Let's go somewhere!

This weblog is supposed to be in part about my travels and impressions of South Africa, which I have been neglecting. So, today I am going to Jo'burg. Well, not really, but I am bringing you along anyway. let's leave from the flat in Sunnyside, a place with a moribund reputation, repulsive high-rise residential buildings coiffed with barbed wire. Earlier this week the car I had been driving was spirited away in front of our lovely flat and so we won't be driving to Jo'burg. Let's walk to the taxi rank in Central Pretoria, it's not too far, but not the most beautiful walk.
The traffic is heavy and taxis hoot at everyone who is walking to say: "HEY! you are walking; could it be that you want a taxi, but just forgot to signal it to me?" It is November and the jacaranda trees are no longer in bloom and the carpet of purple flowers has rotten or been swept away. We are almost there, to our right is the department of home affairs where you could be struggling to get a visa to stay here.
We have arrived finally. The sun is hot and the idea of being stuffed in a taxi is dreadful, but we get our passes at the office and look for the taxi going to Jo'burg. It is easy to find it as there is a queu in front and we have to wait for a couple of taxis to leave before we can get a seat.
Taxis here usually sit between 15 and 22 people and fortunately much of the fleet has been upgraded to new Toyata or Mercedes combis, most likely to prepare for 2010. Unfortunately, when our turn comes we get one of the older ones; we are in for some rattling squeezed in between sits. We get into the front seats so I have enough room for my legs. If it were a inner-city taxi we would be handling the change for everyone in the back, so be prepared to use some serious mental calculation skills if you sit in the front.
The taxi is now leaving, and we are alost immediately on the freeway. On the way out of Pretoria we pass the mastodonic building of the University of South Africa and we can see the shape of the bland Voortreker monument against a beautiful sky populated by immense clouds giving life to all fantasies. We chose the right time to leave, traffic is not yet congealed and we are going full speed. About an hour and the traffic would have been thick and slowed down to snail pace.
We are now in Midrand, the suburb between Pretoria and Johannesburg. Here monotonous buildings spread the way American suburbs have revolutionized urban planning. The landscape is complemented with big billboards advertising various products whose makers are most likely close-by. After a short building-less space in the landscape, a series of business parks pop-up; let's call it Multi-National Corporation lane. The name is a little lackluster, but appropriate. L'Oreal, Toyota, Motorola, Samsung, Vodacom the names bordering MNCL are colorful enough, representing countries from all over the world. The stretch between the two cities is a concentrate of what capitalism has to deliver, sprawling suburbs, throngs of cars, big corporations and the bouquet final, a giant mall!
Then, suddenly we are in Jo'burg. Everybody in the taxi is hot and windows are opened. We are in the northern part where gargantuan mansions sit behind 30 feet high walls. It is in fact all there is to see, high walls and if the steet were silent we would be able to hear the ticking sound that characterizes electric fences. But soon, we are out from between the walls and reach Hillbrow.
Hillbrow is similar to Sunnyside, it is a neighborhood with a shady reputation. The decripate high rise buildings are here, dirty streets, peddlers and many people loitering and walking up and down the streets, a sad picture for one of the mythical neighborhoods of Jo'burg. Before too long we come to a stop, in front, the street is packed with other taxis inching toward the taxi rank. We are next to Joubert Park where I have heard it is not safe for people of my color to venture. Still, this is where we get off for it is faster to walk than to wait at this point. As soon as we step out of the taxi we have to be extremely attentive, the flow of people is unremitting and we have to slalom through the generally very slow pace of the mass.
But there we are, central Jo'burg...where should we go next?