Two Oceans Aquarium

I forgot to mention that handshakes are different here. Depending on who you meet it's the standard clasp, a quick triple from standard to inverted (like when arm wrestling) back to standard, or a triple plus a snap at the end. I like the triple but I can't get the snap down.

I asked one of the guys at salsa about kissing customs and his answer was "no one knows." Helpful.

Today I went with Nicole (not SANBI Nicki - must get ahold of her too) to the Two Oceans Aquarium. I was a few minutes late as I didn't plan on enough time for getting gas and money. Gas here is expensive. Filling the little car took 200 bucks or USD 30. It really can be called bucks here because there's a springbok on the 1 rand coin. Still, $30 isn't much more than in the US now, and much less than the UK or Sweden. Gas stations are all full service so I rushed in to the ATM to get money while the guy filled up the car and washed the windows.

It's a decent aquarium. The "Two Oceans" name refers to the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans. That's cold kelp waters and warm tropical, making for some diversity. My three favorite individual species were the seals, the penguins, and the deep sea spider crabs. Seals and otters always look and act so happy. The penguins acted more like dog in how they paddle when the head is out of the water and one in how it scratched it's belly. The spider crabs were just cool. I wasn't so much interested in the other crabs and lobsters through, except to see more of the dynamics of an exoskeleton close up. I had read something about that recently poining out how the legs are joined via a sort of pin snap.

The layout was similar to the Monterey Bay Aquarium in that there's a natural path through the site which takes you by everything without backtracking. Unlike the World of Birds where it's easy to get lost. (They have more exhibits and each is smaller so the dynamics are different.) Also like MB you see the big aquarium and go "oooh", watching the fish for a while. In this case it was the kelp forest. After that is the really big aquarium, with the sharks and rays and other big fish. (In MB you then go to the "someone misplaced an ocean" sized aquarium. With the half-ton tuna fish. But no fair comparing TO to one of the top aquariums in the world.)

I've decided I don't like starfish. Something about them gives me the shivers. Probably stories about how they destroy sea beds, attacking and eating anything.