Chintsa & Coffee Bay

Arrived in Chintsa which is a very cute little town. The hostel sits on the hill overlooking a green lagoon. Went down to walk on the beach, but it was very wavy and swimming was not possible. Again a place where there is not much to do, but luckily the hostel offered free activities and that day there was free volleyball with free wine. That was a lot of fun; we really got united with all the players, except 1. He was black South African, and I had no idea what was he doing at the hostel. He didn't know how to play, but it's ok, not everybody knows everything, but he wouldn't even try! Only if the ball was flying directly at him, he would hit it back. He wouldn't move 1 meter from where he was standing, just saying that it's not his ball. Then when the ball was out of the field, he would casually walk to pick it up, while everybody was standing there waiting for him, and on top of it all, he wouldn't know whose turn it is, like it's so hard to figure out!!! I swear, my blood was boiling, and I was about to explode!
During the Volleyball and the party afterwards, I met and made friends with Benjamin, a 23 year old pilot, whose hobby is guitar, and he and his band opened for pink. I was so impressed that I just had to include it here :)B
enjamin gave me a ride to Coffee bay, one of my favorite South African destinations. On the way we stopped at some town to buy food, that was scary! We were scared to go together to the store so the car won't be left alone. The store didn't have anything anyway. We locked the doors the minute we sat in the car. Everybody was observing us, I was scared to take money from ATM (and I didn't), just a very weird feel to the place.
The road to Coffee bay is a blog in itself! It takes 2 hours to get there on the most nerve racking road ever! There are so many potholes, it's incredible. People are driving everywhere to avoid them. On the "shoulder", the opposite side of the road, somewhere in a ditch. We'd have cars going directly towards us at high speed, only to turn right before our nose. There are chickens, sheep, cows, broken beer bottles, so many turns, we would try to avoid something and go on a shoulder on a turn, but there would be people walking there! I was thinking that it would make a very good computer game, instead of all the hail and snow and ice on the roads, just make it a South African road. We were jumping and squeaking in a car, very tense experience, it was better just to close my eyes, and hope for it to end. Then we got thinking about it, there is no reason for so many potholes to be there. So we figured out that it was probably a trap.
Since I was skipping all the places and getting bored of them within a day, I decided that I should spend some time somewhere, and Coffee Bay was just the spot for it. Every day they had cheap activities, and their surfing lessons I think are the cheapest in the world of only $6 for 2 hours (and that's with a board and a wet suit provided). They also had yummy dinners, and every day I found myself waiting for dinner time :) The only problem with the hostel is that the beach was 15 minutes away, and with a surf board, it's quite a walk.
In the evening there was a game of killer pool. You have 2 lives, and have to sink any ball in ... and guess what?? I won !!! So I got the next day’s activity for free which was a beach day. The bar has a buffalo rule, which means if you hold a drink with left hand, or put a drink on the pool table, then you have to drink it all at once. The whole bar would come alive when somebody screams like crazy "BUUFFAALLOOOOOOOOOOO", and everybody joins in :) I don't usually drink, but even if I got a drink, I would take it straight out of the bar :)
Benjamin got a little drunk that night from having too many buffalos, and when the place relaxed a bit, and we were sitting outside chatting, he was holding a drink in his left hand, and I jokingly told him "buffalo". He looked at his hand, and screamed so loud BAFFALLLOOOOO, and drank the whole drink :)) I was laughing, but then he got to drunk for me to have a conversation, so I left him be :)
Next day was a great surfing day. I got this big, pretty, comfortable soft board on which I stood up 100% of the time :) I could catch any wave that I wanted to, and even closed my eyes to wipe the water and the hair off my face while riding the board ... yahhoooooo :)) Then the instructor saw me, and gave me smaller board which was much more unstable, so my rate of success fell to 70%, but still pretty good, I was happy :)
What was very annoying were the ladies who tried to sell you beads. They would approach, all so friendly, oh hi, how are you? what's your name, where are you from? Try to teach you Xhose, and then, "I sell beads". I say no thank you, I'm not even wearing any jewelry, it's not my style, and I don't have any money with me. They would go on, what about this one? No thank you. This one for your neck? No, thank you. This one for the leg? No thank you, no thank you, no thank you. They just don't get it. After 10 times that I said "No, thank you", I finally got up to leave, when she held me by the hand and quite aggressively pulled me down and told me to sit !! I pulled my hand even harder and left. So annoying !!!
In the evening we drove to the hole in the wall, a local attraction. It's a wall, with a hole in it :))) The site itself wasn't that impressive, maybe the ocean wasn't fierce enough for the waves to really explode once they went through the hole, but anyway, it was something to do. When we were close to arriving there all the local kids started to run alongside the car, we didn't understand what they were doing, but when we got out of the car, it was evident. They were fighting among each other to walk us to the hole, and to look after the car, and all of that for money money money. They wanted $3 to look after the car !! Unbelievable!! Probably most tourists feel sorry for them, or they just make that amount up, but for a kid, $.5 of a dollar would be more than enough. We said we're not paying anything and left, not sure if it was a smart decision, because they would just scratch the car and throw stones at it out of anger. It was a pity to look at all of that, because while being in that village and looking around, you'd notice that people don't really do anything. They just lie on the ground beside their houses, and that's pretty much it, they barely grow anything either, while their kids are fighting each other over $1 of tourists' money.
I went surfing 2 more times, but once there was a storm, waves were coming in from all directions and disappearing right under me once I finally caught one, and they were breaking very close to shore, so there is not much distance to ride them, not that it made any difference since I couldn't get up at all. In the middle of the lesson, I got out of the water, frustrated, and didn't have any desire to get back in. But after few minutes I decided that I can't just give up and lie there on the beach, any effort is better than no effort at all, so I got back in.
