Notebook dramas
Trip Start
Feb 06, 2007
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190
332
Trip End
Jan 14, 2008
Santa Cruz,
Bolivia
Sunday, September 2, 2007
The museum of natural history is normally open 7 days a week. Today it was shut. So we hopped on a bus going to the zoo. The Santa Cruz zoo is a mix of really nice and absolutely horrid. A few enclosures are large and appropriate for the animals. There is a beaut walk-through aviary with many of the birds we have seen on our travels, a huge space for a pair of condors, and a good space for a pair of harpy eagles. One of the eagles was top dog, so to speak. The other sat peering hungrily at the chewed remains of a chicken, not daring to try its luck, while boss eagle idly picked at a foot. As for most of the other enclosures, they were no less disgusting than the worst we have seen in South America, in Maracay, Venezuela, and Minas, Uruguay, except they did not stink. Jaguars sat miserably in small concrete cells, owls in cages where they could barely spread their wings.
We managed to find a buffet for lunch and filled ourselves for 15 B a head. After a good breakfast at the hostel and a good lunch all we need for tea is a dose of ice cream and a gooey cake, which are readily available in Santa Cruz. Provided you can stand the pantomime of buying stuff at one of those flashy eateries. First you select your cake and stand hopefully till someone comes and tells you what it is called (in Spanish). Remembering this Spanish name you hike 20 metres to the cash desk where you tell them what you want. If they understand you, you pay the bill and get a piece of paper. IF they don't understand you need to collar a staff member and show them then they go back to the cash desk with you. Then you either approach the original counter, paper in hand, and plead for the goodies. Or sit at a table looking hungry till someone comes and swops your paper for the cake.
