The Zoo

Elijah with the tiger in the background. Carolyn apparently was not feeling well...

Carolyn with the water buffalos. Los bufalos de agua. :)

I (Maggie) was stalked by these things. Tapirs are WEIRD AND CREEPY.

Black jaguars playing in the water.

Toucan--through the glass...Mom took a great picture! (from Maggie)

It was quite warm. Rebekah seems to be droopy.

February 4

From Sue

Since it was a sunny day and Elijah is feeling better, we decided it would be a good day to go to Parque de las Leyendas, the zoo. I don't always like zoos because it is kind of sad to see the animals cooped up and all, so a zoo in SA was a risk. We got a taxi and after about 20 minutes it was pretty obvious that the cabbie didn't know where he was going. They never admit that they don't know where they are going when you negotiate the transaction. Eric has learned this and always looks at the map before we go somewhere in case the taxi driver doesn't know where it is. This was actually the first time I was glad I couldn't speak Spanish so that I could maintain my Christian witness. If the neighborhood hadn't been so bad, I would've gotten us out and found another taxi. I was sitting there praying hard that we would get there. We did but some of the kids were car sick. We navigated our way through the entrance and at first all we saw were birds and alpacas. The kids were less than impressed. We got to the jungle area and saw a bunch of other birds and some monkeys. I told the kids I wish we could stand behind glass and charge 2 soles to look at us. There were not many foreigners there. When one little girl heard me speak English, she just stared and then followed us to the next exhibit where she said, "Hello" to us!

We also saw a bunch of vultures sitting on a hill (not an exhibit) where Maggie thought they were waiting for us to die from heat exhaustion so they could prey on our lifeless bodies. It was hot. We got some good looks at black jaguars and tapirs which are the size of a hog and really kind of creepy. We finally got to the area Elijah had been waiting for-lions and tigers and bears (yes, we said "oh my" everytime he mentioned it). There was a black bear and Emily said she could relate to it-taken out of its home, in the heat, being stared at all the time. The lion and tiger habitats were the worst with the animals in relatively small cages. Maggie said she was surprised that animal rights people didn't protest but I reminded her that many people here live in worse conditions. On the way, kids were in the traffic at stop lights performing acrobats to get money.

The gardens there were beautiful but with 5 sweaty kids, we just walked by them. Overall, it was a good, confidence-building experience and worthwhile. It cost about $13.50 for all of us to get in so a good bargain. Our taxi ride home was only 20 minutes with a nice driver who spoke about as much English as I do Spanish, but we managed with Emily acting as a translator of sorts. She even directed him to our apartment! Whew!