Day 22- Last day on the mainland: Trip to Belize Zoo

Today, for the very last time, we woke up at Rosa's Hotel, ate breakfast, and were on a van by 7a.m. I wasn't that sad to leave Rosa's. Our room was constantly buzzing with mosquitos, like an igloo when the air-conditioner was on, a sauna when it was off, and the lumpy pillow and single sheet on the bed didn't help much.

We drove an hour and a half toward Belize City to the Belize Zoo. Unfortunately, they only allowed us two hours in the zoo, which in my opinion was not enough, but I did manage to see most of everything. The zoo was unlike any zoo that I've ever been to in the U.S. There were hardly any barriers to the enclosures. Only fences stood between us and the animals instead of big thick bars or glass like back home. All of the animals in the zoo were native to Belize. We saw lots of beautiful flowers, colorful birds, monkeys, various rodents, reptiles, and lots of cats!

Right when we walked in, a guy was there
with a boa constrictor that we could pose with.

Owl

Ocelot

Scarlet Macaw

Junior the Jaguar (born at the zoo)

Tapir (National Animal)

Japanese Lantern

Crocodile

Keel-billed Toucan (National Bird) 

Otter

Howler Monkey

Puma

I was able to take this great picture of the puma because one of the zoo workers let me into the enclosure next door to the pumas! The enclosure was empty, but once again I feel like that is something that would never happen back home.

Another cool thing that we got to do at the zoo was for $5 you could "high-five" two of the big cats. You know I had to do it! First, a zoo keeper led us into a restricted area in between the black panther enclosure and some other enclosure. We went into this little room, for a lack of better words, where the panther would come up and the keeper would feed it jerky. He would make the panther stand up on his hind legs so we could pose with him. 

 This is Lucky Boy. He is a rescue. He was super skinny and sickly when they brought him in. Now, he doesn't have any teeth because he broke them all by gnawing on his enclosure when they brought him to the zoo.

He jumped at me once!

Then we went to another jaguar cage where we got the jaguar to do tricks! We would say, "roll over" and draw a circle in the air with our finger and the jaguar would roll over. He also knew how to high five.

I loved the Belize Zoo! Everyone who comes to Belize should go! When we left, we drove another hour and a half to Belize City, got on a water taxi, and finally made it back to San Pedro. Man, it is good to be home! I've missed the island life and everyone here in San Pedro. Kind of nervous about this week though, it's our first big week back in the schools!