Oso Hormiguero- Special For Vicki

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Yo!

Ok, this is a quick special report, especially for VLM. We went to the Santa Cruz Zoo this afternoon. This is a seriously wacky zoo. For instance, there were almost as many animals roaming freely about the grounds as there were safely in cages. Among the animals that scampered accross our footpath were: a sloth (well, it more slothed than scampered), a capibara, and an alarmingly large monkey of sorts. That one was actually sitting on the fence OUTSIDE of the monkey cages of its same species (see photo). The main purpose of our visit was to find and photograph a giant Anteater. (For those of you who don´t know, Stephen´s mother, Vicki is an avid collector of all things Anteater/Aardvark). We searched the joint for hours for the illusive beast and it was not easy to find.. I asked several people, and at last, we found it of all places in the large walk-in aviary that we had walked through earlier unawares. Turned out that the thing was just wandering around loose in there!!.. What a cool-looking animal, and they walk on their knuckles! This one was especially playful, it kept running and half-hopping around. Vicki, you would have been absolutely thrilled with the performance. It actually came very close to us at one point and I got a few good shots and a video which I will TRY to post.

Thats about all for now.. We are enjoying Santa Cruz, and will most likely hit the road today... Another bus, this time 24 lovely hours.

S&S

PS: I tried tried tried to upload the video, but it wouldn´t work. V, I´m sorry, you´re prbably going to have to wait until we get home to see it...

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Photos

Anteater
Hes being coy here

Anteater 2
He was probably 5 feet away from us, and could have easily walked right up to us as there was no barrier

Me on the slide
weeee!

Escapee?
Consider this: The monkey is sitting on the fence OUTSIDE of the cage of monkeys of its same kind, in other words, completely free. Now note the sign which warns: ¨careful, these animals bite¨. I asked the zoo guy and he said it was actually a wild monkey that just liked to hang out there.

View from our hostel balcony
We are staying at Hotel Amazonas, right off the main square. The sign says its one star, but its actually a lot nicer than its single star status implies. Even cable TV with ENGLISH channels!! Fellow travelers, ask for room 104, its not bad at all.

Comments

[Anastasia Beaverhausen]

HAHAHAHAHAAH. It cracks me up
how you and dad are exactly the same when it comes to lame jokes. He has a picture just like this one with you on the slide but he is on a pile of snow. He wanted me to take a picture of him "sliding" down what looked like a mountain. But it wasn't and all he did for this affect of "sliding" was sit down and throw his hands up. It's funny cause it looks like you did the same thing.

[Sandra and Stephen]

Alright Ms. Beaverhausen..
You got me. I have another photo of me higher up on the slide, cowering and hanging on for dear life. You would have too, that thing was a. really tall b. made of steel and c. in bolivia. SO, I slid down until I was comfortably low to the gound and had Stephen take another picture. THERE, happy!