An Unbelizable Trip

Belize was amazing! I was not ready for the trip to end; I could definitely have used a few more days on Tobacco Caye and I wish I had more time to spend at the Belize Zoo. Those were actually the two things that made the biggest impact on me during this trip.

I have snorkeled/dove in the Florida Keys, Bahamas, and Cayman Islands, but Belize had the most pristine reefs and amazing biodiversity by far. There were soooooo many different species of fish, not to mention all the different types of coral, Christmas tree worms, sea urchins, and other invertebrates. I was simply in awe of how beautiful it was swimming under the waves in tropical, turquoise water. I was so utterly happy snorkeling every day; it makes me wish I were a mermaid. It also makes me really sad to think about how most of the world's reefs are so damaged and polluted that they won't recover in my lifetime, if ever.


The Belize Zoo was wonderful. I could have spend many more hours there just enjoying the animals and the ambiance. What really stood out to me the most was how differently the Belize Zoo approaches animal encounters than what I am used to in zoos in the United States. It is undeniable that having close encounters with animals has a life changing impact (Curtin, 2009). I feel like in the states, the animal encounters are very controlled, probably mostly determined by legal liabilities. At the zoo I work at, even the keepers are not allowed to enter the exhibit with the tapirs (they use protected contact, so there is always a barrier between them and the animal for safety) and in Belize guests can go in with the tapir. I would never let a guest touch one of the owls that I work with, and when I was at the Florida Wildlife Hospital the permit we had our education animals under required that the public be 5 feet away. In Belize, an entire classroom when up and touched a barn owl's face. And there was a jaguar encounter where a JAGUAR WOULD LICK YOUR FOREHEAD! What?!? I was completely blown away by the animal encounters there.


It seems like the difference is in the states people do not have a healthy respect or fear of wild animals so part of our job as educators is to tell people to keep their distance for their safely as well as the animals. In Belize, people are already terrified of the animals, due to the myths and superstitions pertaining to them, to the point where they kill the animals on sight, so it is necessary to foster a close connection and take away the fear of the animal in order to protect the animals. It was very interesting to see how how the connection between people and wildlife can differ in other parts of the world.

The other most un-belize-able part of my trip was my classmates. There could not have been a better group of people. Miss you all!  - Lindsay

Curtin, S. (2009). Wildlife tourism: the intangible, psychological benefits of human–wildlife encounters. Current Issues in Tourism, 12(5-6), 451-474.

Jungle Adventure

Devin and I wanted to go somewhere fun without having to drive too far so we decided to go to Jungle Adventures. They have lots of different animals, wildlife shows, and a boat ride. Most of the animals were native but there were others that were there because they had been confiscated because of abuse or neglect. We saw African Spurred Tortoises, Florida Panthers, Red Foxes, and lots of American Alligators. Safari Todd did our educational animal show, alligator feeding, and boat ride and he was amazing. He knew tons about all of he animals, has a great sense of humor, and he's worked on a lot of news educational shows like Bill Nye and Discovery Channel. During the hands on animals show we got to hold a juvenile alligator, snake, and tarantula. That was the first time I have ever held a tarantula.

Lion Country Safari

Devin and I had been planning on going to Busch Gardens or Disney today, but yesterday I got three fire ant stings on my ankle, and walking around all day is definitely not an option since my ankle is swollen, painful, and itchy. We decided to head to Lion Country Safari instead because you drive through the park instead of walk. I have never been there and Devin hasn't been there in years. They gave us a CD to play while we drove through the park that narrated what kind of animals were in each habitat and told us a little bit about the animals. I really enjoyed it; we got to get really close to some zebra, rhinos, and a couple of wildebeest had a chase right past our car. We drove through the park twice and on the second pass the chimpanzees were out and were running around, chasing each other, climbing up and down their forts, and making all kinds of vocalizations. Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera (seems like I'm doing that a lot lately) so the only pictures I captured were with my iPhone. I really wish I had had my good camera on me. After driving though the park twice we walked around Safari World Amusement Park (part of Lion Country Safari admission). I couldn't do much walking but we did get to see some birds, alligators, flamingos, monkeys, and giraffes.  We watched the alligators get fed quartered pieces of chicken. We also got free tickets for animal food because we donated our old cell phones so Devin and I each fed the giraffes. We stayed for part of the talk on giraffes where I learned that part of their tongue is purple and the pigment helps protect it from the sun because they can spend up to 20 hours a day with their tongues out grazing on leaves. We also got to watch one of the trainers working with one of the giraffes, giving them hand signals to touch a frisbee on the fence, pick their nose with their tongue, bend down, and some other commands. After the park Devin took me to a Thai restaurant that he had been to before. It had very eclectic decor and the food was amazing. I had a very yummy pad thai.  Then we headed back on the 2 hour drive to get back home.

