Wednesday 9th November 2011 - Overcast

This morning I got up super early, put my luggage in storage and headed to Estacion Ofelia on the metrobus.  I then found a bus that goes past the Zoo and it cost all of 55c to get there.  I then jumped in a taxi and managed to get to the Zoo by 0900 where I was met by Ruth, only one of two people at the Zoo who can speak English.  She took me to meet the head of the Zoo Ximena, who then told me what sort of photos they wanted for their website and promotional posters.  Ruth then showed me around the Zoo.  She is an Entomologist and used to work on the Galapagos Islands but now work at the Zoo as a biologist.  The Zoo itself is really quite nice.  Not too big but you can really see that they are trying to make an effort with the enclosures.  All the animals are from Ecuador, mainly confiscated or abandoned animals except a Red Kangaroo and two lionesses which are the draw cards of the Zoo.  It’s a Zoo aimed only at locals and costs $4.00 to get into.

I spent most of the day just wandering around photographing what I could through the bars, stopping for lunch which was an hour long.  It was potato soup and chicken and rice.  Some of the animals are so cute and cuddly although I don’t know what half of them are because I can’t read the signage.  I took some photos of school children playing with the animals in the animal nursery (cows, llamas, guinea pigs, sheep, rabbits and donkey).   

At the end of the day I caught the Zoo bus to my homestay house.  I think the name of the Zoo worker I am staying with is Puno but I’m not really sure.  Only the children were home – two boys about 10 and 8 years old.  They showed me to my room which is huge.  The whole place is huge.  My room is two stories with two single beds downstairs along with an en-suite bathroom.  Upstairs has a double bed.  There are also two dogs – a German Shepard and this little wiry bouncy little dog.  They are both really friendly.

I stayed in my room for a bit and then the boys came and got me and took me down to their house.  It consists of two rooms, one the bedroom where the whole family sleeps in two beds, bathroom and a tiny kitchen.  The boys cant speak English so we watched television for a bit and I showed them some photos from home and they showed me some of their last holidays.  About 1900 the parents got home and we had dinner.  Conversation was hard but we managed a few words, mainly consulting my phrase book to see if we were talking about the same thing.  After dinner I returned to my room up the driveway (which is bigger than their entire house) and went to bed.