Monkeying Around at the Zoo

Yesterday the kids and I went to the Buenos Aires Zoo.  I was impressed!  Bears, lion, tigers, rhinoceros, elephants, giraffes, camels, llamas,... the usual.  Plus quite a few animals I´ve never seen before.

Like the carpincho...

these nameless animals that were wandering free everywhere and looked like a cross between a rabbit and kangaroo...

and these ugly ducks that would steal your food if it was at their level.

This guy needed some serious dental work.  Talk about an underbite!

My favorite exhibit was the 4 baby white tigers. 

The zoo was a good 40 minute walk, which was fine on the way there, thanks to our borrowed double stroller.  After three hours of walking around the zoo, though, it was an exhausting walk home. 

On the way there, a friendly young woman saw me looking at my map and, in English, offered to help, telling me how to get on the bus because it would be way too far.  Little did she know how many hikes we've made our kids go on.  Without taking another step a friendly old woman stopped to tell me (through pointing and gesturing) that my kids were underdressed and needed their coats on.  I have noticed that we dress a little lighter than everyone else.  It got up to 75 (F) yesterday, for goodness sakes.  Colby was perfectly content in his short sleeves and I was too hot in my long sleeves.

Despite all the walking we do, none of it is very heart-pumping aerobic.  I rarely see people running on the sidewalks.  I did notice one gym on our walk yesterday, but surely it's not enough for the thousands of people that live around it.  When we visited our park at dusk two nights ago, we saw a few joggers out circling the park.  So this morning I headed out to join them.  It takes not two minutes to circle the park.  Makes for a rather tedious run, going around and around.  I ran the three blocks home as well, and realized why people don't run much in the city.  Too many people, too many stoplights.  Oh well, I got in my little bit of sweaty exercise, and felt a little better about going home to my daily breakfast of fresh croissants and pastries..  Mmmmmmm.....

After trying out the park lap myself I decided to make the kids do it.  We stayed close to home today after wearing out their little legs yesterday.  But by 3:00 they were ready to climb the walls.  So we went to the park and I timed them making the lap.  We'll repeat it throughout the summer.  It's exactly the kind of physical challenge Colby needs.  He immediately wanted to do it again after sprinting around it the first time, to see if he could do better.

This afternoon at the park I met a family (mom and two sons) from Texas.  She is a Spanish professor, here with some students for the summer.  It was great talking with her and we exchanged contact information.  She lives nearby, so I'm hoping for more playdates at the park (or elsewhere).  Her boys (6 and 10) played great with our kids.