Zoologico!

Today we went to the Madrid Zoo and Aquarium! The most amazing thing about it was how close we could get to the animals! The fences were low and the animals really weren't contained very well. It was exciting to be close because we could have been part of a captive animal attack at any time! haha

The zoo is HUGE and has all kinds of animals. Panda osos, koala osos, asian osos, american osos, brown osos...and the brown bears were so close they could have leapt out of their cage and mauled us at any time. I kept picturing them leaping out on the crowd and thinking "what would Bear Grills do?" haha

There was an anteater the size of a large human, a guinea pig exhibit (are those exotic enough for a zoo?), a gila monster and scorpion from the sonoran desert (AZ represent!!!), PENGUINS, horses... and just for Willi, a REAL LIFE herd of non-extinct BUFFALOS!

We thought of sister-in-law Lindsey's fam as we went in the aquarium section because her family is obsessed with aquatic life. There were SHARKS (it's still shark week, right?), sea turtles, eels, rays, etc etc. We also saw a whole dolphin show.

Oh, and during a bird show, a bald eagle flew above us and touched my head. Luckily it didn't poop on me, because I have a history of large birds using my head for a toilet. (Family Disneyland trip and an unpleasant encounter with a seagull.)

You know how at the Phoenix Zoo the employees will kill you if you feed any of the animals? Well at the Madrid Zoo, apparently nobody cares. Every non-aquatic animal in the place was getting its fair share of peanuts from visitors today. The bears would even stand up on their hind legs for a peanut and catch them as they were thrown in. Flamingoes were eating out of people's hands, as were the wild red squirrels around. The most disturbing part of the day was the babboon exhibit. Disgusting, filthy, overpopulated exhibit of monkeys. Ew.


-Teddy

THEN we walked to a sidewalk cafe for dinner and Teddy and I had our first Paella, a traditional spanish dish. We chose one that did NOT contain "squid ink" ew. Ours had rice, chidken wings, green beans, giant lima beans and sweet red peppers seasoned with saffron. It is made in a large skillet like pan and some of them are big enough for a whole table to share. For dessert we had raspberry and lemon sorbet and vanilla ice cream with raspberries and blackberries and raspberry sauce....mmmmmmmmmmm.
After dinner we decided to take a stroll to walk off our dessert and ended up walking 9 miles! Found an amazing cathedral that we have to go back to in the daylight. The royal palace is even more beautiful at night when it is all lit up. There was a pretty cool street performer in front of the palace so we stopped to listen for a while. It was a gothic dude playing the harp! The ambience was lovely. He was really good! It was kind of unexpected because he didn't look the type. He was sitting in the middle of a round red cloth with flowers and leaves strewn all around the edges and he had incense burning nearby.
And here we are again, it is 3:17 a.m. and we are still awake. We fit right in here...everyone stays awake all night. buenos noches.....Panda