Pretoria is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the executive branch of government; Cape Town is the legislative capital and Bloemfontein is the judicial capital.

When we arrived, the city was in the middle of a rolling blackout. What would normally shut down restaurants in the US was a common occurrence for them.

We then visited the Union Buildings, where a 9 meter statue of Nelson Mandela can be seen stretching out his arms. The statue is situated where Mandela was inaugurated as South Africa's first democratically elected president in 1994. The artist commissioned for the statue said, "after serving 27 years in prison, Mandela walked out smiling and fully embracing everyone, including those who had locked him up in jail. He was not angry and never thought retaliating, so a nation, I think this statue must always remind us to embrace each other."

From Pretoria, we headed back to Johannesburg. We were on time, despite our bus breaking down en route. Our bus driver, and many in the group, worked together to get all the bags loaded on the second bus.