Our First Full Day in Cape Town: Penguins and More

Our first full day in Cape Town started out at Jason Bakery, a delicious bakery and restaurant that Tim found within walking distance of our Airbnb. Full from breakfast, we walked back to our flat and got organized for the day.

We decided that we would visit Robben Island the following day, Wednesday. But for the life of us, we could not buy ferry and museum tickets online. (Don't know what was going on...it was not operator error as Tim couldn't figure it out either. We'll blame a system error.) We opted to head down to the V&A Waterfront, to the Nelson Mandela Gateway to Robben Island, and buy our tickets in person.

And wow, the V&A Waterfront is beautiful! The V&A is an iconic mixed-use destination located in the oldest working harbor in the Southern Hemisphere. Covering about 300 acres, people head to the V&A to play, stay, live, shop, dine, and work. It's really quite a place.

Beautiful sculpture at the V&A Waterfront.

That's famous Table Mountain in the background.

Having successfully purchased our tickets in-person, we called an Uber to take us to Boulders Beach, a penguin colony about 45 minutes away from Cape Town. Boulders Beach is a Marine Protected Area and falls within the Table Mountain National Park. Once at Boulders Beach, we got to see South Africa's most famous bird -- the African penguin. Those little guys are super cute and super smelly. Wyatt was in heaven (former favorite animal = penguin). Couple of fun facts for you: African penguins used to be known as Jackass penguins, due to their distinctive braying, and are the only penguins found on the continent. 

At Boulders Beach!

A couple of cute African penguins in front of their artificial home.

Wyatt took this photo. :)

Thanks for the visit, Boulders Beach!

Also, can you guess where our Uber driver was from? That's right: Zimbabwe. Taku, the driver, was a forklift driver in Zimbabwe. He worked in logging and would place the newly cut logs onto trucks. He came to South Africa several years ago seeking a better life. He told us that, driving Uber in Cape Town, he makes five times what he was making in Zimbabwe. 

Taku dropped us back off at the V&A. We walked around for a little bit and then found a South African restaurant for dinner: Karibu. Ohmygoodness, this place was SO good. We started with a trio of springbok, crocodile, and ostrich carpaccio (confession: I did not eat the crocodile, but everyone else did). Tim had the venison potjie, a traditional dish of game; I had bobotie, a traditional Cape Malay dish; Taylor had the fish of the day; and Wyatt had the seafood chowder. Everything was delicious and afterwards, we were so ready for bed.

Wyatt up and joined a band while in Cape Town...

Mmm, carpaccio!

Another Uber driver took us back to our Airbnb. Want to guess where he was from? Nope, not Zimbabwe. :) Amos was from Somalia. We had heard from our Zimbabwe drivers that we would probably come across Somali Uber drivers. They were right.

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