Cuddle With Capybaras at the Wild Encounters Cafe in Panama City Beach, Florida

A couple of years ago, when we were in Panama City Beach, Florida, my son was looking at a brochure from the hotel lobby display. He saw an ad for animal encounters at ZooWorld. You could meet a sloth, a lemur, kangaroos, but the critter that caught his eye was one I barely knew anything about. Capybaras.

They look like overgrown brown Guinea Pigs, and their personalities are hilarious. Apparently, there are videos of them on the internet that have gone viral, featured in popular memes, etc. Rollins showed me a couple of the videos, and I was immediately down for this adventure.

Let me tell you, it was worth every penny. We got to snuggle a BABY Capybara, feed him a snack, and play with him as he hopped around. He was sassy, too! The little cutie loved Rollins' glasses, my hair, and my rings. We laughed until we cried and would have stayed for hours, but our time was eventually up.

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Earlier today, Chad called and was like, "Hey, I'm gonna send you something your family will looooove. A new cafe has opened in Panama City." I was like "OK? And? Tell me more?" He said, "It's a CAPYBARA Cafe!" I said, "OMG! Gotta go!" and immediately clicked on the link he sent.

Wild Encounters- Capybara Cafe seems to be a lot like the River City Cat Cafe in downtown Evansville. If you have ever been to one of those, you know how it works. You pay for a scheduled slot, grab a drink or snack and then hang with the animals while they roam the room.

This experience is considered an "at-will encounter," which means the Capybaras are free to move around however they want. If they don't feel like being social, they can find a place to snuggle up or hang out away from the people. From the looks of the Facebook page, however, these cuties are pretty darn friendly!

The Cafe is on Front Beach Road, right next to ZooWorld, actually. For more information, you can visit their website. I betcha the Maddox family will be making a trip there the next time we go to PCB! What about you? Would your kids go wild for Capybara cuddles?