I spent the end of December 2014 through beginning of January in South Africa with my best travel friend Alex Martin. We started and ended our South African travels in Cape Town where we stayed with Victoria, a Cape Town native.

Cape Town is the opposite of what an American thinks of when they think of Africa. A vibrant coastal city of beaches (and more beaches and more beaches), foggy cliffs, and lush green vineyards, I often had to remind myself that I wasn’t on the California coast. What Cape Town has that California doesn’t; cliffs a mile high plunging into the sea, wild baboons and penguins crossing the road, ostrich meat on every menu, top shelf wine for $5 a bottle, and a striking divide between black and white, and rich and poor.

Photos by Renee Lusano (photos of Renee by Alex Martin). These photos are (very) expired Portra film shot on Contax T3, a few photos shot on a disposable Fuji camera. Most photos are missing from this series unfortunately as the result of a robbery that is retold in detail in another blog post.