Its been a while since I've written; things have been quite busy, between work and my dad's visit - he arrived 26 Feb. More on that later.
Last Saturday Suzanne and I visited Bobo's "Distributed Zoo" - some of tourist attractions of Bobo Dioulasso. The first stop was the tortoises who live at the Hotel Agouta. I'm not sure where they originate from, or why they live there, but there is a male and a female. We found the female eating from the burning garbage pile, her face black with soot.
Then we went to the Sacred Catfish Pond. Really. There is a sacred catfish pond here. I didn't have the heart to take a photo of the gelatinous green water. But we fed the sacred catfish and paid hommage to the ancestors - the water was so murky you couldn't see them until they broke the surface.
Our final stop was the Bobo Zoo. Oh dear. It the prototypical horrendous old-style zoo - most of the cages have long since disintegrated (the animals reportedly starved to death). There are 3 primates left - a chimpanzee and 2 smaller monkeys. Their food mostly comes from what visitors bring - we brought several bananas, carrots and bread. The door is broken off the chimp cage, so you can go right in there with her; she is kept in by a chain attached to her neck. If you reach out to her, she "grooms" your hand; her hands are remarkably human-looking but very rough. What a life she has.
Anyhow, I will write more about my dads visit etc. later.
Take care!
Laura
2 comments:
Wow! Very different than a North American zoon. Very sad about the chimp having to be kept chained. Guess it's better to be a non-violent turtle.
Actually that turtle really seems to like you Laura. You get very well with turtles.
Regards,
Terp
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