Stepping Out of the Boat

When we got there was considered hopping back in the taxi and heading right back home. It was in a really run down part of town for one. Secondly the nice little river running in front of the entrance was filled with trash, and thirdly there were men with fire hoses out front spraying and sweeping the trash away. We pressed on. With our entrance ticket we got a free ride on the train that took us around the entire zoo but it didn't leave for another 20 minutes and we assumed that everything would be in Spanish so we decided to walk.

We started down the road with nothing but a dense forest on each side of us and a few small cages with random birds in them every 50 yards or so. It wasn't until we reached the top of the hill did things start turning up. Once we reached the hilltop we quickly realized that the entire zoo pretty much ran in a large circle. We also noticed right away that there were no cages for any of the animals. This zoo ran on the open range method and the only thing protecting you from the animals was a trench about 4 or 5 feet wide and deep that you just had to hope the animal wouldn't decide to cross.

We had a great time walking around checking out all the animals. The were rhinos, hippos, buffalo, lions, tigers, bears, alligators, the list goes on. A few of the animals did have a little more of an encloser, such as the bear, lion, and tiger, but it wasn't much more than the rest. The circle that we were walking continued to go on and on and seemed to get bigger as we found ourselves taking side paths here and there to see other animals. Before we knew any better we had been there for a few hours, were drenched in sweet, and in desperate need of something to drink. Luckily we found a stand that served drinks unfortunately for us we were in the D.R. and nothing was cold. Thank goodness there was ice. After a quick rest were were back on the trail. This time to make the last leg of our trip through the bird area. When we finally arrived back at the entrance we were exhausted and even though we had talked about the idea of taking the train just for the fun of the ride we decided to call our cab and call it a day.

Later that night, after a shower, nap, and some dinner, we decided to head out for some bowling. There is a pretty big alley just down Lincoln and we had always talked about doing it we just never had made it down there. So today was the day. It is a surprising big place with alleys on two levels. Once we had our shoes and picked out our bowling balls we were ready to play. None of us are very good and we did have to contend with some unruly Dominican teenagers sharing the lanes next to us but we all had a great time. As we were finishing up our hour of bowling Roger, Holly, and one kids Roger helps support showed up and got in on the action with us. We finished the night off by playing cards at the bowling alley while Roger and Holly finished up their game.

It was a long day but we were able to check a couple more items off the list. The next thing on the list was one last resort trip the following weekend.