On Saturday Katie and I decided to take an adventure and go explore the zoo in Quilpué, a smaller city about 15 minutes from Viña via metro. I go through Quilpué every day on the way to work and am always tempted to stop, but I really didn't want to go to the zoo by myself. Haha. I had asked some of my patients about it, and they all said it was okay. Cute, small, precious. So I figured it was nothing extravagant, but their website seemed super nice and they had photos of a lot of cool animals so we decided to check it out!
I am SO glad we went! The zoo was actually SO great! And really cheap. It was just 2500 pesos which is about $4! We wandered around and discovered the zoo was way bigger than it looked! The first big animal we came across was a jaguar and I was so pumped about it. I have never really seen one up close and it was chewing on a hunk of meat which was cool. We kept going through the zoo and saw a large variety of animals including a ton of birds, many species of monkeys, Baboons, the jaguar, flamingoes, kangaroos, cows (LOL), llamas, alpacas, lions, a tiger, pumas, peacocks, fox, deer, and sea lions! I'm sure I am forgetting some. The sun was shining and for the first time in forever I was actually too hot when I was outside! Such a nice change. We walked through the zoo for about 2 hours and took a ton of photos. All the info boards for each animal were in Spanish, so we learned a lot of strange animal names in Spanish as well. The zoo was up in the hills and the zoo had some hills to climb up with different animal exhibits, and the view from up there was amazing! I really like rural Chile, and I like that I work in rural Chile because it gives me a chance to escape from the city life and see the beautiful mountains and little towns.
Another reason I really wanted to go is because I wanted to see how zoos differ here from in the US, or what types of animals they would have. They had a lot of similar animals to zoos in the US, but I found it really funny that they had pens of cows, chicken, goats, and sheep. One big difference was how the animals were caged. I feel like at zoos in the US, the animals are in a huge area down below where you walk and you kind of just have to look from afar. But at this zoo, they were in fenced-in enclosures that we could walk right up next to which was amazing. I don't think I have ever been that close to a lion or tiger. They have about 3 fences in between so it's still safe, but such a cool chance to get so close to the animals. We took a bunch of selfies with the tiger because he was pacing back and forth and we thought it was funny. We also almost got spit on by a guanaco, so maybe that's a disadvantage of being so close! Haha. We named her Debbie and she wasn't loving all our photos. Or maybe it was because I was eating and not sharing with her.
It was such a fun day! We were both so glad we went, and then we walked around Quilpué and explored a little bit afterwards and got some DELICIOUS empanadas. Then when we got back to Viña, we stopped at Pig Waffles, a place I had heard about and really wanted to visit. It might have been the most delicious thing I have ever eaten. They have waffles that are filled with meat and veggies and meal-type foods, and also with desserts. So clearly we chose dessert. Mine had peanut butter, raspberry jelly, banana, blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, and homemade whipped cream. HOLLA
Now that I deviated from the zoo theme, let's move back! Here are some animal photos from the zoo. I took WAY too many!
Got my tiger selfie! What a beaut.
My little goat friend who just wanted a cracker.
Simba status.
My BFF the jaguar.
Beautiful monkey.
Majestic proud oso pardo.
Debbie the guanaco. Preparing to spit.
Curious little llama!
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