"It's all about the buffalo's" (the R100 bills here have water buffalo's on them)

Repeat morning roundup from yesterday. It literally takes us on average 2 hours to wake up, get ready, eat/coffee runs, and organize to call a cab. Our mission for the day? Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden, Cape Town Aquarium, and more shopping.
The botanical garden is almost 100 years old, it's the largest garden in South Africa, located at the bottom of the eastern side of Table Mountain and it is part of a national heritage site (like a national park). Parents: thought of you the whole time :-) It's quite lovely. But it is comprised of many many hills, and feels more like a national park than a 'walking garden'. Today was another extremely nice day, unlike the typical Cape Town winter, it was sunny and warm.

Protea: the National flower of South Africa

Again, National Flower

 I followed a sign to "Skeleton Gorge" cause I thought it would be really cool, but since the gardens are built on a mountain, the sign was really the starting point of quite the lengthy hike through some beautiful scenery. We didn't actually make it to the Skeleton Gorge, which we credited to the name (you never make it, because you wither away and become a skeleton, or something like that), but we did stop at a waterfall. We also lost most of the group; only Elaina, Colbey, Kim and I made it to the waterfall. It was very beautiful, and most of the hike was shaded, so it was bearable, but it was mostly comprised of those "forest steps" that look like they are part of the forest, but are actually man made stairs. Yea, those are kinda rough in large quantities. 

Finally the waterfall!

We met up with the rest of the group for a replenishing snack and then headed out again to go to the Cape Town Aquarium. and just to preface, I quite enjoy Aquariums.

It Was Awesome!! And I don't think I am going to eat fish anymore. 

But, back to the sightseeing. Right when we got there, penguin feeding was taking place, so we literally ran through the building to find them :-)

 Then we re-traced our steps and went through the whole place. There are two HUGE tanks with tons of fish in them. We saw another feeding in one of those. And we touched kelp (which is used in basically everything).  Mostly your typical aquarium, but it was still fun!   

typical, except you can 'swim' with the nemo's!!

We then proceeded to tire ourselves even more and entered a large shopping craft market thing next to the Aquarium. It was kinda cool, but no purchases for me. We taxied home and went to dinner at "Beefcakes". Which is pretty much the cutest place. Lots of burgers (hence the name), but also a yummy veggie burger! It's in the gay district, so it was quite fun. 

Looking forward to tomorrow's festivities! But, a lot of people are leaving and I am not ready for that! Our alternate reality bubble is popping and we must all return home, but it's been so fun getting to know everyone and spending time here, that I don't want it to end. 

Except I am ready to get back to my friends and family. :-)