Argentina Travel

Day 3 - The zoo and yet more family

We spent the morning and early afternoon in La Plata´s bosque - the wooded park just a few blocks from the hotel. This huge park has a zoo, botanical garden, museum (though we couldn´t find it), two soccer fields, lots of open area, and quite a few play areas. Unfortunately, most of the play areas were designed for kids much older than Michaela. Still, she had fun as we helped her swing and go down slides. After we gave up on finding the museum, Michaela fell asleep in the stroller and we sat down at a parrillada (mixed grill) outdoor restaurant just outside the zoo. While I had chorizo on a roll (choripan), Margarita had rather fatty, but tender and tasty, lomo.

We headed back for the comfort of the hotel in order to let Michaela have her nap, but of course, as soon as we arrived, she was ready to go again. This time, we loaded her in the backpack and headed for the zoo.

The zoo hasn´t changed much in the past twenty years. Some of the statues (¨it looks smaller than it did 20 years ago¨) and cages were very familiar to Margarita. For me, some of the cages and the animals within were truly sad. While part of me is completely against the idea of zoos, there is another that is very appreciative of being able to see many animals that I could not otherwise. The zoo cost 2 pesos for each person with those under two free (about US$.70-75).

One of the first animals we saw were a couple of monkeys in a pretty barren cage with people feeding them through the cage. While this enthralled Michaela, I knew that the junk food that the monkeys were being fed was unhealthy for them. The most interesting things we saw were Andean condors, a parrot that said ¨Hola,¨ and a puma that stalked a little girl in red around its cage.

There was a noticeable stench of animal waste from many of the areas where the animals were kept, including the puma area and the flamingos. The pen containing the giraffe was mostly muddy (but not entirely) while the elephant was being hand fed by zoo visitors. A black chested buzzard eagle watched Michaela as if she was a snack. The train ride around the park was one peso each and was too long for Michaela to hold still.

For many of the zoo visitors, Michaela and I seemed to be the main attraction. Apparently, very few people in La Plata had seen a baby backpack before. Margarita noticed that many people stopped and stared as we passed. When we were in or near a group of people, I noticed people talking to each other and looking in our direction as I overheard the Spanish words for baby and backpack.

We made our way back to the hoteal as Michaela began to complain more loudly and it was time to head to Margarita´s aunt´s apartment for another family get together - this time with the Lacabe side of the family.

After we briefly stopped at the hotel to get ready, we grabbed a taxi as Margarita was tied of walking. It cost us about 2-3 pesos. We were the first there, but soon were joined by a whole host of Lacabes (I don´t remember all of them, but I do recally Mariana and Tota.) Since this was a bit of an occasion, there were sandwiches, pastries (many filled with dulce de leche) and the ultimate Argentine treat, a pastry (or cake) with layers of flaky dough separated by dulce de leche.

There was lots and lots of talking (most of which I didn´t understand) while the relatives constantly tried to pick up Michaela without making her cry (they rarely succeeded). Michaela became extremely sleepy as it got later, but still was in relatively good spirits. Finally, I managed to get her to sleep, but within 15 minutes, she was up again. After getting her to sleep again, we took it as a hint to leave (every one else had already, anyway) and we took a taxi back to the hotel.

-- End of day --

Posted by mike at May 4, 2003 07:27 PM