I Love Chintsa!

Chintsa.  Spelled Chintsa, or Cintsa, pronounced Sin-suh.  Although it took us all weekend to figure that out, it definitely did not take that long to begin having fun.  Friday morning, 9 am, 14 of us packed into three rental cars.  We were headed east approximately four hours to Chintsa, part of what they call the wild coast. 

Along the way, we stopped to have lunch at the Hemingways Mall in East London.  It was huge and reminded me a lot of the Mall of America.  Instead of going straight to lunch, we ended up in a store called Canterbury, which makes the South Africa Springbok Rugby Team jerseys.  If you have not heard of the Springboks, watch the movie Invictus starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon.  We all ended up getting a jersey – I got a white one that was on sale!  Then I bought a giant South African flag for just R37 ($5.28).  It was a successful stop. 

Just one more hour and we would head off road to get to our backpackers for the weekend, supposedly one of the best backpackers in South Africa.  It was called Buccaneer’s Backpackers.  To get there, we headed down a really long dirt road, just big enough to fit a car going one way.  I began thinking this place was in the middle of nowhere.  Boy, was I sure wrong.  We rolled up and got out.  Immediately the view was spectacular.  And it was something different than we have seen before.  Buccaneer’s was basically on the side of a huge hill and each dorm or place to stay was hidden amongst the trees.  We looked out and saw a freshwater lake that streamed into the saltwater ocean.  It was absolutely beautiful. 

View from our dorm.  Freshwater in forefront, streaming into ocean towards the back.

That did not last long before we had to put our stuff away and get ready for the night.  We arrived at 3 pm and our first activity began at 4 – a “booze cruise.”  When I think “booze cruise,” I imagine a giant boat out on the ocean speeding by…what high expectations I had.  We got out to the boat and laughed, laughed very hard.  It was a dinky little flat boat.  It looked like a raft that they nailed benches too.  The motor was 5 horsepower – yikes.  But we all kept an open mind and hopped in.  It was quite amusing.  We went extremely slow and got stuck on some shallow rocks a few times.  And it was naturally on the freshwater lake, so it almost felt like I was back in Minnesota.  However, the free wine made it a lot better, and the company of my fellow backpackers was nice as well.  We actually had a great time, lots of laughs on that “boat.”

"Booze Cruise" boat on the right.

Beach volleyball was next.  I played for a little bit but just wanted to chill so I swung in the hammock instead.  There was also a swimming pool at Buccaneer’s.  I had not been in a swimming pool since coming to South Africa.  It was definitely calling my name.  The great thing about pools is a) no salt water b) no waves knocking me over.  I have total control.  It was so nice just swimming around, even though the water was a cold, but I just got used to it.

Dinner at Bucc’s was delicious.  I sat next to some other people travelling – two couples from the UK, a guy from California.  Also, we met some of the workers.  Jenny was from Ireland and our favorite host for the weekend was from Boston.  She never told us her real name so we just called her Boston.  After dinner we just hung around the bar area getting to know them.

Saturday morning was to be jam-packed.  That is, if you wanted to go on one of Bucc’s activities.  Some of the group went mountain biking – I knew that would have been a dangerous choice for me.  More went surfing, but some of us just chose to enjoy the beautiful weather and hang out on the beach all day.  After breakfast, we put on our sunscreen and headed out.  It was actually quite a long walk.  First we had to go all the way down the Bucc’s hill and pass the other dorms.  Then we came to the freshwater lake where our boat was.  We crossed over a bridge and walked alongside the lake.  It soon turned into the sandy beach area.  The ocean was just up ahead.  The sand was so cool in between the two bodies of water.  It was two-toned, swirly and looked like marble. 

Marble sand

Tide pools and sand dunes.

Finally go to the beach and set up camp.  This beach was much nicer than Port Elizabeth’s, because there was less wind and the sand was not blowing all over the place.  I got a nice tan in and did some reading.  Hannah and I took a walk down the beach towards the sand dunes.  It was a beautiful day, perfect for a nice relaxing beach walk. 

Just lounging around by the pool (I'm towards the left).

By lunch time we were getting hungry and decided to go back in.  Right next to the pool is a café, so I ordered a small pizza, brick-oven style – ham, pineapple, onions and sun dried tomatoes – yum.  We all took naps, tanned, did some more homework.  I played ping pong for a little while with Steen (Christine).  There was more beach volleyball as well.  

Eventually we got ready for dinner and hung out in our room for awhile.  Part of the reason why the weekend was so fun was just actually hanging out with our group.  It was nice to get away from the same old Langerry setting.  All 14 of us were crammed in one dorm room, called the Red Dorm, in bunks and such.  It was a great time though!  Played some card games, had a massage train.  I was happy to be getting so close to my new South African Bennies and Johnnies family.

Red Dorm room set up.

That night we had a real traditional Xhosa dinner – 3 courses even!  The first was squash soup – amazing.  Then the meal was huge, I could barely fit it on my plate.  We had kudu stew, samp and beans, cabbage, cauliflower, sweet potato, beans and two different types of squash.  The flavors and textures were all so unique, I loved it.  However, the dessert was my favorite part – lemon cheesecake and vanilla ice cream.  The cheesecake was different that back at home, it was much softer, but I liked it.  So much food, not enough stomach space – we were stuffed.  Half of us took a little nap in hopes of getting rid of the food coma feeling.

Since there is really no town to go into, we just hung around Buccaneer’s for the night again.  It was cool getting to know the locals and other backpackers –hearing their stories.  On Sunday morning we had free breakfast – came with coffee!  Packed and had to leave by 10 am.  Stopped at Hemingways again on the way back but did not find anything.  The ride home seemed much longer than the ride there.  Probably since the excitement had worn off and we were exhausted.

It was a really fun weekend – good food, good fun, good laughs, good people.  The combination can’t get any better than that.  I am so glad we went to the wild coast – I <3 Chintsa.