John Young's Out There: Amaru Zoologico, Cuenca, Ecuador

Today, I went to the zoo in Cuenca, and what a great experience it was! I took a taxi there, a 20 min. ride for $4 U.S. (that's the currency here), and a bus back for 25c. Entrance fee was $6, and it took me four hours to make the tour. Granted, I took over 300 photos and read most of the signs, many of which were bilingual. Good for my emerging Spanish skills.

The zoo is a rescue center, and in this sign they outline the "sad pasts" of many of their clients, such as Pancha, the Mono Capuchino (capuchin monkey), who had been kept with a chain around his neck.

I had forgotten the zoom for my DSLR, which was just as well as it was seldom needed. I did, though, have my little point-and-shoot with an 18x zoom which I used some.

The zoo is like none other I've seen, as you can see in this image of the entrance ramp!

My favourite part of the zoo, apart from the lions being fed, was probably the aviary. There, I could get up close and personal with the exotic, colourful birds.

I also really enjoyed the monkeys, and some of the little ones had the run of the place.

I had bought a cup of fruit for lunch and set it down on the table when I went to take a picture of these two:

Then I heard some Ecuadorians laughing and turned around to see this little monkey had taken liberty with my fruit!

It was good to see, though, that even the monkeys who were caged had room to roam in passage-ways constructed out of chicken wire:

The monkey enclosure:

There were also raptors in larger cages, 4 eagles in this cage.

And lots of other animals.

A tigirillo (ocelot):

And here's some of the rest:

But luckily, I came upon the exotic animal section just as they were feeding the lions. Eight of them, a mama and a papa, two cubs, and four youngsters. Papa let out a roar every now and then to let the little ones know that they weren't getting any of his meat! The keeper told me that papa would eat all that meat in one sitting, and they are fed three times a day.