Zoo visit

At the entrance gate of the zoo.

Welcome! We appreciated the spot gardens here and there.  Bamboo is plentiful and is used for everything.

There are few organized parks, so this was a real treat for us.

Bird and beast sharing space, and probably grazing their own particular delights.

  So why are you out and I'm always in?  There are plenty of monkeys in this zoo.

Bill bent down to take a picture and this little robber snatched his pen out of his shirt pocket.  Tasty!  His arm seemed to be as long as his tail.

Ho, hum, and what else is new out there?

A pretty spot to take advantage of.

This flower is reaching out to us and saying, "Take a picture."  Bill loves flower shots.

This is one of the strangest looking birds in the world.  It is a Shoe Billed stork.  Sorry you can't see him well.  His looks make him kind of shy!  (Google "shoe billed stork" for a National Geographic video.)

This one is far from shy.  Ears and eyelashes on the ostrich!

Someone tried to sell us one of these grey parrots with a bright red tail at our gate in Mbuji Mayi, cage and all, for $45.  He even spoke French.

The water lily makes a good show anywhere.

Okay, and so here is the famous crocodile.  Can you see him?

This zoo had the most active tigers we have ever seen.  Tigers are not native to Africa.  They gave us a good show racing through their compound.

The tigers are amazingly good swimmers.  We had no idea.  This one got us wet when he tried to jump up through the bars at us.

Here is a lioness watching us from her nice private place in the shadows.    The animals seem to be happy here.

  

We liked the landscaping.  We had hoped to see an elephant and a giraffe or even to see the bulky frame of a hippo rise out of these waters, but we have to be content with what we got.  It was nice.

On our way out.  We have to protect ourselves from the sun with our umbrellas.   The doxycyclene pills  we have to take in mosquito/malaria country makes us prone to bad sunburn.  Also it was pretty hot.

Couldn't resist taking a picture of this cute little girl with her mom.  

Gorgeous skies, always.  This is the famous picture of slag mountain, a kind of landmark in Lubumbashi.  we are on our way home.

We have taken a corner.  This is one of the few houses with more than one story.    Across the street are some of the protected government grounds, with the home of the President.