I got up at 0630 and got ready. I went over to the family’s house at 0715 for breakfast. I don’t think they knew what to give me because I don’t eat yoghurt which is all Ecuadorians eat for breakfast, so I had scrambled eggs, toasted croissants and cucumber and tomato salad. It was rather filling. The Mum walked me half way to the Zoo and then the Zoo bus drove past so I squashed in with everyone else. Once at the Zoo I headed down to Ruth’s office and was met by two of the zoo keepers. They showed me the food preparation room and collected a whole heap of containers with various animal names on them and then we headed off to some medium sized cats first. I got to go in the enclosure and take some photos and then photographed the keepers cleaning the enclosures. We then went to the Andean Bears, Jaguar who was being given some medication by one of the vets (and who then tried to attack me through the door after it was let out in its enclosure), the lions, Galapagos turtles, smaller turtles, wolves and an Andean bear who is 20 years old and no longer on public display.
That took up most of the morning and from there I then went to the hospital and took some photos of the vet cleaning an infected turtle’s eye. It was a bit hard to photograph given how small it was and it kept trying to hide its head in its shell. We went via the quarantine area and another area with animals that have been rescued but they can not put on public display so they just live in small cages hidden from public view. We then went to the nocturnal house which was awesome. I saw my first ever two toed sloths. They are so beautiful. There were also some owls and a possum but all I saw was its tail. I don’t think they quite get the nocturnal house thing…it was all lit up so everything was sleeping. From there it was off to lunch – potato soup and rice and fried bananas.
After lunch I went with another keeper to see the Condors and kangaroo but she wasn’t as relaxed as the two guys this morning and wouldn’t let me get any closer to anything than where the public can go. It started raining so they put the kangaroo away and then I was taken up to the offices. I started downloading my photos and then headed out in the rain to see what else I could get photos of but ended up just getting soaked through. The frog enclosure was pretty cool though. They have these amazing frogs called marsupial frogs. They carry their babies around on their backs until they start to get legs and then they are left on their own. I went back to the office and then handed all my photos over. A lady came in who could speak English and started talking to me and said that everyone wanted to talk to me but because I don’t speak Spanish and they English, I didn’t talk to anyone for two days straight.
I got a taxi back to my homestay house where I changed my clothes and hung out in my room until about 1900 when I went down to the house. Puno wasn’t there so it was just the Mum and two boys. We had chicken spaghetti for dinner. I went to bed not long after.
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