Zoo-mania

On Friday we thought it would be fun to take off for the weekend...we're realizing we don't have much time left here and don't want to just laze around all weekend long. We were faced with rainy weather most of the weekend, so weren't sure where to go...we finally decided on Guadalajara, which is only about an hour and a half away.

We got there Friday afternoon and went to Tonala, a suburb of Guadalajara. We walked around a bit and looked at the crafts, and then we went to Tlaquepaque and got a hotel. We walked around Tlaquepaque for awhile, and then went to our hotel to go to bed.

The next morning we got up and took a taxi to the zoo. Our taxi driver told us he was a missionary!! We were really excited and told him we were, too! He was so excited. He told us all about a group of people he is with who "dance for Jesus" and showed me a picture of him carrying a cross on a rural road...he said he carried it, dancing and singing, for 14 hours. We had a great time talking...we was what I would call a Charismatic Catholic! He was very proud of the fact that he'd been married for 24 years and had never been with anyone but his wife. In Mexican culture it is not unusual for men to have mistresses (part of the "machismo" phenomenon), so this was saying something. We agreed to have him pick us up after the zoo closed at 6:30 pm.

We went to the zoo...it cost $40 pesos for me and $1 peso for Sierra!! We also bought tickets to go on their "Africa" tour where you ride in an open air truck through an area where the animals live in a more natural setting...the cost? Under $3 dollars for both of us! We made a bee-line to the African Safari, figuring the earlier in the day the better. It was so cool!! There were only about 6 of us and we rode on this bumpy road in the "savannah" and saw all sorts of animals living "wild". At one point we stopped and a huge giraffe came over to our truck and we got to feed him carrots...it was great! We were glad we did the safari.

After, we went and saw the other animals, too...the zoo is set up really well and is a nice place. They have a jungle area, an Australian outback area, kiddie zoo, reptile area, nocturnal area. In the jungle area they have an aviary where you can go in and see all sorts of birds and also a monkey house with little squirrel monkeys - for $5 pesos you can buy a little cup of food to feed the monkeys. Oh my gosh - this was definitely the highlight of the day! We ended up buying something like 6 cups! We quickly learned if we just sat still that a bunch of these adorable little critters would be crawling all over us pronto. At one point I had 5 or 6 on me, with two on my head...they were picking at my hair!! I was getting REAL nervous that they would get in a fight on my head and bite me! Sierra was having a blast...they seemed really drawn to her and they were all over and around her. We were really laughing and having a good time.

One BIG bummer that happened this week...my camera has disappeared. I'm so disappointed. I have turned the house upside down looking for it, and it's simply gone. I don't know if someone took it or the old man living here sold it by accident (more on that later). It had the pictures from Mexico City, Guadalajara (last month, not this trip), our new "home" and Tepatitlan...all gone. Please pray it turns up.

Since we didn't have our usual camera, we bought one of those disposable ones...so, hopefully we'll get a few pictures with that...but I won't be able to post them like I could with my digital. Big Sigh.

Back to the Zoo...next to the zoo...or actually a part of it, is an amusement park with rides - basic fair-type rides, but rides nonetheless. Sierra was really wanting to go there...I mean, they put in right in plain view, what kid wouldn't??? So, we did...it was $10 to get in, including all of the rides, so I thought it was a pretty good deal. We did the standard Pirate Boat, Bumper Cars, Roller Coasters and all that...it was fun in that amusement park, fair like, wait in line and get your 2 minutes of thrills sort of way. There weren't many people there, so we did get in a lot of rides.

After a full day of this, boy were we tired! Especially me, being old and all. Whew! We got out to the entrance and our friend the taxi driver was there (remember him?)...he laughed at how tired we looked. Sierra swore she wasn't as tired as me, but then practically fell asleep on the way home. She was hungry for BK, so he took us to one and I ran in and got us some food to go. We got back to our hotel and ate, watched tv for a little bit and hit the sack.

The next morning (Sunday) we got up and had breakfast (did I mention it was included with the hotel?? cool!) and met a woman from the US who lives in Mexico now...she's been here 11 years and doesn't speak Spanish! How is that possible?? After breakfast we walked around and window-shopped a bit in Tlaquepaque, and then went to the Centro in search of a bookstore that had English language books...no small feat, surprisingly! We were sadly unsuccessful and found only a few over-priced magazines ($6 to $7 dollars for a magazine!!). I especially want to find "The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe" as we have every other book in the series but that one, and we have some lessons we found for it with the movie coming out and all. Bummer!

We ended up getting a few of those over-priced magazines, if only for the luxury of reading in our own language...and decided we were too tired to keep going, so we headed for the bus station and on home.

We ended up getting home about 6:30 or so...had a little dinner, took showers, got a load of laundry started and hopped into bed. It was good to get out of town and and come home exhausted at the end of the weekend.