the importation of Indian labourers as the Zulus were not interested in working on their plantations. Durban has the largest population of people of Indian descent outside of India in the world.

Durban is one of the host cities of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. One of our goals was to see the Moses Mabhida Stadium which we found after getting lost :)

This is the view from our bed & breakfast that we stayed at... you can't beat looking down the street and seeing the blue ocean.

My one request was to go to the Indian Ocean which Amber sacrificially went along with. I only got into the water up to my knees. Durban is known for sharks (including great whites) so I wasn't too adamant about swimming. I found out some interesting facts after doing some research... South Africa has the highest number of shark attacks in the world with 214 including 42 fatalities. But Volusia County in Florida has had 4 less attacks but all these attacks have occurred in a single county. No thanks!

We went to uShaka Marine World but we ended up getting their too late and not able to go to the aquarium. But it was worth it as we got to see some Zulu women sing and dance! uShaka is named after the great Shaka Zulu warrior who is proudly celebrated by the Zulu people.

We went to one of the largest malls in Africa... it was definitely the biggest mall I have ever been to. It had four levels and even had a rock wall, a wave pool for surfers and a skate park.