The Santa Ana Zoo at Prentice Park

http://www.santaanazoo.org/

My sisters and I love zoos. Well, it's probably more that we love animals, but that naturally leads into a desire to go to zoos and aquariums and wildlife parks.

When we go to Disneyland, our standard operation is to fly into John Wayne Airport, and then we take Super Shuttle to our hotel, a route that has customarily taken us past the Santa Ana Zoo. I would see the sign, and wonder about it, and want to go there, and sometimes I would mention this to people. They would be dismissive. Forget that one, and go to San Diego! There is a Los Angeles Zoo too, which I am sure is bigger.

I got that the Santa Ana Zoo was small, but that didn't make me want to go less. The Fresno Zoo had been small also, but it still had some really cool exhibits. There's nothing wrong with a nice little zoo, as long as they take good care of the animals.

Well, the same kind friend who took us to the tar pits, and to the wildlife park in San Diego, which I will write about next week, took us to the Santa Ana Zoo, and we liked it a lot.

Yes, it is small, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. One thing with the Oregon Zoo is that we never see the whole place on a single visit, because it's very large, and we get tired. Here, we were able to get a good look all over in about two hours. That time frame was important because we got there about two hours before closing. This made our admission half price, so was all well and good. Actually, even paying full price is not unreasonable.

There are a few things that stood out about our zoo experience.

One is that they have a good sense of fun. There were Halloween decorations everywhere, cute little touches like a stuffed orangutan in a tree, and an explanation of one of the primates who suffered from alopecia (pictured above) incorporated one of the zoo stuff in a humorous way.

Speaking of primates, they had a really good selection. The founder required that there be 50 monkeys on the grounds at all times, so you will never find a shortage of monkeys. There also seemed to be a really good selection of birds.

One of my most exciting finds was neither monkey or bird, but a binturang. It is also not a bear or a cat, thought it is sometimes called a bearcat. It was cool because I had never seen one before, and I got to look at his funny, whiskery face and learn about him.

Something else that I found educational was that in various areas they would have structures explaining families. I have included a photo of the one for camelids, but they also had them for ratites and anteaters. This was great for getting a sense of who belongs where in a family of closely-related animals.

Speaking of the anteaters, we got to see some really cool anteater antics. Two were play-fighting for a while, and then we got to see a young one riding its mother's back. I was not able to get great pictures of them because they were moving too much, but we still got to watch and see it.

We had just missed the carousel operations for the day, but it was a great carousel. They had an anteater, hummingbird, seal, and all sorts of animals for a fun variety. That would be a reason to not come so late in the day, but all in all it worked well for us.

Bigger isn't always better. We liked the zoo.

La Brea Tar Pits

http://www.tarpits.org/

I had heard of the Tar Pits, but didn't know what to expect. I've never seen Miracle Mile, and yes, one A-Team episode started there, but they showed so little of the grounds that it was kind of pointless. This is exactly what you would expect from a Season 5 Stockwell episode, however that episode was kind of what put the bug in Julie's ear to go, so I guess it accomplished something.

Therefore, since I knew nothing going in, there could only be surprises.

Surprise #1: You are very much in the middle of the city. I remember being similarly surprised with the Winchester House, but you can see how grounds would be sold off over time, and developed.

I guess it just shows that I don't know that much about excavation. You think of all of these remote digs, but you can find an old English monarch under a parking garage, and you can find millions of fossils in the heart of Los Angeles.

Surprise #2: Millions of fossils. Here is a quote from their page: "Since 1906, more than one million bones have been recovered representing over 231 species of vertebrates. In addition, 159 species of plants and 234 species of invertebrates have been identified. It is estimated that the collections at the Page Museum contain about three million items. Our current Project 23 excavation may, when completed, double this number."

Again, this is not my specialty but it still seems remarkably productive. There is so much ecological richness right here.

Surprise #3: Dire wolves are real. I haven't been watching "Game of Thrones", but I was reading the recaps on televisionwithoutpity.com, and so I had seen many references to dire wolves, which were supposed to be extinct, but then they found some. Also, dragons were supposed to be extinct, but now they are not. I thought the two things were equivalent, but until they find dragon fossils, there is no equivalency. Dire wolves are real.

Surprise #4: The tar is cold. It bubbles like it is boiling, and we are used to tar being heated for it's various uses, but no, it is cool to the touch, and the bubbling is caused by bacteria burping up methane, but it's not hot.

Surprise #5: It's an active site. As much as they have found, they are still finding it, and that bit about being in the middle of the city had an impact on that as well. To make way for a parking garage, boxes were built around deposits and moved for later sorting, leading to Project 23.

There's one more thing I had not thought about, but it totally made sense, that came from an article I read a few months after our visit:

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/02/la-brea-tar-pits/?pid=2748&pageid=97320&viewall=true

As cool as the big fossils are, there are specific things that you learn better from the microfauna:

“The saber-tooth cats and the mammoth are great, but it’s the microfauna that really provides a look at what life was like here 10,000 or 20,000 years ago,” says Dr. John Harris, chief curator of the Page. “That sabertooth cat may have been simply passing through. But that field mouse lived here.”

