The Pretoria Zoo: December 24

Hoping to cheer ourselves up, we spent the day at the Pretoria Zoo. Arriving around 10 am to a deserted, desolate zoo where the animals appeared to be projecting the pain and sadness we were feeling, we almost called it a day after the first few concrete exhibits. Stubbornness and frugality thankfully overruled and we soon found ourselves in a newer section of the zoo, complete with natural enclosures and barriers. Pretty soon we were laughing at the elephants, searching for the lions, shaking our heads at the rude behavior of other visitors, snapping lots of pictures and staring in amazement at the American crocodile. Even after Kelli tried to convince Joe that the crocodile was fake (it literally didn’t move for the 30 minutes that Joe insisted that we watch it, proof in the coins that had collected on it’s back) he amused himself by taking hundreds of photos and telling anyone who would listen that this was possibly the only zoo in the world that had a crocodile. Satisfied that we had walked every inch of the zoo and taken a picture of every animal, we caught a taxi back to the backpackers where we cooked some pasta and fell asleep to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.