Going to see the penguins

(Barbara Wilcox) If you're a fan of "Tango Makes Three," one thing not to miss in Cape Town, South Africa, is a trip down the peninsula to Simons Town to see the penguins. Rent a car if you're OK with driving on the left, or take the Cape Town metro for about $2. This is a first-class car...       

Tourists are always told to ride first class because the cars have better security. They're actually repainted whites-only cars left over from the apartheid days, and are incrementally more comfortable. And they're crawling with cops. I literally had my own armed guard sitting next to me in the near-empty train all the way from Simons Town through the iffy Cape Flats suburbs back to Cape Town. The track runs so near the water you can feel the ocean's spray. At many stations, women volunteering with the local Neighborhood Watch beat sjamboks (nightsticks) into their massive fists.

Simons Town itself is a perfectly safe beach village. The penguins' slice of Table Mountain National Park is a mile from the metro terminus. This is the northernmost outpost of the Antarctic-dwelling species, and global warming has hit them hard: When I was there, it was so hot that rangers built the penguins a little canopy. Thankfully, there's a swimming hole nearby for people.