I consider myself schooled.

Rest of Playacar

This will mainly focus on our last day, Friday, but with a little extra information, and actually starting on our first day. The hotel has a shuttle into downtown and to the beach club, but we had just missed one when we got down on our first day, so we decided to walk into town, which was not far. The Holiday Inn Express Playacar is on Carretera Federal 307 (I think--I find the street names confusing). It is just off the highway, and in front there is more thick growth that blocks a small airstrip. On the other side of the strip are all the shops and restaurants of the downtown, and then the beach. We walked on the Carretera until we got to Benito Juarez (probably), and turning left there got us into the main downtown. On the way, near the hotel, there was a convenience store that we used a lot for bottled water and snacks.

We came upon an area that said Paseo del Carmen Shopping Mall, so if it was a mall I thought it would probably have a food court. They kind of did, with a Subway and a Starbucks flanking a Mexican restaurant, but we noticed an Italian restaurant, Rinaldi's, that looked promising. There were a lot of Italian restaurants in town, as well as a lot of places selling gelato.

Rinaldi's had Italian style pizza, which has a very thin, flat crust, and where a single pizza is intended for one person. We got one Hawaiian and one Cancun pizza (ham and basil, I think), and one plate of prosciutto, and split them between us. It was pretty good, and the prices were not bad.

At one point, Julie was startled and asked "What was that?" We were eating by a large window, and she had seen something moving but was not sure what it was. It took a while to see, but finally another came into view. It turned out there were a lot of little wild pigs in the wooded area out back. We asked our waiter about it, but I did not recognize the name he said. Later we saw that they were peccaries, or javelinas. He threw out some food scraps so a bunch came running up. The older ones did look more piggish, but with the babies it was still hard to see. One of them actually sat on its haunches and used it's front legs to lift a pizza crust up to its mouth. That's a squirrel move, not a pig. I joked with Maria that maybe they were the prosciutto, and she asked the waiter and he actually told her yes at first, teasing her. You can eat them, but that's not what they were using.

On our second day we walked back into downtown, to the mall again, and had a late lunch at the Subway. The other thing I wanted to do was hit the chocolate café, Ah Cacao. There had been these really good chocolate bars I had bought last time at Xcaret, and when I looked them up it looked like the manufacturer had a café. It turned out to be much further away than I had realized. I mainly wanted to go there before going to Xcaret, because I had originally found them at Xcaret, and I wanted to compare prices and see where it would be better to buy. This was silly of me—obviously the park is going to be more expensive. I guess I was thinking that there might be gift packs or something, but then if that was something that Xcaret did, the café would probably have them too. I should have stocked up then, but we just got some ice cream and water and tried to cool off. They were air-conditioned, which was nice.

That day had ended up being about six miles walking, so it was a concern when we got to Friday, and we had to get everything done. Still, we were starting with Croco Cun. We just took a cab that was in front of the hotel. We were worried about getting another cab for our return trip, but he offered to come back for us. He recommended we allow an hour for the zoo, and was exactly right, and he was there right on schedule.

Obviously, it is valuable for a cab driver to have a guaranteed fair, but it is also valuable for tourists to have someone to rely on, and Ignacio had already showed himself willing and able. He got a chance to do this even more, and we really put him to the task.

I wanted to go back to Ah Cacao to stock up on chocolate. My sisters wanted to go back to the mall to eat and hang out. Both were reasonable desires, but these two points were far from each other, as we had learned, and through a hot sweaty gauntlet of aggressive vendors. 

Ignacio made it all happen. We explained what we wanted. First he took us to Ah Cacao, and actually not the one that we had been to, so there are at least two of them. He got us there with no fuss, and waited in the car while we made our purchase.

He did not know about Paseo del Carmen Mall. His English was pretty good, and my Spanish is okay, but neither of us were really good at directions. You would think that would be necessary for a cabbie, but usually they know where everything is. Still, with talking and pointing, he got us there. I cleverly asked how much it would be to go to the airport, he offered to pick us up the next morning. It worked out well for him, but Ignacio did really make our lives easier.

After lunch I walked down to the ferry terminal and back to get some more pictures, and then we headed back to the hotel. We had kept talking about getting in the pool, but then not doing it, and now it was finally time. Julie and Maria hesitated because there were other people there, so I went down, and just when I had given up on them they came out, and we all got to swim a bit. Burger King delivered us dinner, and we packed up. (Technically Burger King, Domino's, and KFC all deliver to the hotel, but KFC hung up on me. We had Domino's on a different night.)

We told Ignacio to come at 8, so it was really an early morning, but checkout went smoothly and he was right on time. I had worked it out so that I had exactly enough cash in US dollars for our fare and tip with Ignacio, and I left the rest of my pesos for the maids when they cleaned our room, but then as we exited the cab a sweet little old man grabbed our bags and carried them in. Julie and Maria had no cash either, so I ended up giving him all of my American coins, about 67 cents. I felt bad and he said it was okay, but I guess you always need to plan on keeping some cash.

