Day 4: Animals, Animals, and more Animals

October 6-10, 2014 Spring Break

Day 4:  Piranha fishing,  Animal Rescue Reserve, Pink Dolphin watching, and Monkey Island

First thing after breakfast, we headed out to go piranha fishing.  The poles were just sticks with a line and meat attached to a hook.  Our guide told us to slap the water up and down with the pole to "call" the fish and then lower the bait into the water.  It wasn't long before the fish started nibbling!  Everyone caught their fair share of piranha and Graham even caught a sardine.

 The animal rescue reserve was probably the biggest hit among the children.  Here they got to see many different species of animals.  From parrots, macaws, and toucans to a sloth to an anaconda and of course monkeys everywhere!

These monkeys were very smart!  Most of them knew how to open pockets and zippers.

 The sloth was my favorite!  Everyone got a chance to hold him.  We were lucky enough to also see him crawl from one tree to another.  

 Everyone agreed that the anaconda was extremely heavy!

 The pink dolphins were amazing!  It is mating season so we were able to see many dolphins.  Some even a bit rambunctious.  Unfortunately the pictures did not not come out great but you can still see a bit of pink breaking through the water.  Click on the picture to enlarge it and you can get a better view.

 Monkey Island was filled with many different breeds of monkeys.  There was even a "toddler" monkey that definitely was being naughty.  He decided to latch onto Layne's hair and we had a hard time getting him to let go.  I only wish I had a picture of that but I was too busy prying little monkey fingers out of her hair.

The monkeys were a little big for the girls to hold.  Luckily Bryce was not too interested in holding any after the hair pulling incident with Layne.

Spider monkey leading Graham off to play.

 The piranhas that we caught were also grilled up and served for lunch.  It was quite the sight!  Everyone tasted it and agreed it wasn't bad but it sure was a lot of work to get the meat off the bones.  It was definitely a bony fish.

 The evening was spent relaxing poolside once again.  However, Cynthia the tapir and the resident macaws made appearance at the pool as well.  Mischief definitely ensued.

Cynthia the tapir decided to snack on a pair of our goggles.  Luckily it was just the strap!

The macaws decided to join the party as well in hopes of a few kernels of the popcorn we were munching on.