Wet & Wild

Today turned out to be a very interesting day. My friend Stephen and I set off this morning for a trip to Feria Verde, where they happened to be celebrating their fifth anniversary. Feria Verde is awesome (I’ve written about it before) but a bit on the speedy side, so it is kind of a treat. Additionally, it is a little too much like the Eugene Saturday Market and often makes me homesick. But, since I will be home soon, I wasn’t worried about feeling homesick.

We walked around the Feria and then grabbed a bite to eat. I found a booth called El Rincon Gitano (The Gypsy Corner) that sold vegan, gluten free treats and got myself a little chocolate cake. The lady told me it was also sugar free (score!). It was super chocolatey but a bit on the dry side. However, the next booth over, Tierra Viva has delicious and creative sodas, today I got Orange Ginger and it was perfect with my chocolate cake.

Afterwards, we headed toward the National Museum, I heard there was a cool photography exhibit, but unfortunately it ended on 10 May. We did a little souvenir shopping nearby and we were feeling a bit unsure about what to do next. We had been talking about going to Refugio Herpetologico, an animal rescue center in Santa Ana, so we decided that today was a good day to visit.

When we hoped off the bus, I commented to Stephen that it was really trying hard to rain. He commented back, “yeah the weather has been weird”. At that moment there were a few raindrops in the air, though very scattered. We paid our entrance and just as we were getting ready to head out into the animal area, it began to rain. Armed with loaner umbrellas we set out to view the animals. The poor things were soaking wet!! But lucky for us, that didn’t seem to bother too many of them. It is still raining, as I am writing this about 5 hours later, though it did stop for about an hour (it is a nice change from the hot humid weather we’ve been having). Back to the animals!

The rescue center is a little expensive ($20), but I hope that the money is being used for good. In this case it seems that it is. It was clear that there are new exhibits underway or perhaps expansion of the enclosures. So I am hoping that they continue to grow and provide good rehabilitation or long-term homes for the animals. Most of these animals have been rescued from local homes were they were kept illegally as pets.

Here are some of the wet and “wild” cuties at the Rescue center.

This green iguana was having some serious climbing problems.

This is Oleg an ocelot, he was found in a school playground after being attacked by a dog. They suspect he was a pet.

This is a squirrel monkey. The species is almost extinct in Costa Rica, so they are working on a breeding program and hope to introduce captive bred off-spring into the wild.

Scarlet Macaw, you know I love you, even if you are soaking wet and fluffy.

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