Beers & Bears

So the drizzle has eased a little and I have finally seen blue sky. I am slowly getting used to feeling slightly wet all day, sticky with my own sweat. Perhaps that’s why beer is available on every corner, for no more than a can of coke, and can be drunk anywhere – including the zoo. Surely a world-only.

We made our way along Rio’s infamous dodgy roads and back through the tunnel to ‘RioZoo’ to find the best collection of animals I have ever seen. Well, at least the most unusual. Sat behind some pretty Neanderthal-looking cages were giant ant-eaters, howler monkeys, iguanas, and turtles posing as iguanas, cougars, scarlet ibises, a Bengal tiger, a spectacled bear (please explain?) and even a few emus. All this, and it only cost us about $4. Add in a beer or two, and some bacon-flavoured popcorn, and you still go home with change for a ten.

(Reader’s note: if you don’t want to understand how they afford to keep the zoo running on this measly amount, avoid the aviary of scrawny birds and empty cages)