Jardin Zoologique

Yesterday, we went to the zoo with some friends. What a fun day! It was...interesting...to say the least. Gotta love those somewhat backwards thirdworldy zoos. I think it's pretty funny to have a zoo in Africa, though, honestly. I mean, really. You have to ask yourself: Why? If you travel in any direction for a few hours, you can see this stuff out in the wild. But, well, I suppose this is more suburban for those of us who just want to take the kids out for a morning outing without the danger of having the lions actually attack you. :) Most of the animals didn't actually move very much. There was a little tiny cheetah looking animal that hissed at us, and an eagle that would 'talk' on cue, and that was pretty cool. Mostly, they just sat there, though, which I think was kind of nice for the little kids. Of course, it was a pretty hot morning! It sort of reminded me of the Idaho Falls zoo. Very tiny, with an abundance of things that are already found in the area. For IF, I know there were LOTS and LOADS of ducks! Here, there was every single kind of monkey imaginable! There was even a monkey mommy with her less than one month old baby hanging onto her tummy! But, as always, I will let the pictures tell some of their own story:

Here are the babies, Andrew and Louis, in their fun stroller:



The very first thing we saw as we went into the zoo itself: A giant Ostrich! The kids were so excited! Especially because it was NOT in a cage or enclosure of any kind. It was roaming free with the peacocks and the ducks!! :)



Here is a deer. Not overly exciting for someone from Idaho, but cool for Africans! :)



We got to see a Crocodile all the way from the Nile! It just sat there. Poor thing was bored, I think.



The kids were really excited about this one! There were probably 15 turtles all wandering around in this little cage! They loved watching them walk around! :)



We saw two lions, the mommy and the daddy! :)



They even have 4 babies! I wondered why they were in a different place than their parents, but the guide was kind of in a hurry and basically just wanted to show us the animals, tell us what they ate, and how dangerous they were, and head over to the next cage! :) Oh well. These little guys were 7 months old!



Here is the 'little kitty' that hissed at us. I forget the name of it.



Here is a shot of the whole group...from the back...sorry everyone! :) What are we looking at?



This is a Hyena, and perhaps the only animal in this whole place (well, other than the monkeys) that was moving or doing anything that would catch your attention.



Here is a little crocodile-y thing and a sea turtle! (Aye, Sea Turtles!)--and, of course, the back of Josh's head...



The snake house! No zoo would be complete without one, eh? Here they have the Black Mambo, python, boa, viper, and some other stuff. Josh thought it was cool.



Here's the Monkey Mommy with her little tiny baby hanging onto her tummy! So cute!



And now, in Josh's mind, On to the Main Event!! This was the kids' favorite part of the zoo trip: Playing in the little park area! They had a ball in the dirty rusted over playground! ha!



Andrew on the slide! He went down all by himself!



Claire's turn!



And here is Josh waiting patiently for the babies to move away from the bottom of the slide so he can go down...



And here is Louis, our little buddy from around the corner:



There were a couple of interesting signs at the entrance of the zoo, and I didn't notice them until we were going out. One is in English and one in French. They say basically the same thing, but I'll post them anyway, because it was very interesting to me!
French:

English:


It was a nice outing, and the kids all really enjoyed themselves! Thanks for the great idea and for leading the way, Leonora!! :) (And I hope you don't mind your cameos! :))