Belize zoo and cave tubing
Rough draft:
The ride to the zoo:
* Learned all about our guide, Mark and his Mayan family (his uncle is a bush doctor in a jungle village, no shit)
* Mark speaks five language: English, Spanish, Ketchi, Mayan and Creole
* Mark's younger brother picked us up from the airport and drove us
* Mark has five sisters who work at the super market across from our condo
* Gas is 9.70BZ ($4.35US) per gallon
The zoo:
* The zoo is extremely quaint.
* Almost no staff
* Almost no visitors ( we were one of two couples in the zoo and the only ones to sign the guest book in two days )
* Cute signs written in Jamaican-eque (Creole-eque?) English in the first-person as the animals. e.g. (paraphrasing the jaguar sign) "Hey mon! Don't shoot at me! I don't eat cows. Look mon! I'm an important part of keeping nature balanced!"
* The exclamation point is the national punctuation mark
* The most fun animals were these white-and-black land otters (not what they're called, but they're related to the otter). The pair ran around their cage the whole time we watched, stopping to do tight circles around nothing in particular. They seemed a bit crazy. Constant motion and lots of circles.
* Our guide, Mark, had a funny story to tell about petting these creatures. He used to scratch them behind the ears and play with them. He showed us a scar on one of his fingers and said, "Now I'm not playing with those guys no more!"
* None of the cages have anything to prevent you for sticking your fingers in there
* The otters were a lot of fun. I think they get fed pretty often by visitors because they came right up to the fence when we arrived.
* The ocelot and one of his smaller cousins were really pretty. Just like house cats...
* The baby jaguar (8 months old) was adorable. He was hunting a dragon fly while we watched him. Extremely cute watching him chase this thing (dragon fly was faster)
Cave tubing:
* We jumped in the river off the mini-cliff! (maybe five feet...)
* Had to hike to get to the start of the adventure (you walk one way and float the other)
* Very neat cave
* Saw fruit bats!
* Heard (but did not see) Howler Monkeys
* It rained
* Stopped in the middle of the cave and got out. Our guide helped us clamber around on the rocks and showed us (up very close) some of the pretty formations. It was awesome. I felt a little bad, though. I don't think it helps the rocks grow when you step on them.
* Went through "rapids"! Slightly faster sections (compared to the almost standing still sections) where you have to lift your butt out of the tube to avoid rocks
* Saw an iguana on the shore
* Chewed on some wild sugar cane that our guide (Mark) found us
* Came out and showered up
