Vamos al zoologico

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Yesterday was one of the best days I’ve had here so far- okay, so I’ve had a lot of ‘best days so far’ but still- I got to go to the zoo with the sixth semester group!!! I was so excited that the night before I went out and bought a new (and extremely cute) top 😊 I was also going to buy shorts *side note* I have dropped about 1-2 pant sizes *side note* but I ended up borrowing shorts from a friend because at the time my shorts were at the tailors getting taken in. The morning of the zoo I woke up excited! Since I’ve been here I’ve never had so much energy after having just woke up. I put on my shorts, my new top, did the usual morning routine (do hair, brush teeth, shave legs, etc. lol) and of course packed a bag full of stuff that I could use throughout the day. The night before I had charged my camera so it was ready to take loads of pics (all 200 can be seen on my facebook page) and also charged my ipod so it too was ready to take pictures (which I never actually took any on there) and fill my ears with music haha.

I was still bouncing with energy when we got dropped off at school, I was a tad disappointed that I had to go to my first class before going to the zoo, but it was ok, we didn’t really do much, and I was so full of energy it was hard to concentrate on what the teacher was trying to say. Charly and Gise came to get me from my classroom and -before we made one last stop to the bathroom to change- we were on our way to the zoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One bus + a ton of kids = crammed

The teacher had gotten a chartered bus that would take us to and from the zoo, the bus was a fair sized one too, however, there were so many kids that people were sitting on other peoples’ laps and crammed in the isles slamming into each other as the bus went over each bump in the road. Once again, the guys were being gentlemen so me and Charly got to sit down. It was a quite-ish ride there; I guess everyone hadn’t completely woken up from their deep slumber just yet. In order to fill some of the silence I put in my headphones and turned on my ipod. It was about 30 minutes or so to go from the school to the zoo, and as soon as we got there everyone piled off like one giant stampede. Everyone paid their 60 pesos to the teacher and we were off!!!

I was surprised at how many other school groups there were at the zoo; however, most of them were under the age of 15. They looked adorable in there matching school uniforms and cute foam animal hats. Charly and I knew the hats definitely weren’t part of the school uniform so we had a mission: find those hats! Our first stop at the zoo was the aquarium. It was so cool! they had various kinds of fish and there was this one open spot where you could actually stick your hand into the water! One pool of water was filled with stingrays, and the other pool was filled with sharks. You were allowed to touch the stingrays but they had a sign near the shark one that for your safety, don’t put your hand in the water and try to touch the sharks. The stingray felt so cool, kind of weird and slimy/slippery, but cool. They smelt terrible though.

Next, we made our way to the train, this train is like the train they have at Calaway park but better. Unfortunately, there were too many people on the train at the time so we couldn’tgo, but we would come back later! After our failed attempt to ride the train, the teacher said we had time to ourselve to go wander and go see whatever we wanted, but at 12:30, we had to meet at the Safari.

Me and 6 other girls made our way towards the canguros(kangaroos), along the way we also saw monos(monkeys). When we got to the are of the canguros, it wasn’t exactly an enclosed cage where you looked at them through a glass window, no, it was open in the fact that there were metal doors to get into the area of the canguros, and once you were inside there was a little paved path and a mini wooden fence that seperated you from the canguros. I’m just happen that no one made the canguros angry, because if they wanted to they definitely could have kicked our butts.

After that we made our way to see llamas, zebras, deer, and a bunch of other animals. It was all really nice to see! The view of the rest of Gudalajara from the zoo was incredible and right beside the zoo was Selva Magica (an amusement park). We didn’t get to go there but we all agreed on coming back to the zoo again and after we would head to Selva Magica.

By this time everyone was getting really hungry, most of us had only had a bowl of cereal that morning and had worked up an appetite from all the walking, and at times running. So, we did what any normal person would do; walk to the shop that looked like it had yummy food. Boy did we pick the right place. One girl just got nachos, and the rest of us, besides one, got sandwiches. I was happy to order by myself without any help, it was a very rewarding feeling.

