The Last Word

Puneet Goenka

When I visited Cape Town several years ago with my family I remember thinking to myself that I would love to live in or, at the very least, revisit the city.  Who knew that I would get another opportunity to visit 13 years later.

My manager who works at Path’s Seattle headquarters flew with me to Cape Town for the first week of meetings and introductions.  Here I met Hlahla, who works at Path’s Johannesburg office and Aditya, a Public Health Masters student from Duke who is answering the policy related questions about how to influence Government and other key opinions leaders to adopt these technologies into national guidelines.

Supposedly a bed and breakfast, the hotel we stayed at in Constantia (a suburb of Cape Town) was the best I have ever stayed in with the most enormous rooms I have ever seen.  The bed (room) would have been the best part of the stay if the breakfast wasn’t as good as it was. 

Croissant French toast

Even though afternoons were filled with acronyms, the evenings were reserved for fun team outings.  Each night we ate dinner at a different place around the city and tried out different South African wines.  Dinners were sometimes preceded by walks around the waterfront, 10k team runs, or wine tasting at vineyards older than the U.S.  It was a great week and a fun way to get to know everyone.

Quick pit-stop for a team picture against the Atlantic Ocean

Over the weekend, I went shark cage diving! It was a long 12 hour day (a 2.5 hour drive each way) but extremely worth it.  Seeing 15 feet long great white sharks swim by 2-3 inches from my face was jaw dropping (pun intended).

But, my trip to the Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens the next day was equally breathtaking.  Right at the foot of Table Mountain, the garden had huge open grasslands and great hiking routes trailing the base of the mountain.  After walking around the trails without a map for a couple hours I decided to find my way back to the entrance and not miss my flight to Johannesburg.

Approaching the trails at Kirstenbosch

Cape Town’s rugged mountains, dramatic ocean-facing mountain roadways, beautiful blue skies, and rolling vineyards got the last word – they’re going to force me to go back a third time.