Dancing bears

Sunday, September 25, 2011
Bansko, Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria
Saturday - After finally off loading our washing, I decided to spend the afternoon exploring the offerings of Bulgaria's No 3 (!) ski resort - minus the snow of course!

During the ski season, this place must be packed as it's a fairly large town with numerous purpose built hotels and bars etc .

I'm a bit fed up with the grilled meat options on the menu's in Bulgaria but the idea of a BBQ at our hotel that evening really appealed - unfortunately the food was nowhere near the BBQ variety, more like slop and definitely the worst meal I have had on this trip - Hotel Chichen, don't bother as the owner also tried to rip off the other members of the group who had taken a hike up to the Pirin mountains with him.

Today, we took a trip up to the Dancing Bear Sanctuary.

The sanctuary was first set up by Four Paws and the Bridgette Bardot Foundation in order to rescue bears which had been kept by Roma families in order to perform for tourists (which was considered a tradition until the late 1990's).

It is a very sad place to visit as a number of the bears still continually dance (you just want to make them stop going back and forth and it feels like they belong in a mental home!), as it is what has been programmed into them, but fortunately is slowly being programmed out following the work at the park.

Some of the bears have reached the stage where they can get their own food (with help from the park operators) and dig their own den's for hibernation during winter. However they may never fully recover...
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