Getting There - Aneel's Travelogue

It's pouring again. The local girl who split the moto-taxi ride back from the bird park joked with the driver about Hurracan Mitch. I have a suspicion that she's not old enough to actually remember it.

Moto-taxis on steep downhill streets paved with cobblestones slick with rain don't exactly inspire confidence, but we arrived ath the Parque Central without incident. I got soaked walking the last few blocks back to my hotel. So now I'm sitting on a chair, looking out on the courtyard in my board shorts. It would pour on the day that I washed my other pair of pants, so now they're both drying.

The rain was well timed, though.

This morning, after breakfast (Tipico. Eggs, beans, banana, cream, cheese, and tortilla. I'm actually starting to like bananas!), I walked tot he Mariposario. I liked it a lot. Many pretty butterflies, and many pretty plants. They had dozens of varieties of orchid, but only one was in bloom.

I walked back to town and stopped for lunch: a really tasty baleada. With good fillings, I can see why this is the typical national dish. I caught a moto-taxi over to the bird park.

The bird park is amazing.

They have a variety of exotic birds, mostly parrots (and macaws) and toucans. They're rescued birds or donated former pets. The birds are gorgeous, and they're kept in well-planted enclosures. Many of them are very used to visitors and will come over to check you out if you stand by one of the clear windows in their enclosures. The grounds are lush with tropical flowers.

There's an area where the tamest of the birds are allowed to interact with visitors. I have now been covered in parrots: a scarlet macaw on one arm, a Buffon's macaw on the other, a blue-and-gold macaw on one shoulder, and a red lored parrot on the other. The shoulder birds were a bit hungry, apparently. One tried to eat my glasses, and the other decided that my shirt looked tasty.

Anyway, it was awesome. It's hard to describe how beautiful these birds are. Hopefully some of my pictures will come out well, but I doubt they'll capture the fine detail of the feathers or the iridescence of their beaks.

I went on the (excellent) guided tour, then went back to look at the birds some more.

[Ooh, thunder!]

After a couple hours of looking at birds, the light was starting to dim (foreshadowing!), so I headed back to town. While I was waiting for a moto-taxi to come, it started raining. At first it was a light drizzle, too insignificant for the dog lying on the path to even get up. It quickly intensified into a real downpour. Two of the guys at the park entrance building were talking about how treacherous the roads are for moto-taxis in the rain...

Link Agua de Coco: Like a pina colada soda. A bit sweet, but good.