Hacienda Mundaca

While B's sister was here, we took her on a tour of the island. One of our stops was the Hacienda Mundaca. This is a park located in the center of the island and the once upon a time home of the pirate, Mundaca. The island has preserved a vast area which houses the remains of his house, gardens and zoo. In all the years we have visited and now lived here, we had never visited here. We tried once many years ago but ran fleeing for our lives from the hordes of mosquitoes. The place has been cleaned up considerably and made more tourist friendly.

They even have multi language signs everywhere. Which would be very informative if you could just understand them.


The first thing you come to, after paying your 20 peso admission charge, is the zoo. Actually, the zoo is not contained in one area. There are things spread out everywhere. They have peccaries, which, to say the least, stink.



This is the wishing well located at the edge of the garden. It is front of the pond.

Where you can sit at one of the strategically placed benches and contemplate the world. Or not.




This was behind a fence.


So were these. Not sure how many are in this pile.


This is the entrance to the actual garden. Or what is left of it.


It was very well maintained and was of the typical wagon wheel design.



At the end of each spoke is a concrete bench. They actually did a good job of making them look really, really old.



And then there are the monkeys. They are housed in a large cage that looks like a bird cage. Not much for them to do but sit around all day. We felt really sorry for them.


The bathrooms were closed but there was evidence that they do maintain them. Or maybe this tree just has a fruit we are not familiar with.

Termite mounds were everywhere. Around here, they are located in trees.

Our adventure tour over, we returned to the entrance gate. This is what we found.

Look closer. That padlock is on the outside!

No sign of the guard that had been there and checked our tickets when we entered. The ticket booth just inside the gate was closed and locked. We yelled and yelled but nobody came. How stupid. There were 8 of us and I don't know how they possibly could have forgotten that we were there. I guess closing time came and that was that.

We searched along the fence and finally did find a way out.

What a typical ending and attitude down here. Who gives a darn if people are still in the park. My day is over and I am going home. Just glad we found an escape route!