By Ira Greenberg, October 13, 2019 — I was working at an international company owned by South Africa and England. They invited us to South Africa one summer in the mid-1980s. Well, it was summer there, but it was winter here! We went all through South Africa. They treated us incredibly. It was all-expenses-paid, even the flights. Going down there, the plane ride was eighteen hours. There was one stopover. We stopped at a place called Isla del Sol, which means island of the sun. It’s an island owned by Bolivia, and Americans were watched very carefully when they came through. We were walked by soldiers into the terminal.
Apartheid was still in effect in South Africa, so we saw a lot of problems while we were there, but they were very welcoming to us when we arrived. The hotel we stayed at was beautiful. They took us out onto the game reserves, on an open Jeep at four or five o’clock in the morning, because that’s the time the animals were out. They would drive us out there to take pictures, and it was phenomenal. The big cats, the lions and the cheetahs, they would not attack a vehicle, so you were safe around them in the vehicle. You just couldn’t get out! We saw some beautiful birds, too. We took so many photos, we still have the albums. The natives would cook meals for us every night. We would eat springbok, which is the equivalent of deer here. It tasted just like any red meat. They even made bacon out of it! And we went down to Cape Town. You drive out with your car and there were all these little monkeys that jump onto your car. They would take the wiper blades and snap them against the windshield! You couldn’t get out of your car! They were little, but they were treacherous. We also saw a mountain called Table Mountain, it’s called that because a cloud forms right on top of the mountain like a tablecloth. It was phenomenal. It was quite an experience.