One of the most interesting and remarkable memories from my trip to the Greek island of Zakynthos was left by the Askos Stone Park. This place is called Stone Park due to the numerous structures made of stone and wood, some of which are hundreds of years old. Nowadays, Askos is a mini-zoo.
Askos Stone Park located in the northern part of the island, to the west of the village of Varvara — see this place on Google Maps or Pinmapple. The park was opened in 2002, and since then it has been one of the most popular places to visit among tourists, especially those traveling with children. Animals here live in an environment as close to natural conditions as possible. Only a few of them are in cages or placed in specially equipped pens.
My wife is a big fan of all kinds of beasts, and we always visit zoos when traveling. That's why I have a lot of pictures of animals on my blog. ;)
At the entrance, everyone is given a map of the park's facilities (in the language you want). Walking through the park, you will meet deer and peacocks on your way, and children will be able to feed the animals — for such cases, the zoo staff gives out special food.
The time of stay in the Askos Stone Park is unlimited; the cost of an adult ticket is 9 euros if I remember correctly. I recommend visiting the park in the morning, especially during the summer season. At this time, it is not very hot, and the animals are hungry. :)
We walked around the park, saw various domestic birds and animals, met a lonely pony, fed a deer, and finally reached the main attraction. As you may have guessed, I'm talking about raccoons. More precisely, about feeding raccoons.
As soon as it comes to feeding raccoons, all the other entertainment in the park ceases to matter. After meeting with raccoons, all other events can be restored in memory only from your photos. So don't forget to bring your camera!
I rarely shoot videos on my travels, but I made an exception that day. Since I can't upload more than 10Mb video files to the blog, I made some small gifs to demonstrate the process of feeding raccoons. My mediocre photos do not convey the emotions that these cute furry animals evoke.
I read somewhere that a raccoon is an animal that will remain a child for the rest of its life... Confirmed.
Raccoons are known to be omnivorous. We fed them nuts and dried fruit. Sometimes raccoons ran to the water tank where they rinsed their paws. At some point, a fight may start among the raccoons.
Of course, it's not a fight. After a couple of seconds, everything is okay — the raccoons are ready to eat. Again. ;)
Raccoons get so used to feeding that they take anything you hand them. When we ran out of food, we teased them a little with our fingers.
The raccoon was holding on to my finger and didn't understand what was happening.
I looked into his eyes and felt awkward. Without a doubt, raccoons are amazing animals.
In short, all the impressions of the Askos Park were provided by raccoons — cute, nimble, and very funny animals. You can look at them endlessly.
That's about it. I hope you enjoyed my little story about the raccoons of the Askos Stone Park. You can read more about the park here. If you are ever going to Zakynthos, be sure to visit Askos. Positive emotions and impressions are guaranteed.
Thank you for visiting my blog!
Askos Stone Park, Zakynthos, Greece.
September, 2015.
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