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Published: November 16th 2008
That's right! I made it to the zoo!
A group of 5 of us went on Sat am. It consisted of Caitlin, James, Samantha (AKA Sam, who I hang out with from time to time but have never mentioned by name), Meg, and moi.
We arrived around 11:30 ish, which was later than I had wanted. The park opened at 8:30, I wanted to get there by 9 to beat the kiddies and the heat. James used to work in a zoo in the States and said, "You think like every other parent. It's better to go later."
When we arrived a group of 70+ children, aged 2-5, wearing matching yellow uniforms and their parents were lining up to enter the park, behind a few valient leaders carrying cardboard sunflowers on sticks. Greeeeeaaaaaaaat.
First up were the birds. Sam made the comment, "Why is it in any zoo you go to the birds are always first?" To which I replied, "Because otherwise no one would ever look at them." They had birds I had never seen before. Big, small, all colorful or majestic in some way. And the way the exhibits were set up, you could get really
close and see the animals pretty well.
In the middle of the bird area #1 was a huge lake with pelicans and a monkey tree. One of the monkeys has got to be the loudest creature since the dinosaurs. His screams were piercing, but hilarious to listen to. "Waaa, whaaa, oohwaaa, oooooohhhwaaaaaat!" Over and over and over again. One minute he would look at the gathered, laughing crowd, one minute at the other monkeys, then laughing crowd... it was like his own personal tennis match.
The zoo is not set up like any zoo I have ever been to. They have arrows directing you, to keep the flow moving. So while you might want to see the reptiles right now, you have to get through the camels and wild asses first. It's like IKEA but without known shortcuts.
So the pictures here are posted in order for how the zoo is laid out and where we traveled. We skipped a few things, like the flamingos. And there were more reptiles on the island, but since I'm deathly afraid of snakes (no clue why, I liked them as a child) I didn't venture in. I asked, "What's up
there?" since I was at the tail of the group. To which Sam replied, "Stay there!!" And stay I gladly did.
There was a bird area (yes, another one) with a performance hall. From the pictures on the outside of the building, it looked like they put parakeets on rollerskates. I was curious, but the next show wasn't for an hour, so we kept moving.
It was time to try and find the panda. The part I looked forward to the most. We paused to look at a map and figure out which way to go. I could tell by looking at it and our surrounding area that we needed to turn 180 degrees and go down the hill. Working against me was a sign that said to get to Monkey Hill you needed to go forward, nevermind that it shows a windy path, which will later lead to many uneven stairs and a quasi-swinging bridge. I pointed out that we'd seen the monkeys (turns out they have 2 different monkey sections, as well) and that we really needed to turn around. Meg looked at me like I was a stupid saboteur and said, "We're trying to see
the pandas," as if I didn't know that or was trying to steer them to the flamingos again.
Post Monkey Hill we ladies stopped for refreshment while James went in search of a WC. While he was gone, we sat down and watched the group of 2-4 yr old children dressed in yellow parade past us. I think the tiger show had just finished. One mom toward the end had the brilliant idea to have her son's picture taken with us. Others soon followed. We were surrounded. We had parents posing with us. Sam started pulling kids into her lap. James appeared right about then, and took a picture of them taking pictures of us.
We finally made it to the pandas! I had been told you could even get your picture taken with them. As you can see from my photo, we were disappointed. Was he cute? You bet. Did he look lonely? You bet. Was he playing with the door in the back of his cage trying to escape? You bet.
A man came over to us to offer the panda photos. From the example he showed, and the computer equipment next to the exhibit, I'll
bet I can photoshop better than he can while poor panda plays with his lock.
At the end, we were trying to find "way out" and tried to cut through a stadium. We wondered why all the stands were full. We saw horses. And tall jockeys. hmmm
After wandering a bit we found our selves on the other side of the stadium looking in. Ooooh, Tibetan horsemen!! The ones with the flags that twirl and leap. I wanted to watch. I think others did too. Meg said she didn't, since she's seen them in Turkey before. Well, goodie for her. None of us have been to Turkey or seen them. Yet, because of the heat and someone's feet hurting we left anyway.
We wandered out, thinking about our next meal, having enjoyed ourselves immensely.
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Dad
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Best zoo story
The best zoo story still has to be the one from San Diego two years ago when the zookeepers were finding fast food wrappers and other food trash in the fox's enclosure. They set up a spy cam and found out that the foxes had figured out how to get out of their enclosure so they were sneaking out at night to raid the garbage cans in the zoo, then returning to their pens before dawn.