We got our first internet time at the airport in Cancun while waiting for our flight to Minneapolis. Our layover there was not long, so after getting through customs we were kind of crunched for time to get dinner and be ready to board, but for all that hurrying we ended up sitting on the runway for an hour because a valve on the de-icer was not closing, and they needed to fix it. It was frustrating, but hey, you really do want everything fixed before you take off. They were able to make up a little bit in the air, so we were only 45 minutes late arriving.

I did one other stupid thing, so I might as well confess it, in the hopes that it will save some other poor soul the trouble. I like keeping all of the souvenirs in carry-on so I can keep an eye on them. This sounds reasonable, but my souvenirs included a jar of honey from Xcaret, which is famous for its sting-less bees; a bottle of vanilla, Mexican vanilla also being famous, and a three-pack of hot sauce bottles. What is the common denominator? All liquid, all confiscated at security.

I was able to find replicas of each item in the airport, and carry them on anyway, but ideally you don't buy your souvenirs twice. Oh well, mejor suerte otra vez.

Croco Cun

http://www.crococunzoo.com/

Croco Cun Zoo is a bit outside of Playa del Carmen, but it is definitely worth the trip.

Now, the story our guide told us is a little bit different than what the web site says, and the guide was more colorful. Both agreed that the place started as a crocodile farm, and it was for meat, but I bet they also used the leather. Their site says that Hurricane Gilbert almost destroyed the farm, and as they rebuilt the concept started to change.

That could totally be true, but it does not necessarily negate what our guide told us, which was that as a side to the farming, the original owners had also set up some entertainment with crocodile wrestling and bringing up audience members to stick their hands in the mouths or things like that, and there were a few limbs lost, resulting in hefty lawsuits, and that's how the property changed hands.

However they got there, what they do now is take in seized and abandoned animals, as people often have foolish ideas about what makes a good pet. There were so many crocodiles especially that I wondered if they were doing some breeding still, or if they would ever move some of the animals out, but that does not seem to be the case. So, the existence of the zoo, and the population, does not speak well of human responsibility, but it is still a fun place to visit.

As the animals have generally been pets, and sometimes been wild animals who were injured but had human contact during their treatment, they are more used to human interaction, and so the point here is to be more interactive. Because of this you will always go through with a guide, and they have a few different languages available. Our guide was Mexican, but he had lived in Seattle and Las Vegas, so his English was excellent, and he was familiar with different weather systems and could confirm that this place was really hot; that was not just us. Still, we were there during the cool part of the year. He told us in summer he will go out and feel like his skin is on fire. Anyway, he was very knowledgeable and it looks like in general the staff is well trained and focused on what they are doing.

We started out with the birds. We spoke to some parrots, and one of them kissed us each on the cheek. One thing I do recommend is spending the extra two dollars for the bag of fruit so you can feed the animals on the tour. We got one bag, and that was sufficient for all three of us.

As we were with the birds, there were spider monkeys swinging nearby, and they kept getting closer. I felt one clap the back of my neck, and suddenly one, probably the same one, was on top of Julie's head. This is probably my favorite thing that happened on the entire trip. Julie was not sure what she was supposed to do, but eventually the monkey left. We did feed some other monkeys when we got to their area, but that unplanned interaction right there just kind of made the trip, especially because she did not get bitten, scratched, or peed on. That's just lucky.

I have more pictures of us here because of the interactions, but it ends up being more pictures of me, because my sisters were not quite as willing to be in contact with reptiles. Our guide tried. He said the baby crocodile felt just like a Louis Vuitton bag, and didn't they like Louis Vuitton, but somehow it did not work. Therefore I held the crocodile (I think Julie did finally end up touching it), and I got what I refer to as the Crococun neck massage. Well, I don't want to oversell the massage. There's a limit to how well they can do without thumbs. It's still kind of cool.

The other thing I should mention about that area is that I know the yellow python in the picture looks big, but having been there, I also know that the photo does not adequately convey the size of that sucker. It was enormous. I don't think it would even have to squeeze to crush you, but that its sheer weight would be enough. If given the opportunity to hold that one, I'm not sure I would take it. Really. Big. Snake.

I think it was after the snakes that we walked through the main crocodile pit. We were advised to stay on the path, which we did, but there were crocodiles on both sides of the path, so there is no magical boundary. Our guide told us that if they started attacking he was going to run and jump the wall, and he was not going to wait for us. I'm not saying it was actually dangerous, because I think they have learned too much about liability to take big chances, and after all, these guys are fed regularly, but I do not recommend trying to stop and pet any of the residents here.

The other big enclosure is the deer pen. They have a stack of branches and you can feed leaves to the deer. To do this, tear a leaf off and hold it out. If you hold out the entire branch, a deer will try and grab the whole thing, drop it in the dirt, and then not want it.  This is not optimal.

We also got to pet a local breed of hairless dog, which felt weird, and fed the spider monkeys, and we did not touch the coati mundi, but we still got to see them. The overall variety of animals was really good.

The entire tour takes about an hour. There is a small snack bar and gift shop, and there are bathrooms, but it's not really meant for hanging out. Basically, you take your tour and you leave, but that's not a criticism. We really enjoyed our time there, and it was one of the highlights of the trip.

And a monkey jumped on Julie's head!