THE PRESIDENT’S ZOO

Souley is the best guy. Apart from taking me to the dance festival he also took us to ZINIARE, the President’s zoo. Maybe I should have had enough of animals already after the crocodile experience in Bazole. But I hadn’t. I’d been told about this park with wild animals and thought a 1 day safari could never be wrong.
After a 40 minute busride we jumped off in the middle of nowhere. Luckily Souley knew where we were going and then a small sign appeared saying ZINIARE, no more no less.
It turned out we weren’t going on any safari, but it was another park, this time with caged animals. They were beautiful, but it was a little heart breaking to see majestic lions and grunting tigers locked up behind high fences. The baboons were cleaning each other’s butts and the hippopotamus was sleeping. It was HUGE! I realized I have actually never seen one in real life before but only in nature documentaries. Reality is a lot better! The hyena was the ugliest of them all with its dirty jagged fur but after seeing his cute little nose and his content cuddly smile when we patted him through the fence, both me and Almina agreed he was the cutest animal of them all.