It's a zoo here

Last Sunday I went to the Palermo Zoo with Karen, a friend from my TEFL course.  The zoo borders the Carlos Thays Botanical Garden (see previous post) and other parks in the area.  With tall apartment and office buildings looming in the background, it reminded me a little of the Central Park Zoo, although I doubt the Palermo one is as fancy as its Manhattan counterpart.

For the most part, the animals seemed to be healthy and content.  But as a bleeding-heart animal lover, the slack attitude of the zoo workers bothered me.  Camera flashes were permitted everywhere, including the darkened bat area; a depressed polar bear lived in a habitat that looked like an abandoned swimming pool; people could feed just about any animal, including the monkeys.  What's ironic about my last point is that I still have pictures of several signs from a Mexican wildlife preserve advising tourists (in Spanish) not to feed the monkeys.  Perhaps the cosmopolitan porteños aren't so sure what to do with these critters since the city's wildlife is limited to dogs, pigeons and cucurachas.

Still we had a fun time seeing the various zoo inhabitants, particularly the ones native to Argentina and South America.  Muskrats, which had creeped me out when I saw them swimming in the river in Florence, roamed freely around the park.  I'm a bit ashamed to admit this, but they're kind of cute if you ignore the tail (click to watch one swim).  Another ubiquitous inmate was the Patagonian Mara which looks like a cross between a deer, a rabbit and a kangaroo.  Also, who knew that there were bears in South America?  El oso de anteojos (the Spectacled Bear) is named for the markings across its face with each bear having a unique pattern.  And while these guys are smaller than their North American cousins, I wouldn't want to cross paths with ones on a walk in the Andes. 

Since The Emperor's New Groove is one of my favorite movies, you can imagine how excited I was to see not only llamas, but alpacas, vicuñas and guanacos near the end of our tour.  If only one had started speaking with David Spade's voice.

All in all, we had a fun day at the zoo, although Karen and I did feel a bit ridiculous waiting in line 45 minutes for a boat ride that lasted five minutes.  Especially since we were the only adults without children.  Oh well, when you're young at heart...