Me and two other girls each bought a sandwich called Torta Cubana. If you’re ever in Mexico and are hungry, Do NOT buy this. This is the kind of sandwich you buy when you are on the floor about to pass out from starvation... but if you’re hungry and still want to try this sandwhich, please share. It’s for your own good. Holy mother of god, this sandwich was the monster of all sandwiches, and was pretty much a heart attack waiting to happen. In said sandwich you could find; hot dog, ham, bacon, pierna, cheese, lettuce, and tomatoes. Now you see what I mean???

Needless to say I was not hungry until 12 hours later, literally.

Since it was almost 12:30, we decided to walk to the Safari to meet up with the rest of the group. The Safari part of the zoo spanned a great distance, so, there was this truck-like thing that everyone piled into and off we went to explore the great Safari. On our safari adventure we saw a wide range of animals. My personal favorite by far was definitely the giraffes. Why? Because we got to feed one. That’s right. The truck pulled up beside one of the giraffes and everyone tried to cram their way to the side the giraffe was on because-naturally- eveyone wanted to feed him (at least I think it was a him). With arms outstretched and hands full of cut up pieces of carrot given to us at the beginning of the safari trip, we all waited to see who the giraffe would come to first. Even with everyone making sounds trying to get the giraffe to them first, the giraffe went top the person that was closest. From there it made its way down the side of the truck taking all the bits of carrot it could. When the giraffe came to me, I was a little nervous, but in the end I still had all my fingers.. they were just a little sloppery, thanks to the giraffe. It was so neat getting to feed the giraffe, with its oddly colored tongue, and its bristley chin.

After we piled off the truck we split up once again to go see different parts of the zoo. A lot of the group went together to see the snakes and reptiles, I wasn’t sure what to expect but either way, I wanted to go see them. All of the reptiles were in enclosed areas, except for the lizards, they weren’t the tiny ones either. In order to get through to the rest of the exhibit, you had to walk across a wooden bride that was hung over the area where the lizards were free to roam around wherever they pleased. Unfortunately for us, that meant that they could literally be anywhere, and in passing over the wooden bridge there was one on the bridge =/ that made things a little scary, I have to admit.

After everyone got done taking pictures and gawking at the snakes and the other reptiles, we all headed back to go on the train. It really wasn’t anything too special, it took us around the zoo and commented on all of the different animals we would see. Nonetheless, it was still fun. After that, we made our way to a gift shop that was positioned along the side of the pathway and fulfilled our mission! We had found those cute animal foam hats! Charly got one with a zebra on it, and I got one with a turtle on it.

It was just about time to go, but a bunch of people wanted to get ice cream first before leaving, so we all headed back to the place where we had bought the monstour sandwiches. It was a tough decision between coconut, and vanilla with chocolate in the middle; Vanilla and chocolate won. I should have gone with the coconut though.

Ice creams in hand we had to make a mad dash for the bus, it was hot, we had melting ice cream in our hand (it was the kind on a stick so that made things worse) and we hand to run up three long sets of stairs and then to the bus. Literally the step before I got onto the bus I took an actual bite out of the ice cream and to my misfortune, the chocolate in the middle was not chocolate ice cream but, in fact, plain ole chocolate syrup. I wasn’t aware of that, so when I bit into the ice cream I ended up with a nice string of chocolate running down my chin. Oh so lovely.

I frantically wiped it off in hopes that by the time I actually got on the bus the chocolate the was previously on my face would only be on my hands. I think I got the job done, because no one pointed out that I had anything on my face -maybe they were just being nice, but I hope it was actually because I didn’t have anything of my face. By this time, I was extremely hot, I had sticky hands from the ice cream that was melting with incredible speed; basically I was a mess. I didn’t want to sit down because the last thing I needed to do was to be seated next to someone only to generate more heat. towards the end of the trip though, I ended up sitting on the edge of a seat.

The ride back to school was much more fun than the ride to the zoo. Even though we were all, for lack of better terms, hot and sweaty, everyone seemed to have more energy and were all singing along to songs and talking.

Bottom line: It was an amazing day at the zoo, and I’m so going back 😊

Lots of Love;

Samantha

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Photos

Zoo hat!
the awesome hat I bought at the zoo :)

Comments

[mom]

Zoo fun!
The zoo sounds great! I would have loved to see your face when you got to the little bridge with the lizard on it !!! LOL!!! hahahahaha :) xoxo