Leah in South America: Leonitas, or Another Animal Post

One of the great things about South America is the complete lack of red tape on things that are very heavily restricted in the U.S. Like holding recently-born tiger and lion cubs AKA how I spent my Thursday.

It was Justine's friend Shane's last day (literally, he caught a flight to America 11pm, after being here for three months), and he had heard from a friend who had heard from a friend about this bomb zoo that allows you to pet the animals. Not just goats and ponies or whatever, but legit lions and tigers (bears only in my dreams). After a frustrating morning (slash week and a half) of job hunting, I went with them to this magical-sounding zoo yesterday afternoon.

Shane bought us a taxi for the whole day (he's actually the best, sad I met him only now), and we began a long trip (we drove 40 minutes, went to the wrong zoo, paid, got a refund, then drove 45 more minutes) through rural Argentina. The drive was actually another great part of the day; it's strange to think how much my(/so many people's) opinion of Argentina is based on the well-to-do, touristy areas of Buenos Aires -- comparable to foreigners thinking of America as the Upper East Side. We drove through outer outer suburbs of the city, where housing is probably a quarter of the price and it's safe to ride bikes and men sit in clumps on the corner and drink mate and chat.

ANYWAY, we finally got to Zoo de Lujan, this HUGE reserve, paid the $10 entrance fee, and chatted up the large cats man. He took us to see a tiger that had recently given birth -- then took one of the babies and gave it to us to cuddle. Actually the size of a kitten; it fell asleep in my arms.

The man then took us to a pen with two-month old lion cubs, (in which they also put puppies [for companionship/to assist in taming the cubs, I think]). After a minute of exclaiming outside the pen, he let us in to hold and pet and feed them. Yeah, hi:

fed 'em too

lions for everybody

oh hiii what's up

As I said, this zoo would be SO shut down in the states -- apparently it is hella contraversial worldwide (wonder why) but the employees were extremely nice and since we were more interested in holding/feeding the babies rather than the grown lions/tigers (which you can also do apparently) I didn't feel unsafe. The animals weren't drugged and seemed pretty well-cared for and content. Zoos by nature are problematic, and this one didn't seem any more so than any I've been to in the past -- just wayyy more awesome.

The park also had some elephants (though you couldn't get up close so not that different than a normal zoo), crazy tropical birds galore (toucans look fake up close), pumas, camels, monkeys (who shake yr hand if you let them) and BBBEARS. The bears were being moved as we left -- literally, bears just strolling on a leash right by us. More pictures: