Saturday was quite possibly one of the coolest days ever and so I feel that in order to attempt to describe to you my experience, a whole bunch of pictures would be the best choice : ) 8 of us took a bus 2 hours to "Zoo Lujan", going into the experience we knew that the zoo was unique, and that we may even get to touch some animals, boy were we in for a treat : )

The girls of the group at the bus station! Planned on leaving at 8, closer to 9:20 but what's the difference anyway?! : )

Ya, that's a lion. This was immediately after we paid to get into the park : ) This lion was about 8 month old, there were 3 others in the cage along with all the dogs that they train the lions with. At this point I think all of us would have been satisfied with the experience...

Less than 15 minutes later, just chillin' with another lion : ) This picture makes me laugh because it looks like he is checking me out like a tasty little snack : ) I personally like the other lion just hanging out in the background, no big deal..

Katie caught this shot of me after a little "love tap" from the lion behind me, he got a little frisky! hahahah

Only in Argentina... Who wouldn't let their toddler pet the kitty??

It's Mufasa! The king of the jungle! (Don't worry, he was breathing. I asked the trainers and they said he "rests" all day : )

After lions, we thought we would take it to the next level....

WITH TURTLES!!! That is true terror you can see in my eyes... LEGITIMATE 

SIMBA!!! Unfortunately he is just past the age where they let you hold the baby lions, I totally had visions of Lion King playing in my head... I would be Rafiki, holding baby Simba in the air on the edge of pride rock... Dreams shattered, o well.

Llamas need lovin' too! I think we had a connection, you can see it in his eyes... : )

All that hanging out with wild beasties really worked up my appetite!

Completely fitting that there would be a pig sliced down the middle... I found it even funnier when less than 2 hours later we visited the pig exhibit of the zoo, they appeared quite similar to this little guy : )

We took a mini-guided tour through this part of the zoo. I like to call this the hodge-podge pen. A little bit of everything. Some sheep, deer, emus.. I mean whatever : )

Our tour guide explaining the antler shedding process of deer, I actually understood that! : )

 

You may be thinking, "What's that in her mouth, that's not really a bear, are those strings separating them???" WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOING TO HAPPEN NEXT?!?

Yep, you're right. The brown bear is eating the sweet from my mouth! Good guess!

AND licking my face! YUMMM! I know, I know, we have all seen the news video of bears attacking their trainers, and don't get me wrong, the thought crossed my mind, "this may be a bad idea". But, of course, I did it anyway! And now I have a sweet picture and story of my kiss with a brown bear in Argentina : )

Doane Tigers : )

Big or small, we fed them all!

No, we didn't travel to Egypt, we just took a little stroll amongst the pyramids of Zoo Lujan on our private camel!

Group picture! 4 countries represented here! Colombia, France, Switzerland and USA. How cool : )

Well there you go! Thanks for joining me on my photo tour of the zoo, Argentina style : ) I feel like the pictures still don't do it justice... It's hard to truly capture the ghetto/amazing/sketchy/awesome/ slightly dangerous/incredible, once in a lifetime sort of experience it was : )