Cape Town: Gorgeous Sea Life At The Aquarium.

I spent the morning of my first full day in Cape Town getting a massage. After which, because it was the day I finally could have alcohol again post-Shamanic Dieta, I had a glass of wine with my lunch.

A dangerously delicious glass!

Because it had been 30 days since my ayahuascua retreat, that one glass of South African Sauvignon Blanc had me tipsy part-way through. And like any awesome slightly-drunk-person-by-1pm, I shuffled my way to the concierge desk in the hotel and requested they book me the following:

• Private helicopter tour down to the tip of South Africa
• An excursion to go cage diving with sharks later in the week

They happily booked me for both, but couldn't get me on the helicopter tour for a few hours. They recommended I venture over to the aquarium to amuse my time. So off I shuffled the few hundred feet to the aquarium, as it is right behind the hotel.

It's not a very big aquarium, so I wasn't expecting much. Which ended up being quite stupid and naive of me. Because there were a lot of gorgeous things in there. The first thing I saw was a large circular tank of these...

Little Nemos! There were hundreds of them swimming around in the tank. Adorable! Already off to an excellent start, I thought.

I turned a corner and was immediately visually accosted by these two in separate tanks...

The turtle didn't scare me, but the eel did. He looked like a rock at first, then he opened his mouth.

"Holy eff!" I said. (I was tipsy still, and there were no children around. So no worries on the profanity.)

I got over my shock of the eels and saw these guys hanging out at the bottom of a tank...

Little sea ponies! A few dozen or so, "walking" through the sand.

Of course, there plenty of other creatures that scared the crap out of me. Like this gorgeous guy...

He may not look it, but he was HUGE! Live crabs and lobsters creep me out. And I realize it's not their fault... But I can't help it. 

And of course, no visit to South Africa would be complete without seeing some penguins...

Two different kinds! This has certainly been a year of seeing these creatures in their native geographic locations. (Later, on the helicopter tour, I saw the penguins actually on their native beach near the tip of the continent.)

And it wouldn't be a full educational experience if they didn't present information on ecology...

This is a display that was speaking to the effects of plastic bags being used and discarded in the ocean.

There were, of course, sharks swimming in tanks at the aquarium. And I did capture pictures of them. But I think they will pale in comparison to the sharks I will be seeing in person later this week...