March 9, 2006
Day 161
A curious goat.
In the corner of my map of Cordoba is a large patch of green called Parque Sarmiento. I wasn't quite sure what was there, but I decided to walk to it anyway today. When I got there, I noticed that it indeed was large, but there was a strange lack of people in it. Cordoba is a city of over one million inhabitants, yet I only saw a handful of people walking around. Going to the park would have been a bust if it hadn't been for the zoo inside.
Entrance to the zoo was only $1.50, which was worth paying just to poke my head in and check it out. The zoo was big and had all of the usual barnyard animals mixed in with a few different exotic species. One animal they had that I hadn't seen before was the hippopotamus. I walked up to the large pool of water where the hippo supposedly was, but I didn't see anything. Then I saw some nostrils rise to the surface and sink back in. I was about to walk away when a zookeeper entered the scene with some food. Slowly, the hippo walked out of the water and up the stairs. The size of it freaked me out. It was so big, it could barely walk, which I guess explains why it stays under the water so much. When the hippo opened its mouth for food, I was shocked. It's teeth were all jagged, loose, and full of green mucus, which gave it horrible breath. For the next ten minutes, the trainer threw food in, patted its tongue, and hugged it, at which point it returned to the water. It was utterly disgusting.
The photo album for this entry is here.
Dan, check out this url (gotta have sound): http://www.newbie.com/Christmas/Hippo/i_want_a_hippopotamus_for_christmas.html. The song was sung by a 10-year-old girl to raise money to buy a hippo for the St Louis Zoo back in the 50's--I couldn't find the link which told all about her today... The song is fun! I first saw penguins and hippos at Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago last Thanksgiving so I've been enjoying reading your reactions to seeing them too. Loving your day-by-day stories--thanks for sharing them. Take care and keep having fun! Cindy
Hey Cindy, thanks for the link. I haven't been doing too much lately other than going to the big cities in the north of Argentina, but hopefully I'll get back into the wilderness soon. Seeing animals at the zoo just isn't the same as seeing them in the wild.