A soggy trip to the zoo

After spending the morning trying to figure out our laundry situation (it was laundry day for us today), we went to La Aurora Zoo. While it was a warm dry morning, we went prepared for the possibility of an afternoon rain shower or two. A little rain shouldn't stop us northwesterners from enjoying the zoo, right? Sunscreen on, sunglasses and raincoats in our backpacks.... off to the zoo we went!


This zoo is an amazing place to really see the animals up close- I don't think it's as nice for the animals to be so on display, but it's amazing for us to make eye contact with a lioness!



About 15 minutes into our zoo experience, it started to rain. Oftentimes the rain comes in bursts, so we thought it might rain for a bit then clear up again. Since the kids were thirsty, it seemed a good time to step under cover and get some bottles of "agua pura..."
It turned out it was a very good time to do so!


The rain turned into a downpour, followed by the thunder and lightening, soon directly overhead. The walking paths we had been on turned into lakes and rivers!

After a game of Go Fish started by Dad with imaginary cards to keep the grumpies at bay (Maria was amazing- she kept drawing just the card she needed from the pile!), the downpour turned back into just rain and we decided we might as well continue with our zoo tour.
We were absolutely drenched by the time we were done! And remember, this is laundry day, so all our other pants are all getting washed, due to be returned to us tomorrow morning! (What do you do when you return to the hotel soaked? Change into your only dry clothes, of course- your swimsuit! The kids and Aaron went swimming while Alex and Heather stayed in the room- Alex to get a bit of rest, and Heather armed with a hair dryer and everyone's pants!)

We got the best performance from the howler monkeys today! We really couldn't have asked for more howling right in our faces! :-) This clip is just a few seconds of the several minutes of video we got of this monkey howling at us. He got really worked up as we watched him, rearing up on his legs and howling right at us. Even as we finally left, he still had a lot to say as we walked away. It's really quite amazing how loud that monkey can be, especially when he's only a few feet away. At the moments when he really got howling, everyone was covering their ears! Turn the volume way up to get the real experience! :-)