Live - Costa Rica - Zoo Ave

I was looking for something to do with myself this weekend, and after a little bit of research I found this zoo about an hour outside of San Jose. It is different from a typical zoo for two reasons: 1. some of the animals aren't in cages and you can get really close to them without too much trouble and 2. it is a rescue centre too. They take in injured and orphaned animals and nurse them back to health. I even saw a large bird being brought in! In some cases they have the facilities to teach them how to live in the wild again and then set them free, but sometimes the animals can't be reintroduced, so they stay at the zoo. There were two pumas whose mother was killed by a farmer because she killed his cow and then he tried to sell the cubs. However, that is illegal so the cubs were taken in by the zoo. Unfortunately, since there was no one to teach them how to hunt and live in the wild they couldn't be released. The zoo also pointed out that because of deforestation this type of thing is happening more often because regular food sources are being taken away and the animals are having to look elsewhere.

"Costa Rica has over 850 species of birds; more than the US and Canada combined" That is a lot of birds in a very small space.

Now that is a rainbow!



These macaws weren't in a cage, and they looked very content just watching from their perch.

This guy was just casually crawling around on the path. That would never happen at a zoo at home, but it was great!

The peacocks were also just roaming around. This guy just happened to spread his feathers as I was taking the photo.

 

A baby emu. This little kid had his hand out and his mom was saying to be careful and the kid said "it won't bite me". As I was walking away I heard someone start crying. Wouldn't you know, it was the untouchable kid holding out his finger. Apparently he hasn't learned that mother knows best!

Jumbo bamboo!!! Look how small the people are.

Very friendly ostriches. And yes, avestruz is ostrich in Spanish.

This week is holy week and a lot of things here are closed for the entire week! I have my project from Monday-Wednesday, Thursday I am going to a butterfly farm, and then the rest of the weekend will be celebrating. I went to a procession today for Palm Sunday, which was nice, but it wasn't as solemn as I thought it would be. It was incredibly hot and sunny here this week. I have been told that holy week is even hotter and that people typically flock to the beach. Good thing I have lots of sunscreen!