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It is the usual occurrence. I’m sitting on the sofa, laptop in lap, watching an episode of International House Hunters. I’m especially attentive as this particular episode takes place in Cape Town, South Africa, our next destination. A B-roll shot pops on the screen showing the mother and daughter hunting duo petting a penguin. It takes a few seconds to sink in. They are PETTING A PENGUIN!

I furiously type into google, where can I pet a penguin in Cape Town? It shoots back, The Two Oceans Aquarium’s Penguin Experience. I toss my laptop aside and fly up the stairs.

“There is a place in Cape Town where you can PET A PENGUIN!!!!!!!!!” I shout at Shannon.

In his usual, calm manner, he replies, “Okay, look into what we need to do to make it happen.”

We arrive at the Two Oceans Aquarium at opening. Our booking for The Penguin Experience includes two tickets to explore the Aquarium, so we figure we’ll walk around for a bit.

Though our penguin experience is a few hours away, we are happy we arrived early. We get to wander around the fairly empty aquarium, before the hordes of school groups descend. Later we are tripping over children, literally.

Though we are not aquarium experts, we’ve been to a few, and I’m impressed by Two Oceans Aquarium. It’s spacious, with plenty of room to view the sea life. There are numerous exhibits, and although we only spend half of a day under the sea, I could see spending a whole day gazing at the crabs and jellyfish.

At our appointed time, we arrive at the information area, where we sign paper work stating that we won’t sue the aquarium if a penguin bites us or sneak a penguin home in our luggage.

Tamsyn, the lovely, enthusiastic, aquarium employee, talks us through what the experience will be like. She’s genuinely excited for us to get to hang out with the penguins.

Aryton, who is one of the penguin keepers, arrives to escort us to the penguin area. He’s just as friendly and enthusiastic as Tamsyn.

First, we do some scrubbing up and sanitize our shoes so we don’t pass germs to the penguins. After donning our aprons, we enter the penguin habitat.

Only seconds after sitting, one of the penguins bounds over, and jumps in our laps.

Aryton introduces us to Hopper (if you’ve watched Stranger Things, you’ll know why this caused geeky fangirl excitement).

Usually during the penguin experience, one of the penguins takes the initiative to be the social penguin. Sometimes it’s Hopper, other times it’s one of the other penguins. I imagine them working it out ahead of time.

“So who’s going to entertain the humans today?”

“I’m looking rather handsome today. I’ll dazzle the folks. I could go for a few belly scratches,” says Hopper.

We get to pet Hopper and scratch his belly while Aryton gives us facts about rockhopper penguins.

The rockhopper penguin is not indigenous to South Africa.

Fishermen would capture the penguins to keep as pets aboard their ships. They sometimes put holes in their feet to keep them tethered so they wouldn’t escape. Because it is illegal for the fishermen to have the penguins, they would toss the penguins overboard before docking into port. Far from home and in unfamiliar territory, the penguins would wash up on the shore sick and malnourished.

The sick penguins were rescued, rehabilitated, and sent to live at the aquarium. They are unable to be released back into the wild because, one, many of them have debilitating injuries caused by the fishermen, and two, they would infect South Africa’s wild penguin population with diseases not indigenous to the area.

The majority of the proceeds you pay to do the Penguin Experience go towards continued penguin conservation. Aryton tells us that thanks to efforts to educate the fishermen, it has been quite some time since a sick penguin has washed up on the shore.

Aryton points out the other penguins, and tell us their names and stories. Aryton is super nice and you can tell that he loves what he does.

He is also a skilled photographer. I’m not the most photogenic person, and Aryton was able to capture some great shots. I almost asked if he wanted to travel around with us as our personal photographer.

Of course it doesn’t hurt that Hopper is quite the ham. He has no problem striking a pose for the camera. If there was a Next Top Model Penguin Edition, Hopper would be tough competition.

After 30 minutes of immersive penguin love, it’s time for us to go. Hopper is not happy. He is enjoying the attention and isn’t ready to have his captive audience leave. It takes a good amount of effort on Aryton’s part to convince Hopper to join the rest of the penguin crew. Hopper then pulls a few tricky moves, and tries to sneak out of the penguin habitat with us.

After The Penguin Experience, we take a short walk around the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront.

We get the obligatory V&A Waterfront shots.

My two favorite Waterfront areas are the Food Market, filled with all sorts of tasty places to eat and drink (if you are from Philadelphia, it’s like Reading Terminal Market, but fancy), and the Watershed. The Watershed consists of stalls and kiosks showing off goods made by designers and artists. It’s as if a bunch of people on Etsy got together and created a physical place to sell their creations. I love the Watershed and wish there was something like it back home.

If you are an animal lover, I highly recommend booking the Penguin Experience at the Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town, South Africa (be sure to book well in advance). Both the staff and the penguins are so kind and passionate. We learned a lot, got great pictures, felt good that part of the proceeds will go to further penguin conservation, and I finally got to pet a penguin.

Sorry, I couldn’t resist.

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