"Cape"tivated by Cape Town

So it’s official. I know have a new city in “Jay’s Top Five Favorite Cities in the World”…CAPE TOWN! Of course Sydney, Vancouver, Paris and Venice will still be in the top five, Cape Town now holds a special place for me.
After the 3 weeks of Safari in Zambia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, my parents and I headed off to Cape Town for 9 days to enjoy some wine tasting and explore this dazzling city. What makes Cape Town such an amazing place is its stunning scenery…beautiful beaches all along the coast surrounded by a panoramic mountain (Table Mountain) sheltering it. The population there is also very cosmopolitan with an exotic mixture of native African, Indian, Malay, Dutch, English, French and Italian people passing their genes on to one another – the result is stunning. Of course, you can also imagine with all these ethnic groups mingling together for a few centuries, the FOOD is phenomenal! Coupled with the world-renowned S. African wineries that are just 30 min. away from the city, you’ve got yourself the right ingredients for a terrific vacation – kinda’ like instant oatmeal…just add water and you’re good to go. Oh, yeah, and the other great thing about Cape Town, and S. Africa, in general is that the US dollar goes a veeeery long way. Compared to the expensiveness of London and Paris, Cape Town is a budget traveler’s mecca.

On our first full day there, we rented a car and drove off to the famous wine region of S. Africa which was only about 30 miles away. In that way, it reminds me a lot of San Francisco, having such close access to world-class wineries. We spent the next 2 days in the town of Franschhoek tasting and enjoying some of the best wines that I have ever had…I had always known that S. Africa had some good wines, but honestly, all of the 6-7 wineries we visited were outstanding. The problem was having to decide which wines to buy and bring back home…I know, life is rough. You can check out some of the photos from the wine country and Cape Town below.








After that we drove to and spent the night near the town of Hermanus, which is on the way toward the Cape of Good Hope and is the southern most point of Africa. It is here where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans converge, and it is famous not only for its huge population of humpback whales, but also great white sharks! The next morning, I prepared myself for my Great White Shark adventure….SCAAAARY! After a hellish 3 hour boat ride out into the choppy open ocean and desperately trying not to throw up from the stench of the chum (fish guts and blood) and the intense sea sickness (4 people had to actually be taken back by another boat), we were rewarded with about 10 amazing sightings of huge great white sharks (about 12-15 feet long) passing right by our boat…it was a terrifying but also beautiful sight to see these predators so close to me. As I’m sure like many of you, ever since I saw JAWS as a young kid, I’ve had this great fear of sharks…but somehow seeing these magnificent creatures so close up enabled me to appreciate them as just another animal in glorious Nature. Of course, I was just relieved that I was seeing these massive flesh-eating predators from the safety of my boat and not in the water. The memories of seeing them (and the wrenching stench of the chum) lasted for days.







After that we headed back to Cape Town where we enjoyed 5 days of exploring this marvelously gorgeous city. Not only does Cape Town boast being a stunningly beautiful city, with great food, wine and gorgeous people, but everyone we met there were so civilized, friendly and pleasant…in fact, the entire them there driving and walking around, not ONCE did I hear anyone honk their car horn!

All in all, Cape Town is DEFINITELY a place that I intend to go back to again in the near future…and before I forget, thank you Lance, Mario, Pia and Iben for all your great advice on helping us plan our stay there!

Diving Head First
Fearlessly Into My 40s

OK, call me crazy, but as a testament to the very last official day of my 30’s, I decided to bungee jump over 300 ft. off the Victoria Falls Bridge. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Vic Falls, it separates Zimbabwe from Zambia and is one of the world’s most spectacular waterfalls - twice as tall and wide than Niagara Falls. Seeing the Falls for the very first time was a breath-taking sight. (see photos below)



Having done my first bungee jump in New Zealand about 8 years ago, I was certainly less scared sh_tless this time around…nevertheless, getting prepared to do the jump was still an exhilarating experience. I guess the part of me that decided to do the jump was to see if I could manage to overcome my fear…not just the fear of jumping, but as a symbolic gesture of releasing all fear from my life! As I have taught and said countless of times to people in my Yoga classes and private clients, when we can connect our breath fully and deeply with the core of being, there is NOTHING that we have to fear. As many of you have heard me say, the practice of Yoga is nothing more than the ability to stay connected to our breath in every moment in our life – whether that is a challenging Yoga pose or a challenging situation in our life. The power of the breath allows us to stay grounded and calm regardless of the external situations that may want us to react from a place of fear. I have always said that fear is nothing more that excitement without the breath! I suppose doing this jump was my own way of putting into practice everything that I value and hold to be true about the ability and power of the breath to enable us to embrace our fears.

So as I stood there on the tiny 3x3 ft. platform that jutted out from the bridge, the one thing that I focused on I was overlooking the 300 feet drop below me was my breath. The last thing I remember yelling out to the world as I glided off the platform was the powerful declaration, “I have NO MORE fear in my life.” And so with one final full breath, an incontrollable laugh and huge smile on my face, I leaped fearlessly into the abyss and into my 40s!

ps - AND if Bungee jumping wasn't enough, I also decided to fly over the Falls in a open air microlight plane for half an hour. Soaring over the Falls like an eagle was MAGICAL!

Take a Walk IN the Wild Side

One other very memorable event that I did on Safari was to do a morning walking tour through the Savannah. This is actually more dangerous than it sounds – at least when you are driving around the Safari parks, you at least have the safety of a sturdy and elevated jeep that can drive off if there’s any danger. The only thing that separates you from some hungry predator are the 5 bullets in the rifle the ranger is carrying (pic of me with ranger below). Needless to say, we were ALL on the lookout for lions, leopards, cheetahs and hyena – not only to photo them, but to avoid being breakfast! Luckily, we didn’t run into any.
















It was really a humbling and nerve racking experience not having the safety of a vehicle, but just walking in the vast openness of the savannah spotting elephant, baboons, warthogs, puku and antelope – it put all of us on the same playing field. Walking with the animals around us was a great “equalizer”, as we humans were just another species to them and not mad driving tourists. One thing that was somewhat disquieting to see was the freshly eaten carcass of a buffalo - just glad it wasn't mine! The day before, we had seen a pride of lions feeding on the same carcass. Luckily the kitties were no where in sight - WHEW!



As I watched my parents in front of me walking in single file (as was required by the guide) with one guide leading and the other with the sole rifle picking up the rear, I couldn’t help put imagine us being transported back a million years ago. There were no signs of modern civilization around us at all that made it feel it like we were in the 21st century. It really felt like we were a family of primitive hominids making our way through the African savannah. For a brief instant, I could actually relate to the fear and trepidation our ancient ancestors must have felt doing this in the birthplace of man over a million years ago – it still gives me goose bumps imagining it!