The Zoo

Wednesday was Teacher Appreaciation Day. So I had the day off. I wanted to go to the Zoo, because I pass it every day on the bus, and it looks nice. So I invited my friend Leo to join me, and then Kelly and Leila, and Lance and Sarah and Sarah's friend Isabel all came too. It was a really hot day, and it was fun. Many of the animals are old circus animals, so there were abused or at least not given great care. It only costs about $1 to get in...so I can't imagine how they can afford to really maintain the place, but it was pretty well kept and the animals all seemed to have enough space. (I don't like how many zoos keep their animals in such small areas, but here in Brasilia land is cheap, so the zoo takes up a pretty large area.)

We made friend with this Gorilla, Tuta pretty quickly. She was blowing kisses. And, if you count, um, dois, três...he follows along, counting on his fingurs. It was really cute.

Lance and Leo looking at a Leopard.

There were a lot of elephants at the zoo, and they were all orange from the mud. Leo decided to climb over a rope barricade in one area so that he could feed this elephant...luckily the zookeepers didn't see, or I am sure that we would have been kicked out...but honestly...they should probably have more than a little rope to keep 17 year old boys away from dangerous animals.

The giraffes were my favorite...again there was hardly any type of fence, and it they wanted to, they could lean over and lick your head. At one point the zookeeper came over and then were playing with him...like they were horses, or some other domesticated animal. They are really quite beautiful animals.