Natural Inspection, La Lajita Zoo

Strange to think that evolution's long-necked span, all the natural but painstaking genetic engineering that went into that giraffe's vertebrae to enable it to munch the highest foliage on the trees should bring it this: an elevated platform containing short (virtually neckless) creatures who offer it straw.

It's an amazing zoo really, the various enclosures hedged in and strung together by pleasantly cool, bowery walkways; so many shadowing leaves and palms that I had no idea of the size, and it's HUGE. The wean was delighted by the loudly kitsch, slapstick, flipperdegibbet sealion show, but his seventh heaven was the playground: big slides and a dragon's hoard of sand.

Later we traveled further south, till the road abruptly turned into a dirt track. We parked to look at the amazing sunset, turning from
CLOUDED GOLD to steely blue and TANGERINE .