San Diego (Day 2 - 30/12/13)

(In late 2013-early 2014, my wife and I travelled to America and Mexico. It was a very memorable and educational trip that will always hold a special place in our hearts. I kept a journal at the time so I thought I would finally share our travels. Many of the photographs below were taken my wife, herein referred to as Duck) 

The Great American Hotel Room - complete with a Gideon's.

It probably says a lot about me that, while travelling, the main thing I write about is food. It must be an extension of my innate desire that I am moderately obsessed with trying new foods... that the more exotic a food is, or the more regional and endemic its origin, the more I will be excited about experiencing it. It isn't good enough for me to see another culture, I want to taste it as well. This is my apology for the all the food descriptions and photographs that you are about to endure in this blog over the next couple of weeks. 

Today starts with breakfast at the hotel, something that contrasts with a typical Australian breakfast quite acutely. It's all waffles, no fruit, no bacon, and lots of little sausages. Hardly exotic, I know, but this is the lip of the rabbit hole - one that will lead me to eating insects and worms. In San Diego, things are predominantly quite straight-forward. The lunch that comes late in the day at the zoo is significantly more filling than breakfast; a carne asada burrito with guacamole and fresh salsa (basically just a beef burrito). San Diego is California's southernmost major coastal city, so the Mexican influence is everywhere.

Anyways, the zoo. San Diego Zoo is one of the ten biggest and most well-known zoos in the world, with about 700 different species on display. It's the main reason we came to San Diego, because I love zoos.

At the zoo you can get an 'authentic' Aboriginal lute.

And 'authentic' Aboriginal maracas.

We spend 10 hours at the zoo and it still isn't enough time to see everything. If you ever come to San Diego and want to see every animal in the zoo, I would recommend setting aside two whole days. They have a huge range of species and are responsible for many breeding programs that have helped with the conservation of several vulnerable species (one of which is the extremely rare and recently discovered Mang Mountain Pit Viper, a gorgeous green-and-black bejeweled snake).

Overall, I really enjoy the zoo - the enclosures are quite naturalistic and the animals seem well looked-after. My only regret is not being able to see everything, but I have serious doubts that anyone could see everything properly in just one day. Highlights include: the Giant Pandas, a hive of Naked Mole Rats, the Fossa (Madagascar's apex predator - a huge, dog-sized mongoose), capybaras, a sloth, the Polar Region (a high altitude part of the zoo that includes Polar Bears and Reindeer) and a pair of Babirussa (giant Indonesian pig-like animals with four tusks each). In short; a bunch of obscure mammals that I never thought I would get to see in the flesh. 

Our mascot for the day, Ron the Sloth.

Whilst at the zoo we also spoke to a bunch of random strangers, proving once again that Americans are amongst the most friendly and openly chatty people in the world.

The line-up outside the zoo was looooooong.

A sketch artist in the zoo did this. She also drew a picture of the Duck.

She did this too. Pretty rad, huh?

 

We met a lady while watching the flamingos. She told us she had a yearly pass and that she came to the zoo so often that she would just pick one animal and watch that animal for the whole day. This day she was just watching the flamingos.

We watched this Orang-utan fishing for ants with a piece of reed. A lady next to us loudly proclaimed to anyone who would listen, "I can't be sure but... I think... it's an Orang-utan". There was a sign that said as much.

Sleeping polar bear. Nawwwww!

A badass eagle and me.

   

The Panda Bears are so popular that you have to line-up for an hour to see them. Once you get into the exhibit you get moved along pretty quickly too.

'The Boys'.