Bamako Zoo

We finally went to the zoo!  I knew there was a zoo here, but this was the first time in over 4 years of me living in Mali that I went there.  It used to be not so great I guess, sort of what you might expect in a 3rd world country, a depressing place that felt like animal prison.  I don't know how bad it was before, but it has been recently renovated and it is pretty fantastic now!  Much nicer than I had expected.

There are actually 2 entries, one is from the national park next door, but from the other entry where we went in, this pond with lily pads was the first sight we saw.  Ahh!  Such a lovely departure from the noise, pollution, and dry dustiness we just came from out on the street.

 







It is not a HUGE zoo, but there are a good variety of animals there.  It is all animals that are native to this part of Africa I think.  Most of them are pretty rare to find in nature now, but I imagine that a long time ago they were everywhere to be seen.  This big crocodile was just laying there getting some sun.  I know its sometimes possible see crocs in the river, but I never have (hippos, too!)

This little elephant is named Kante, and he was our favorite animal to see.  It was the first time JP ever saw a live elephant, so he was excited about that.

 

 

 

We spent almost 3 hours walking all around the zoo.  The ticket price to get in is the same for everyone - 500 francs.  ($1)  I appreciated that, not only because its such a good price so anyone might be able to afford a visit to the zoo, but because at some places they charge different amounts for Malians and non-Malians.  I would have been fine paying a higher price to get in if everyone had to pay a higher price, but I don't like it when they say "hey, you're foreign, you pay triple! ha, ha!"

They do an amazing job with the landscaping and gardening, it was beautiful everywhere.  Elsewhere in Mali things are mostly brown and dusty now as it is the dry season.  I'd say its worth it to visit the zoo if only to walk around and see nice plants!  The animals were cool too, although next time I want to go early when they open or later before they close because between 10:30-1:30 when we were there, many animals were just sleeping in the shade.  Above is a monkey house.

Here is me in the aquarium building.  Everyone pays 500 francs to get in the zoo, and once you're in you can choose to pay for a couple extras if you want.  We paid 100 francs each (.20 cents) to get in to the aquarium building and again 100 francs each to get in to the snake building.  It is also possible to pay the same to go in the bird enclosure, but you can see all the birds from outside of it because its just netting.  We didn't feel the need to be any closer to the pelicans and other guys in there.

There is a place in the middle where there are tables and chairs with a fast food snack restaurant.  We saw that the prices were good, so we decided to have lunch there to finish off our day out before going home.  Our time at the zoo was fun, and I was pretty impressed with the total price when I added it up. 

taxi rides to and from:  $8

food for 2 at snack restaurant: $15

tickets to zoo (with extras for fish and snake exhibits): $3

souvenir zoo keychains:  $3

TOTAL:  $29

There are a few more fun outings I hope to do while we still live in the city this next year.  I'll post some pictures of those too when they happen.  I'm not sure when that'll be though, JP is usually at school so much.  It was great for him to have a week and a half off and us not be traveling for this holiday season.