In the hostel met a local white South African who was 19 who wanted to move and live in Coffee Bay. He said it's the most relaxed place in the whole South Africa, people just do 1 thing a day, and that's enough for them, there is no stress, there are no bills. He wants to be self sufficient, and grow weed with the seeds that his mom bought him!
With the hostel went for 2 day trips. One was again to the hole in the wall, this time walking. It was long, although the scenery was nice, but it was just too hot, too long, and with 3 hills on the way. The 2nd walk was so much better. It was shorter, but there were many cliffs which we had to climb. A few times it was quite dangerous, with only 10 centimeters to walk on with a mountain on one side and a cliff on the other, then there would be 1 little rock on which to put a foot on and then jump. In Canada, that would never be allowed! Then we did some cliff jumps, river cliff jumps, had to walk along the water side between the waves before they came crushing on us. In short, it was a lot of fun :)
While one day seating on the beach, taking a break from surfing, a traditional ceremony started to take place right in front of my eyes. There were about 4 people all dressed traditionally with drapes wrapped around them, feathers, and beads. To the drum beat, a woman took a man into the sea, put him on his knees and started with force dumping him into the waves. He'd get up, and she'd push him again, rolling him around in the water. Then while he was sitting on his knees, she took a chicken, and started cutting its throat above the men, with what it looked like a dull knife. Poor chicken, I felt really bad for it, it was sliced up alive. All the blood then flowed on the man's head and back, she then rubbed it all on him, pushed him into the water a few more times, and took out another chicken. When I asked what it was, I was told that it was mans inauguration to become village's traditional healer.
We also went to a local shabeen, which is like a bar. I've heard some stories about it, like for ex. even if the alcohol is left unattended on the street, nobody will take it, because the locals believe that shabeen is protected by spirits that will punish them. I was expecting some dark place with very drunk locals sitting in it, dull lights with smoke surrounding the room. Well, no! It's an empty place, with no seats, not even a standing bar, a bunch of alcohol on shelves behind bars, with a small opening to exchange money and goods. It's strange why they need the bars. Maybe the local believe in evil spirits if they steal the alcohol from the street, but not from the store??? Funny thing was that on one of the bottles (made out of carton) was written "Don't drink and walk on the road, you may be killed". Normal saying would go, don't drink and drive, but I guess it was changed to comply with cultural differences, since locals don't really have cars.
Since I stayed for a while in Coffee bay, it gave plenty of time to catch up to me ... guess who? Of course Hans, that's the 4th time that we bump into each other.
One evening we went to have a traditional Xhosa dinner in a traditional Xhosa village with traditional Xhosa people. The villages of Xhosa are scattered around, with only the families living beside each other. We went to the chief’s house, so you would assume that they're doing quite well. I'm not sure exactly how "well" is defined, but their kids were running around with ripped and dirty cloths, there was no furniture in the houses, somebody was sick lying on a mattress on the floor with chicken running around him, and something cooking on a gas stove, which filled all the room with gas. They have no electricity, and have no walk hell knows where to get water. Woman do everything around the house, clean it, paint it, cook, gather firewood, shop, laundry, while men work. A lot of the men go to cities to make money, because these opportunities are not available in the villages. Women get married pretty young for a "labola" which is a payment. In that part of the country, it is 10 cows, and 15 cows for chief’s daughter. Each cow is worth USD $1000, so they're treated here with a lot of respect. They also wonder around freely and nobody's concerned about them being stolen. All the people act as villages police, and if somebody is caught stealing, the chief of the village will come up with some kind of punishment like going from house to house and saying, “beware of me, I steal cows". Women as soon as they get married change their clothing style, and go from shorts to long skirts, and a head cover I think with some cushiony thing because they're really good at carrying stuff on their heads. To be fat is a sign of wealth, meaning that the husband does a good job at providing for his family, so most of the married women what are called "the big mamas". In this culture to become a man, he goes through circumcision, and goes into the bush for about a month to live by himself. His mom will bring him food, but he's not supposed to talk to anyone or see anyone. Before it was 3 months, but now with work and school requirements, they're slowly moving into a modern era :) When a couple is getting married, the union is not only between them, but between the families. They're encouraged to discuss their problems when the whole family is present, so divorce is very rare. If a man borrows his dad’s cows for labola, it's like a promise to take care of him until the end, because essentially he robbed him of his retirement. But I don't understand this lebola thing. It looks to me that the cows are just moving from one family to another, but if both families live together, was that really a move? Did they lose or gain anything?
After asking a bunch of questions we had dinner with tasteless something with slimy something else for appetizer, and then even heavier maize with beans for the second course. Oh man that was filling. Then they showed up some traditional dancing, with pretty much the same moves and sounds, and we joined them in this celebration. Overall, an evening to remember!
Back in the hostel when it was a day to leave, 2 girls and Chris went surfing for the last time. Apparently Chris didn't really know how to surf, but still went in for the big waves. Well, he fell off the board, and when he surfaced, it went right on top of him, and cut his head with the fins. He came back to the hostel, and covered his head while talking to me. I thought he was ok, but when he took the bandage off, I almost lost consciousness. Thank god the girls are doctors and had sawing equipment with them. They sat him on the bench, gave him anesthesia. While poking his head with the needle, because of the pressure all the blood started coming out and dripping on his face and cloths, omg, I was more hyperventilating then him, he looked peaceful, when I had to turn around from time to time and breath very very deeply. All the passer biers gave some of their comments or sounds or facial expressions while the doctors debated if he needs another stitch or if the hair that's in the way gonna cause any infection. After major pain killers, surprisingly he was fine and not delusional, and we set off to our next destination.

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