Let's go to the zoo!

Before we begin, let me just say that at about 2:00 PM, Quinn declared that this had been his favorite day so far. Keep that in mind. 

We got up at about 8:00, which is probably about the amount of sleep a growing teenager should be getting - we'd gone to bed at about eleven, having  stayed up a while to watch "An Idiot Abroad". (It was the Brazil episode, as it turns out.) The first thing we did was to get dressed and go on a warm-up walk, then do a tabata workout - alternating air squats and push-ups. Got the blood flowing. Thence to breakfast, where I was much more under control than on previous days. I've been feeling like the food here has been a little TOO good if you know what I mean. 

Last night we had decided to go to the zoo, one of the suggested activities from the guidebook Quinn had bought me. It said the zoo was very modern and well-appointed, and showed us how to get there. Fortunately or unfortunately, it involved walking back up to Paulista again. We'd walked up there to change money, to go to Rua Oscar Freire, we'd jogged there, we'd walked there to take the subway to Uruguay-England...but Quinn was game. Off we went.

We waited for the bus for 20 minutes or so, then rode it for probably 40 - thinking for most of the way that it was free, since nobody else seemed to pay. We speculated that maybe the bus fee hike we'd heard about had been such a cataclysmic moment that they'd decided to just make the buses free. But then I realized that right behind us was the woman whose job it is to take money and make change. We'd just not gone far enough back to see her. The bus is divided in 2 by a turnstile, and we were supposed to go to the back - most of the forward seats were labeled as preferential seating for elderly people, pregnant people, lactating mothers, and obese people. But we'd found seats that weren't so labeled, and figured we were in the clear. Not so much. I paid and got her to agree to let us know when to get off. 

No real need, as it turned out- we were let out in front of the biggest gate you can imagine:

We paid and entered, and were off to see the animals:

I could have taken a million more. It was a great zoo - well-cared-for, healthy- looking, non-crazy-acting animals, and the cleanest public bathrooms I have ever seen anywhere. We never (knowingly) saw, nor heard, any other Americans there. Lots of Latin Americans from other countries, but no gringos. Curious, that- though we've seen fewer overall, except at the game itself, than I would have thought. 

We ate lunch there - I had some water and nuts I'd packed, and Quinn had some cheese empanadas and a can or two of our accidentally-purchased soda. 

More animal watching, and then we got tired and hit the bus stop. Eighteen minutes waiting, forty more in the bus - which we now knew how to manage. 

And now we are back at the Pousada, where we are watching Ghana- Germany. We're going to participate in the hostel's cook-out tonight - for $8 a head, we get delicious food and conversation with all the other guests. I will be insisting that our phones stay upstairs for that. A whole passel of Chileans are expected to arrive and I'll want Quinn talking with them. 

Regarding Quinn's declaration at the zoo that this was his favorite day so far, I did question that judgment a bit."Better than seeing 2 Suarez goals and one from Roomey? Better than your first ever international soccer game? I mean, you've seen lions and orangutan a before." 

He shrugged. "I guess."

Remarkably, I maintained my calm exterior throughout the conversation. The teenage perspective: it is a maddening thing sometimes. But overall his attitude today was excellent. It's just amazing to me that his favorite bit has nothing to do with the reason we're here, or with Brazil. But that's my anaconda to wrestle, not his. 

Here are the preparations for dinner, by the way:

Post-dinner: it was even better than it looks.