Southern Summer, Argentina, Chile and Y Wladfa Gymreig 8th Jan

The only real down side to this excellent apartment is the traffic noise and although we are seven floors up if we leave the balcony doors open we don't need a morning alarm. This morning we decided not to rush out as we were still in flight recovery mode.
There are always a few tasks that need to be done when settling into a foreign city and getting to grips with the public transport system is one. Here you first have to buy a card, not at the tube station or on the buses of course but at random little shops that appear to sell everything except transport cards. That is until you finally find the elusive shop, then you realise that they are everywhere. Just ask a local I hear you say.  I reckon about 1 in 2000 speak English, maybe it's the Falklands effect. Buying a local SIM card for your phone is a similar problem. Don't go trying at the shiny local provider's shop, oh no, try that little shop that appears to sell everything except.........  Now you've got to put some credit on it. There are special shops for this. They are called Pharmacies. I think it might have something to do with the computers or maybe the drug users have cornered the market in pay as you go phones. That all took a little longer than anticipated so we texted each other to ride the Subte (underground).

As you can see the Argentinians go to considerable lengths to brighten up their Subte system with styles ranging from Soviet-Realism to Modern -Ethnic. Although the system looks quiet the trains are in-your-face full. We get out at the city centre Zoo. After lunch we decide to look round to see if the animals are coping any better in the heat than us.

Here's the gorilla's answer! All his own work as he took it off, as though doffing his cap, then carefully put it back on again. I always thought that the hat was more natural selection than a fashion item. The distortion in the picture is caused by the reflection of my rather smart checked shirt in the glass that he is behind.

There are two features of the BuenosAires Zoological Gardens.  When they were first opened in 1887 the various animal houses were designed to reflect the part of the world that the animals came from. Look at the elephant house two pictures up. It mimics monumental Indian architecture.  You can see Jumbo sandbathing in front. Also look at the grand condor cage that might have been designed by Gustav Effiel it seems to echo an Andean peak with the nest at the summit. Sadly Connie chose to remain in her shady cave.  Second feature, feeding. The zoo's main source of income apart from ticket sales appears to be the sale of food for the punters to give to the animals. This has resulted in some rather unnatural animal behaviour, rather like a badly trained dog at the dinner table. You can see this with the bear, pygmy hippo and even the fishes.  I found this rather undignifying, moreover there was a lot inappropriate feeding going on. The very rare white tiger was above all this.

We planned to join the open topped tourist bus just near this splendid marble monument but they wouldn't sell us a ticket as it was after 5pm, although the buses run till 8.40pm. So we walked home right down SantaFe Avenue and did a bit of window shopping.