Visiting the "thoh-oh-boh-TAHN-ee-coh"

The boys just enjoyed a 5-day weekend due to parent/teacher conferences and Veteran's Day. Even though we're still trying to unpack the last few boxes and put up pictures in our house, we decided to take advantage of the time off, especially since we're between sports and there were no games scheduled.

We visited a couple of places, Jerez and Arcos, but I'll just focus on Jerez for this particular post. Jerez de la Frontera (literally translated "Jerez at the Border") was once a natural border or barrier between the Christian and Moorish regions of Spain. The city is a bit north and east of Rota (where we live), and is well known for its wines, horses and flamenco (a very distinct art encompassing song, dance and guitar).

Now... did we actually visit Jerez to sample wines, see the horses or watch/listen to flamenco? No, we did not. We visited the Zoobotanico (pronounced "thoh-oh-boh-TAHN-ee-coh" here in southern Spain), which is the local zoo and botanical gardens. From what we could gather, the facility has been around for 55 years, and while people were telling us not to expect anything grand (as in "It's not like the San Diego Zoo"), we were quite impressed and really enjoyed our day.



We saw LOTS of birds of all shapes, sizes and colors, as well as many varieties of beautiful plants and trees. The cactus and bonsai trees were particularly beautiful, as were the hibiscus. Here are a few sights of the animal variety we saw during our visit...

This ostrich looked like it might have had some serious mental challenges, or perhaps the zoo staff spiked the water that day.


These critters look rather vicious and do you see what they're eating? Looks like some kind of red meat to me... hopefully not human.


I had to follow up that last photo with a friendly-looking bird.


"Pssst...dude, think you could see about springin' me from this joint?"


This photo screams "Madagascar!" to me.


"Pardon me, I'm having an extremely bad hair day."


What the...? Well, I never!


"If I don't look at the humans, perhaps they'll just go away."


"For the love of all things sacred, get me out of here!"


Again... can you say "Madagascar?"


Is this the sweetest face or what? I love giraffes!


Yes, I realize this is yet ANOTHER giraffe photo, but I simply couldn't help myself. I was tall and gangly at one time (not anymore... unfortunately) and I think I felt a real kinship with these creatures.


Would you KILL for those eyelashes, or what?


"Hey, fellas! I think we got a stalker over here. This lady keeps takin' my picture. I'll give her five minutes to walk away and then I'm calling security!"


This cat doesn't look very approachable to me. I took my photo and made a quick exit.


"Do you mind? Stop your gawkin' and get out of here! I need my privacy!"


Cowardly lion or king of the jungle? I believe the latter is more fitting for this guy. He was roaring LOUDLY and often, and he paced constantly. I was glad he was behind glass.


"Zzzzzzz..." The hippos were snoozing comfortably.


These aren't zoo animals! These are my kiddos, having fun at the zoo.


The boys were checking out the hippos in this photo.


Wave everybody! My poor family... they have to tolerate me and my camera everywhere we go.


I just wanna say, you guys did a GREAT job delivering my new niece. She's a real keeper from what I hear. Thanks! (I'd never seen storks in real life, if you can believe that.)


"You got anything to eat, lady?"


Elephants are way cool, aren't they? This one was definitely a crowd pleaser. Everyone, my kids included, gathered around and tried to feed it peanuts.


Little man attempts to feed Senor Elefante, with much success.


Big man tries to duplicate his brother's technique, however, he was forced to throw the peanut and missed. Oh well...


Who knew elephants had eyelashes like these? This guy seriously needs a trim! Okay, no more elephant pictures... I promise.


"Okay, let me give this lady my most pitiful face. Maybe she'll throw me some food."


Playing possum? Hung over? Dead? It's hard to know. These critters were sprawled out all over the place and didn't move.


"What're YOU lookin' at? Didn't yer mama ever tell ya starin' ain't nice?"


"Excuse me, would you have any Grey Poupon?"


Sssshhh! This bird is in prayer... let's move along, shall we?


"I'm sorry... it's not you... I'm just really shy."


Big man was drawn into a staring match with this bird. The bird won.


Man, I took LOTS of photos, didn't I? I really tried to whittle them down and only share a few with you, but I obviously got carried away. There were lots more I could have shown you. Hey, I could always post more tomorrow... uh... hello? Hello? Don't go! Hello? Is anyone there?