What language do you speak here in Uruguay?

We are now in Colonia, Uruguay, after taking a ferry from Buenos Aires this morning. We met a really nice Canadian woman on the way, but she was coughing, so we think she had swine flu even though she claimed it was a cold. We didn't want to get arrested at Uruguayan customs, so we parted ways.

Yesterday we went to the zoo in Buenos Aires. We saw everything, from an enormous yellow and white python to a giraffe to a hippo to a lion sleeping on his back with his feet in the air. He didn't look much like the mythical king of the jungle, more like a dog taking a nap in a sunbeam. The conditions were quite bad for most of the animals, and many of them looked ill or unhappy. The giraffe looked happy and healthy, along with a couple of zebras with shiny coats. The polar bear, who lives outdoors in a hot climate with no ice, looked less than chipper. The most disturbing thing about the zoo was that vendors sold animal food, crouton-like pellets, that were approved by the zookeepers for feeding to the animals. The feeding is unregulated, however, meaning that the most popular animals are way overfed. We saw a chimp vomit, which was sadly a real crowd-pleaser. The zookeepers do not strictly enforce the rules on which animals may or may not be fed, and no one keeps children from banging on the tanks and cages, making for some really agitated snakes and turtles.

We also visited an exhibit on the life of Eva Peron as a concession to Jacob, who loves museums. It was really boring, cost five times as much as Lonely Planet said it would (as always), and we left more confused about who she was and what she did than when we arrived.

Then we cooked a terrible pasta dinner but made up for it by getting two frozen treats each for dessert. They have really cheap popsicles in Argentina.

Anyway, we are off to explore Colonia.