April 11 - “Slothing it”

We were the last to get on the bus. That put us in the uncomfortable situation of sitting in the same row as a guy who had to sit taking up a seat as well as the entire center aisle. Nice folks. Just an uncomfortable ride. 

Fortunately our next stop was fairly close by. Arch’s Iguana Preserve. Other than the hundreds of iguanas of all sizes running all around, the first animal we saw was an Agouti. High class name for a Central American rodent. The other part of our stroll involved watching the tarpons swim around in their protected little bay. We saw bigger ones in Florida, so I was ready to move on. 

And the next stop was the Interactive Animal Sanctuary. That one started with the big opportunity to hold … Guinea pigs. Yep. Whole big cage full of about a hundred of them. Males. Pregnant mamas. Tiny babies. Take your pick. But none of them were as massive as the two that live across the street from us under the protection and tutelage of Brennan. 

But finally we walked over to the area I came in this cruise to be in. Sloths. After a brief instruction on how to hold one, the guide asked who wanted to hold one first?  No question there. “That’d be me!” I quickly announced. And within seconds I had a full-on, real-live sloth cuddling up to me. Yep. Me n Ol’ Bullet just chillin.’  That’s what I came for. I’m ready to go home now. 

But in the cage next to the sloth area were two parrots. And one of them grabbed my hat. Pulled it right off my head. And if that wasn’t enough, when I liberated my hat, he decided to munch on my shirt. Yep. We became quite close buds. 

Then we moved next door to a different cage where we were allowed to hold a full-grown Macaw. Well, at least to allow him to hold us. Pretty big bird. 

The final cage was the tricky one. 

Capuchin monkeys. Those critters were full blown hyper. They leapt from shoulder to shoulder and quite often even landed right on top of people’s heads. 

At dinner I had tiger shrimp. Chris had jerk chicken. But the highlight of the meal came when the staff lead everybody else in a massive random dance, followed by the good ol’ macaroni - er - I mean Macarena. Woohoo. Later, we even found a little jazz music playing when we left the dining room. Musical evening. 

Titus‬ ‭2‬:‭11‬-‭12‬ says, For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age. 

Father, thanks for you for that sloth encounter. Kind of made the whole trip worthwhile. Amen.