Wednesday, April 15, 2009

zoologico loco

I spent easter weekend in Mendoza, Argentina with four friends, living it up with wine tours and tastings, bike rides, incredible icecream and alfajores (dulce de leche cookies), hot springs, and ...the zoo.  

The zoo was...an experience.  First, we had to beg for change to take the bus there.  Apparently there was a serious shortage of mondedas (change) in all of Mendoza that weekend and none of the stores or restaurants could give us any, even when we bought something.  After walking for an hour and scrounging for change we made it to the zoo and walked in to find...monkeys!  But monkeys not in their cages, where we expected them to be, but rather swinging happily through the trees overhead, clambering over the birds' cages, and scampering across the path, taking popcorn from delighted children and their parents.  We soon realized that escaping animals was not a singular event.  As we walked the path, a peacock crossed in front of us.  The guanacos (a camelid) were happily munching grass on our side of their fence.  There was a cat in the condor's cage, eating some hunks of meat that had been thrown in for the birds.  And where were the condors?  In the open sky, circling overhead.  Five of them.  

On top of the free-roamers, we were skeptical of the integrity of the cages that still held their animals.   We watched two lions in a roaring match, uncomfortably aware that all that separated them from us was a chain link fence.  A chain link fence?  Yes.  I could have leaned over the hip-high railing, across the three-foot space inbetween that and the fence, and stuck my hand inside the cage.   Separating us (and the hundreds of small children running about) from another pit of lions was...nothing.  Just a big drop off.  Hmmm.  There were also signs saying, "Evite accidentes por imprudencia."  Avoid careless accidents.  Great safety tip.

Despite all of this, no one was eaten (as far as we know...)

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