African Pseudo-Safari: Part 2

After our HORRENDOUS seafood lunch (The meal was a freebie given to us by our tour company and we had no say in the restaurant choice, I think they are in cohoots. You get what you pay for...) we ventured to a nearby beach known for being a penguin habitat.

PENGUINS!!!

There were SO MANY of them.

LOVED the penguins.

After that we cruised through the fancy mansion-filled part of town, Bishop's Court, where Caroline used to live down the street from Nelson Mandela, and ended up at the incredible Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens...it felt like we were in Jurassic Park.

We are SOOOO white.

The botanical gardens were filled with LOTS of pretty flowers and things.

And beautiful animal sculptures.

Scary!

There were lots of couples on the trip so I took lots of relationship photos, obvi.

OMG and Mike and Mike happened to be wearing the same outfit this day so I forced them to take this picture.

LOVES Team South Africa!

Afterwards we headed to the Chapman's Peak Hotel for an amazing meal.

I was trying to teach fierceface to Kimmy and she is not so great at it despite how purty she is.

All our meals were filled with so much fun.

Oh and I taught people Asianposes as well. The BEST.

We were very very lucky on this trip that all the restaurants and meals had been pre-booked and were all Caroline's FAVORITE spots in all of South Africa. So we knew we were going to be getting epic meals.  Here at Chapman's Peak we dined on the most delicious Portuguese Steak Tips and THE MOST DELICIOUS calamarys I have ever tasted in my life.

Did I mention also that South Africa is SOOOOO inexpensive? Our massive group dinners with basically all you can eat and all the frickin wine you could ever imagine drinking usually only came to about $30-$50 dollars a person.

The best steak I've EVER had in my entire life (blog post still to come), eaten at the French Laundry of South Africa, was only $20.

After our wine-soaked meal. We piled back into our tourbus and had a drunken, song-filled ride home. We sang Toto's "Africa" at the top of our lungs. Amazing.

We stopped at a bar for caramel vodka shots (a big thing in South Africa apparently).

Danced around a little (it was a Tuesday night, so it was kinda dead)...

Then we went to the epic apartment I was renting (with Sophie, Anne, Matt, and Whitney) and had a little afterparty.

This is only the end of Day Two. So much more to come!

African Pseudo Safari: Part 1

On Day 2 we woke up bright and early to meet our wonderful tour guide Abdul for a day of touring.

Abdul's little midge sidekick Phillip was our driver.

Our first stop was taking the ferry to Seal Island. At the ferry terminal, we were greeted by a giant fat seal.

This seal was "owned" by a creepy old man who looked like the creepy dude from Aladdin. We were warned not to approach the seal because the creepy man would harass you for money and try to get you to feed him fish out of your mouth. YUCK.

We boarded the ferry. The sea was rough this day.

As we approached Seal Island, we were swarmed by seals...

Seal Island is a collection of rocks with seals as far as the eye can see. It was pretty awesome.

After the seals. We hopped back on the bus and headed south along the coast toward the Cape of Good Hope, the southernmost point on the continent.

We stopped at various scenic points to take photos.

OMG y'all. We are SO white. You would never know we were in Africa.

Then we cruised by an ostrich farm...

And finally arrived at the Cape of Good Hope!

It's a giant nature reserve with thousands of types of shrubs and plants and animals...

We parked, and it was tourist mania...

From the parking lot to the lighthouse (which is at the very tip) it was quite an uphill hike.

Well worth the journey though!

Pretty cool to be at the very tip of the African continent! It was WINDY...

And the lighthouse was REALLY high up.

On our way out of the park, we saw a bunch of cars coming to a stop...

Then we saw them... BABOONS!!!!!!

They were SO cute. But we were warned not to feed them. They are very dangerous and smart. When humans feed them, they learn and become very aggressive. And then they attack. And then they need to be put down. Our guide told us all about baboon house burglaries and baboon patrols (rangers assigned to track and control baboons all throughout the area). It's crazy! They are so cute!

Before long, we saw baboons everywhere!

And a little baboon penis...

After the baboon excitement. We stopped for the WORST fish n chips I've ever had in my life.

There was also a seafood platter. It was gross too.

Still had fun though...

Pseudo Safari Part 2 coming soon!