Two weeks ago, we visited the Buinzoo which is about 45 min southwest of the city, where they have more room to spread out. For only $48 for all four of us, we had a full day of fun. We went with the Argentinian family we are becoming close to. They have two girls who attend the same school as ours, and they live in our building, so we see them all the time. The oldest one, Carola, is the same age as Emerson and therefore is in the same grade, but a different class. The younger sister, Olivia, is 4 and is in pre-kinder, so the class below Avery. All four of them get along great. Before moving to Santiago, we were wondering how easy it would be to make friends, and it has actually been much easier than I imagined, definitely easier than Hong Kong. Obviously the language is more accessible for us, but finding families with kids through school gives us an immediate network to tap into. In the picture below, Carola and Olivia are the two girls in the middle of our boys. They are super sweet.
This zoo was nice because you could get relatively close to the animals, not like at the old section of the Denver Zoo where the animals feel a mile away. The first section had monkeys that would walk overhead crossing from one section to another.
We got to see the fabled capybara, which is actually an hilarious creature. First, it is THICK. An adult male on average is 4 ft long and 100 lbs, so think like a chunky labrador. They live in groups of 10-20 and are found all over South America, but to the east of the Andes, so not in Chile. And they are technically the largest rodent on the planet. People here LOVE them and think they are the cutest thing ever. Girls will have capybara themed birthday parties. I think they have a funny resting bitch face, with which I can commiserate.
The zoo also had an animal I had never seen or heard of before, something called the Patagonian Mara. It looked like half capybara half rabbit. "Behind the rabbit?? It IS the rabbit!!" It is also a rodent and lives in the Argentinian side of Patagonia, so again, east of the Andes. These guys were my personal favorite. I was fascinated that there exists a mammal that I had never seen before. Granted, I haven't traveled the whole world, but I've been to my fair share of zoos and museums, and have watched enough Planet Earth-esque documentaries to feel like I know most of the world's animals, well, mammals anyways. I'm sure there's plenty of insects and fish out there I've never heard of. But a mammal? Especially one as cute as this?!? Come on!! Again, North American ignorance for the win.
Drew's favorite was the snow leopard. In the wild, these guys are very elusive, so it was cool to see one here. It was actually stalking a bird right before Drew took this photo.
They also had red pandas there, which are another personal favorite.
Most of the animals seemed to be in lovely enclosures that were clean and well kept. The enclosure for the rinoceronte for whatever reason was a muddy mess. Below Emerson is doing his best rinoceronte impression.
There were baboons with their fiery red butts, so Emerson had to imitate them as well.
I just included this photo because I love Avery's face.
There was a petting zoo area where the kids could pet llamas, sheep, and some rabbits. Another family was in there at the same time, and, shortly after this, another little boy tried to pet the brown llama but for whatever reason the llama was not having it. He reared back his head and full on spit right in the poor little boy's face. I couldn't help but laugh.
Avery's favorite animal was the donkey, of course. Except this was a special African burro, so it had striped legs. Overall, a great day!
