Zoo Trip

Last week, we took a trip to our city's zoo. To say that it was different from an American zoo would be the understatement of the century. Fortunately, we went with that expectation in mind, so we found it quite charming in its own unique way.

The first major difference was when the friend that invited us stopped by the produce stand on the way there so that we could pick up some food for the animals. Say what? Then, at the gate, I paid a grand total of about $4.50 to get myself and my five children into the gate. Almost half of that was the camera fee they charged me for bringing in my camera.

The place had obviously passed it's glory days and the habitats were small, unimpressive, and a little sad. A person who has a big animal heart would probably not like it. But, I've never been overly sensitive in that area, so we were able to enjoy it for what it had to offer.

The interaction with the animals made it very fun. Honestly, you could probably experience something like it in the States through some company like Busch Gardens or SeaWorld, but it would be called "close-up animal encounter" and you'd have to reserve it months ahead of time, sign some waiver of liability, and then pay a fortune for 10 minutes of feeding time. Not us. We just marched in there with our sacks of carrots and bananas and fed away. It was unbelievable.

Abe got the hang of it pretty quick and would have stayed at the first cage until the food was gone, but we kept pushing on.

That primate realized Abe's got nothing left, he's not coming down!

These guys nearly traumatized Lizzy. She tried to feed a carrot to one of them and the other one snatched it away. So, she then put in a second carrot, which was again snatched away. But, Lizzy didn't want that greedy chimpanzee to have it, so she tried to pull it back out and the chimp grabbed her arm and pulled it in. Fortunately, she was able to pull her arm out, but she was shaken up for a few minutes. Needless to say, we were all a bit more cautious from that point on. (And here is where all of you socially conscious, responsible parents are thinking that we never should have let her get that close in the first place. I understand and appreciate your concern, so you don't need to leave me a comment.)

This little guy gladly took a banana from Lily.

These two were funny. They were loud and demanding and we really wanted to give them a token for all of their jumping and yelping, but the gap was just a bit too wide. So, we tried throwing bananas, but kept coming up short. Finally Abby realized that if she just walked up the fence a bit, she could hand it to them. So, she convinced them to follow her up the rocks a bit and ...

they made the hand-off!

We can't wait to go back and take Ryan with us. Of course, then it would cost like $5.25, so, we'll have to budget for that! I've been told that if you want to be a really big spender, you can buy a goat and they'll feed it to the lions while you watch. I don't think that splurge is in our near future!