Friday at the Zoo

If I ask you what is the best day to go to the zoo, you would answer Saturday or Sunday. But I don’t agree with that. The best day is Friday. Why? Because its empty! There are only a few kids, you can walk without being scared of some crazy teen riding those four people bikes, you park near the entrance and there is not line at all.

We grab the camera, bottle of water, cigarettes, sun glasses and we were ready to go. Around 11am we hit the road heading to Miami Zoo. It is about 30 minutes from South Beach.  When we reached there, parking was easy and we went to the entrance really fast. Tickets bought, its time to see the animals.

Elephants, tigers, rhinos, they were all sleeping. It could be the time, or the weather, because it was cloudy and hot, but anyways, we could watch and take pictures of them in deep sleep. We were starting to get sad though, our excitement was going away as the animals started to hide, maybe they were tired of all those people coming and leaving everyday without compliments or food.

But our luck changed as we went to see the gorillas. The smell was bad, imagine a marathon runner without a shower and deodorant for 6 months. But they were there, showing themselves, walking side to side. Then I saw their leader. The biggest and strongest gorilla. He looked wise, peaceful. Hidden under a rock, near a huge glass where people can see them closer while they keep knocking on it and yelling “Gorilla! Gorilla! Here!”. If I was that gorilla, I would roar so loud, but so loud, that those kids hair would be up!

After a lot of pictures, the gorilla’s leader looked at me, his sad look made me feel bad, like I had to do something to release him from that place. He kept looking at me until someone knocked that window and scared him.

I needed to do something. But what could I do? There was a huge gap separating us and there was nothing I could use to make a bridge to save him. Other than that, there were cameras every where. The only thing I did was look down and kept walking on the road. The giraffes were waiting for me. I looked behind and he was gazing at me. The last thing I saw was his chest going up, from a deep breath, and then released, sending an “I understand you” message to me.