On the basis that I will return to Santiago at the end of my travels around South America I will refrain from going into too much detail here of my brief visit. Indeed the day or so I spent in Santiago was mainly passed attending to the administrative tasks that build up as one tries to leave responsibility and the real world behind...
However I did make time to indulge in a couple of activities - one of which was to take an almost compulsory photo of little ol' me stood outside Cumming underground station, on the corner of Avenida Frederico Cumming. Apparently one of my forefathers (I have no doubts the lineage is strong) was a pretty big queso in these parts - how proud he would be to see the impact I have had upon London...
The other activity of the day was taking a trip to Santiago city zoo - perhaps the most depressing visit of my travels so far. In a city where certain cars are banned from the roads on certain days should the air be deemed too toxic (isn’t toxic, too toxic?) it seems slightly sadistic to situate a zoo on a hill in the midst of the toxic funk. Further limiting the animals to areas in no way proportionate to their needs only compounded the misery that was tangibly etched on the inhabitants (read inmates) faces. The polar bears were a particularly sad sight, their coats dulled by pollution and their vigour robbed by captivity.
The one lighter moment the zoo did present however was the sight of a little black cat walking nonchantly through a cage of over 20 Condors. The little blighters supreme indifference to the watchful gaze of the numerous killing machines that stalked his (or her) every move was quite something to behold - are Condors superstitious?
Back to Argentina methinks...
No comments:
Post a Comment