A Trip to the Zoo

All I can say is wow! You cannot go to Puerto Vallarta without a trip to their zoo. It is the only zoo that I know of which allows you to interact with the animals.

The ride to the zoo took about 30 minutes. We went up about 1300 feet in elevation, so you can imagine the road had a few twist and turns. We were passed by many drivers who were familiar with the road. We did see some soldiers going the opposite direction. I am getting used to seeing masked men with large weapons in trucks along the highway. It must get awfully hot wearing ski masks!

The cost to enter was $50 per person which included food to feed the animals, and 30 minutes with the baby cubs. Ken did not pay for the priviledge so he just watched us from a far. The bag they make up has pictures that describes what each animal likes to eat. There was one that they called a cookie and we could not find anything that looked like a cookie. They had carrots, peanuts, pellets, bread crumbs. To tell you the truth by the time we were heading out of there the food was starting to look good to me!

Our first little occupent was this cute female monkey with her baby. She took the peanut right out of your hand.  The male seemed a bit more timid, he wouldn't take food from either of us girls. Ken went to give him a peanut and he came right down and took it from him. Go figure.

This camel liked the goodies we had for him.

The flamingos were something else, they were pretty far away when we first approached their area, but as soon as they saw us them all came running up to us. Making loud noises and practically jumping on you for the food. They were not afraid of people that's for sure.

This giraffe could easily step over the barrier between him and us, but was happy to remain in it's area. There was a young women ahead of us with her husband and I watched as she fed it a carrot from her mouth! Very courageous, nobody in our group would do it, I tried to get them to so I could get a picture, but no takers.

All the animals were so friendly, except maybe the crocodile. I have to mention there are some kind of biting bugs there that linger for several days after. It took me about 2 weeks for mine to clear up and to stop itching. They sort of remind me of chigger bites.

This little goat freaked me out. I was just looking over the wall to see what was in there and he jumped up right on the wall!! I was taken by surprise and screamed! ha ha He was too cute. It's really strange how they mix some of the animals together, for example in here they also had guinea pigs and rabbits.

We finally reached the baby cats! There were 2 Siberian tigers 1 month old, and 2 lion cubs 25 days old,  and 1 leopard 3 months old. We had such a wonderful time holding these babies. The tigers were quite a bit more aggressive then the little lions.

There is something so awesome about being able to hold and pet these wild animals. If you ever get the chance to do it, take it, you won't regret it. It was hard to leave all these wonderful experiences behind, but it was time to go home. Too bad these babies wouldn't fit in my purse!