Lions and Tigers, oh my!
Today we went to the Belize Zoo. Awesome experience. Tell me a place where you can come face to face with a Jaguar or a Puma and have it roar in your face? Belize Zoo. Not only did we get to see the communication between two howler monkey families separated by land we also got to meet pretty amazing animals. The Belize zoo is located on the Western Highway and was started by Sharon Matola from Baltimore who took care of the animals that had been accustomed to living under the care of humans after the filming the movie “Path of the Raingods”. Suzie and I boarded the bus at the Bus station in Belmopan and boarded a bus headed to Belize City. The bus ticket was approximately 2Bz and took about 25 minutes mostly due to the stopping and going. As we neared the zoo it began to rain and i became disheartened because it was so sunny in Belmopan there were no clouds. We were worried that we would now not get to really appreciate all the zoo had to offer because of the grey skies above but all we experienced were light showers.
As we disembarked the rain stopped and we began the walk into the Belize zoo, but the sun was not shining and grey skies covered the sky. The price to get into the zoo is $14U.S. The zoo is on 29 acres and is home to animals endemic to Belize and many of the animals are rescue animals. We got to see the Tapir, a mother and child (similar to a rhino), gibnuts, scarlet macaws, puma, jaguars with an “S”, white tailed deer, howler moneys and their crazy calls, and a python.
Because of the grey skies we were able to walk around the zoo and spend a lot of time in front of different animals’ enclosures without the noise from overcrowded spaces. Most of the sounds we heard were from the animals and birds chirping. As we headed back to the entrance one of the zoo keepers had removed the boa constrictor and allowed us to carry it and take pictures and ask questions. Awesome experience! After walking around more we were able to come face to face with the jaguars and watch them during feeding. Having a jaguar roar in your face is one of the most exhilarating/frightening things I have ever experienced.
After spending over 2 hours enjoying the zoo we headed back to Belmopan, however on our way back the front right tire on our school bus popped and the bus driver and conductor decided to change the tire while it was full of passengers. I decided to get of the bus and witness the whole thing which took about 45 minutes of sweaty, muscle wrenching work. In the end after multiple curses were said, the bus driver and conductor changed the tire and I aided in providing wet wipes to remove the grime off their hands (they were grateful, go tourists!) We arrived back in Belmopan at 6:30pm and walked home thoroughly satisfied at experiencing the animals and the tire change 
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