Wait A Minute...Those Aren't Shipping Containers

Cape Town is sprawling. Flying in at night, you can see lights running off in all directions for miles and miles. But from above, and at night, it could be Los Angeles or Northern Jersey--there's nothing unique about big urban cities at night, at least when seen from the sky.

There was one thing I found strange, though: large sections of the city were filled with freight shipping containers. You know, those large, rectangular metal containers you see at ports, often laid out in long, neat rows or stacked on top of one another? But they weren't on the coast--what were they doing in landlocked sections of the city?

Then, it hit me. These weren't shipping containers, they were shanties. Rows and rows of shanties. From above, and at night, it's hard to tell the difference.