do feed the animals...

On Saturday, we took an excursion to the zoo!

It was a memorable experience.
There were 8 of us, all squished in the Corolla. Me, Melli, and six of her kids. Three were under 6.

We arrived at the zoo, and we had a tour guide. He spoke okay English. WE started at the Crocodiles…he first showed us a baby croc. It was in a cute little walled-in area. The walls were maybe 3 feet high, but there was no way that baby could get out. Then he showed us other crocs, in separate little walled-in areas. These crocs were bigger…6 or 7 feet.

The cages weren't so cute anymore.
What do you know?
Our guide took a stick and started poking one of the huge crocs sitting in a pool of water. This one was about 45 years old and massive.
It leaped from the murky water!

For a moment. I was sure that it would be able to jump out of its cage.
Praise God, his head cleared the top of the wall, he settled back into the water.


Our guide kept asking us if we wanted to buy a guinea pig to feed to the crocs. HA! Not happening.
I did see a man with two tow-headed boys who bought a guinea pig.
"Here boys, pet the guinea pig! Isn't it soft and cute?"
After they had petted it for a while, he gave it to the bigger boy of the two (he couldn't have been more than 5)
"Okay! Let's toss it in the pit!"
…and the kid did.
The Croc jumped and swallowed the pig whole.

Yuck.

Then our guide told us about Gustav, the man-eating croc that had escaped a few years ago…he hasn't been captured yet, but he has killed over 40 people.
…how comforting.

Anyways, we next saw a beautiful leopard, and a chimp with some serious issues.
Our guide told us she smoked and drank beer.
He said that after her mate died, she just fell apart.
Who knows?

Then we visited the serpents. They were kept in a dim room. We first saw the harmless green snake.


I held it.
It's cute and green. Even if you don't like snakes, you would like this snake.


We saw snakes in increasing deadliness.
Having a group of little kids around these snakes was what made me more jittery. Snakes don't bother me too much. But little kids, despite how they try to be quiet (and we had told them to be very quiet and calm in the snake house) have a hard time of it, bless their hearts.

Something that added to the comfort level was the fact that the cages had no locks, just simple latches.

We saw a black cobra, a spiting viper, a regular viper, and big fat pythons.

Then there was the snakes that were small and brown. I can't quite recall their name. They had perfect camouflage, they looked just like thin vines. They were no bigger round than a ballpoint pen. As the little kids inquisitively approached the cage, the guide said, "Careful! Their venom can kill in about 12 minutes"
Oh yes?
…and was that a crack in the cage? Indeed.
The cage door wasn't very well constructed, in that there was a crack in the door about the diameter of the snakes. There were at least 5 of them in that cage…we corralled the children and backed up.

The final snake we saw was the green mamba, an aggressive snake that charges as opposed to running away.

This snake does not follow the adage that everyone tells you, "they're more afraid of you than they are of them."
This snake has venom that kills very quickly, in about a minute.
There was no lock on the cage.

We also saw a broken cage. The glass on the front was shattered. Our guide explained that the janitors like to swing their brooms around to fight in the snake house.
And these snakes had escaped.

I looked down and saw that one of the kids was very close to stepping on a long snake-like thing.

I started.


…it was a hose, tangled on the floor. I'm not sure if the clean-up people were lazy or if they were trying to play a sick joke.

Overall, the zoo was a great adrenaline rush, and a reminder that I was not in the land of the lawsuits.

In America, you know, they have huge walls of glass separating you from the animals, and fences and wires "for your safety". One feels very isolated from the creatures.

I definitely felt closer to the animals here.