Just keep swimming

My parents came to visit me for the "weekend" and took me to Key Largo. Their flight arrived Tuesday night and we started driving down Wednesday morning after a delicious breakfast of biscuits and gravy (vegetarian style) that Devin made us. Amazingly enough, I managed to stay awake and not get car sick the entire drive down (I did take some Dramamine). We got settled into our hotel room at the Holiday Inn and then we wandered around the harbor and looked at the African Queen (boat featured in the movie The African Queen with Humprey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn). We also booked a sunset snorkel trip on a sailboat for after dinner, visited the dive shop next to the hotel, and had dinner at Coconuts. They had a very yummy key lime pie that reminded me a little bit of Devin's tequila key lime cheesecake that he made for my birthday. After dinner we left for our snorkel trip. On they boat they went through all the safety instructions (don't get lost or drown) and we had to wear safety vests on the snorkel trip which was kind of a bummer but luckily they weren't too buoyant. I saw two Southern stingrays, queen angelfish. gray angelfish, stoplight parrotfish and lots of other reef fish. There was also beautiful fan coral, brain coral, and tons of other corals. I love being in the ocean. There is just so much diversity and it is so beautiful how it all interacts with each other.

It's a nice day for a blue wedding

Liz and Justin got married today! Yay! It was a beautiful wedding at the Yellow Dog Cafe. Devin and I were standing on the stairs by the deck for the ceremony. Liz looked absolutely stunning as she walked down the aisle in her blue wedding dress. It almost makes me wish I had a colorful wedding dress. We were standing pretty close so we could hear everything Julie said for the ceremony. I really liked at the end where she yelled the part about pronouncing them husband and wife. Devin and I sat at the Lion Fish table (Liz and Justin met on Plenty of Fish so they had fish themed tables, so cute) with Natasha and Julie. The table centerpieces were also really pretty, she had empty wine bottles with blue flowers wrapped in blue ribbon. They had probably the best wedding food I have ever had. I had a delicious portabella mushroom and Devin had onion encrusted chicken. I stole some of his onions and mashed potatoes. At the end of the night we blew bubbles at Liz and Justin as they exited the restaurant.

Sweet home, Chicago

Devin and I flew into Chicago today because Tuba’s wedding is this weekend.  My parents picked us up from the O’Hare Airport and we headed straight to the Brookfield Zoo. I tell Devin about the zoo all the time since I visited it all the time as a kid and I wanted him to finally visit. We met my cousin Jeremy at the zoo because he is staying in the Chicagoland area. The first thing we did was get something to eat because I was starving and my veggie burger was delicious. Then we headed over to the Coastal exhibit. It’s not as awesome as I remember because my favorite tanks, the jellyfish and sharks, not have some less exciting fish instead. We were off to the new Bear Wilderness Walk after that. I really enjoyed all of the poetry incorporated into the exhibit but I wish there was a little less fake rock and more trees and wilderness to walk through. We also went to the Swamp, Fragile Forest, Australia (had to see the bats), Dolphin Show, Pinnaped Viewing, and past the big cats. One of my favorites was Tropic World because I love seeing the monkeys and apes in an open enclosure where they have room to move around and play. There was a baby monkey that was about 7 months old as well as a baby orangutan. They were both adorable. I also made all of my family cram into one of those tiny photo booths which was lots of fun.

Alligators are awesome

I was doing a baby shower for the Florida Wildlife Hospital and Sue told one of the ecologists at the facility that I was sad I didn't get to see any alligators on the drive in (I did the year before). The woman said that they had a research team out at the moment tagging alligators and asked if I would like to join them (YES!!!). So I got to go out with the research team who used a fishing pole to hook an alligator near the edge of a pond and pull it in close enough that they could get a noose around it's mouth. When they got it on land it rolled a bunch of times trying to get away. The team was worried that the alligator might have been fed by employees near the pond because he seemed abnormally aggressive. He was biting at the hook that they were trying to catch him with and while he was on land he was feisty. I got to help hold the rope tight while they duct taped its mouth shut. After they took a blood sample and measurements they let me sit on it and restrain it while they took the scute sample. So much fun! The alligator was 9 feet 2 inches long. Unfortunately, my camera picked that time to slightly malfunction so my pictures have black in the corners from the shutter not fully opening and I can't post the photos because I'm not officially part of the research team. There were a number of people watching us tag and measure the alligator and one woman remarked how everyone was talking about me and how it was funny to see such a small woman on such a big alligator. The woman happened to be a friend of Dea's and she posted a picture of me on the alligator but it's from far away. It was funny that before I even got back from the trip there were already pictures posted of it.