Exploring Wildlife

The moment most of us have been waiting for, experiencing Amazonian wildlife, finally arrived today.  We visited the Museo Emíio Goeldi & Parque Zoobotáico, a zoological park.  Our guide for the day was Messias Costa.  He was brilliant.  He seemed to really enjoy sharing all of his information with us and answering our questions.  He also encouraged us to correct his english, while he corrected our attempts at portuguese.  He had such a vast knowledge of the animals, plants, their relationships, and the Amazonian ecosystem.  

There were no questions asked which he could not answer.  He was truly an awesome guy.  As with most of the Brazilians I have met during this trip he was extremely friendly and generous.  He offered us water, and even let us fill up our huge water bottles!  We had such an enjoyable time with him during the morning, we invited him to eat lunch with us as well.  During lunch we had a discussion about the election between Obama

 and McCain and the current economic state.  He was pro-Obama.  He also brought up the fact that many people are speculating about Oprah becoming a potential presidential candidate.  Everyone at the table agreed that was ridiculous and she certainly does not have

 experience running a country.  Afterwards, we savored cones of sorvechi.  

The wildlife at the park was truly breathtaking.  We saw three jaguars.  Two of them had the regular orange and black coat and the other had a black coat.  One of the jaguars was mistreated by his owner.  Now, when he is stressed by the presence of humans, he ma

sturbates.  It was really disturbing and it was weird watching that.  

 

Messias was looking really hard for a sloth.  We stopped at the parrot cage for a few minutes.  While I was gazing upon my surroundings, I spotted a sloth!  At first I thought it was a coconut, but then I realized it had legs wrapped around the trunk of the tree.