Return to the Zoo

Day 15 of the trip was the realization of a trip long dream that I had – visiting the Buenos Aires Zoo.  I am still a big animal lover despite the continuous attempts of the dog population to ruin my shoes and my day.  Hannah and I went to the zoo ready to feel adventurous and get that safari experience that only a huge metropolis can give.  We were very anxious to see the animals and we definitely were not disappointed.  The zoo was extremely good to be in the middle of the city, and it was much, much better than the Atlanta Zoo.  I felt so cheated out of my childhood experiences after seeing that zoo.  I feel like the Atlanta Zoo got the animal rejects.  They must have failed their safari graduation tests and got sent to Atlanta.

  The Atlanta animals probably all got low marks on their instinct tests or in their “look mean” acting classes, because these animals looked so much bigger and realer.  The favorites had to be the white tigers, hippos, giraffes, and elephants (smell notwithstanding), but others in the rainforest exhibit and the horse-sized turtles in the reptile house entertained as well.  There were also some funny looking hybrids casually walking around the zoo.  They were freakish looking animals, causing me to think that the BA zoo houses some crazy cross-breeding program, or that Jurassic Park evolution thing is going on unknown to anyone there.  And I don’t know if animals get free time for good behavior or something, but there was a lot of free roaming for some animals that definitely had cousins behind bars.   Hannah also got approached a couple of times too to my delight. 

After getting our Discovery Channel on, we went to meet Deona to see what the night would hold for us.  She told us of her recovery from the Hip Hop Club and that she was down for another night of fun.  But first, I needed to find some gifts for a couple of my brothers, so we were back off to Florida street to find gifts.  We went around tirelessly and fruitlessly for a while, discovering nothing but the friendly double-decker McDonalds.    One interesting thing that is not funny but was still funny was that there was a homeless family there who had young children asking for money.

  One particular boy (about 5 or 6) asked for money and Hannah and Deona offered their McDonalds.  While the boy accepted Hannah’s Coke, he brushed off Deona’s fries like they were brussel sprouts or something.  I swear his face was so much better than I could ever describe.  I don’t know if Deona just looked that nasty that he wouldn’t eat her fries or if he had some deep seated, bad experience induced fear of potatoes, but she ended up wondering, “why doesn’t he want my fries” and I ended up doubled over laughing.  After that much need comedic break, we moved on to find real food.  We ended up in Recoleta, which has rows of restaurants and houses the Sahara bar, which we were recommended to attend by locals earlier in the trip.  We walked up the strip of restaurants trying to decide on what to eat and we finally stopped at one, convinced by the hostesses good English and ability to describe the menu well.   I am sure that the free wine had something to do with it too, but there is no way to prove it.  We sat and ate good steak, which Argentina is world famous for (I think the cows are real smart and they can dance or shuffle cards or something like that), and we listened to a live musician.  I didn’t think he was particularly good, so I just watched a good soccer game playing in the background, while the ladies complained that I was ignoring them (which wasn’t true, but I didn’t hear much else of their argument so I left it alone).  After eating our fill and being completely misled as to what my dessert was (trust me, don’t order anything that you think is cheesecake in Buenos Aires…it is not the same…don’t…do it….please) we decided to go to the Sahara bar.   Unfortunately, the bar had not yet converted over to the bar/club scene, so we went to our beloved Locos sports bar.  There, we ordered drinks and real dessert to pass the time.  We watched the Spurs-Suns game, which was very disappointing, but refreshing to see.  After that, it was around one, so we decided to go back to the Sahara.  Unfortunately after standing in line and going through a home-made metal detector, we were told that the cover was way more than we were first led to belief.  As I was not ready to beg on the street for club fare, we looked for another spot in the bar district we visited days before.  We walked around, discouraged by high covers and full patios until we returned to the Tazz bar and pool hall.  It is worth noting that as we crossed the street a man stopped his car (and traffic mind you) to stare at Deona.   Obviously, her “exotic” look is very attractive to Arentine men, but this guy stayed there in the middle of the street staring at Deona with all kind of bad intentions.  After watching the extent of this man’s visual molestation, I even felt violated and we quickly retreated to the solace of the pool hall (I really cannot express enough how nasty this guy’s look was, there should really be a law invented and passed just to go find him and prosecute).  We shot pool, and had a little fruit while discussing our trip and our impending departure.  We knew that we would miss Buenos Aires, but we also knew that the time had come to depart.  I expressed my concern for Deona, who would be there for another couple of months, as I didn’t know if that guy would still be out in the street when we left later on.   If that kept happening, it could be problematic.  But assuming she was used to it, we discussed happier things and said that we would always have Argentina.  With that we departed the bar and made our way back to a cab to take us all home.  I was stuffed and sleepy from the continuous late nights of bridge, pool, clubbing, and eating and I was sure that it was taking its toll on the ladies as well.  We tried to sleep good in preparation for our day of departure, which was already well underway.