Last Full Day - Winding Downall

Portrait of the Artist in a Foreign Land

I woke up unclear what to do with my day. I had one small mission I had to accomplish, and everything else was up for grabs. So:

Free breakfast. Took my time. 

Decided to saunter on over to my mission - the market stalls near the ferries, where I hooked Frank would be waiting. He was not. Maybe later. On my way back to the hotel to come up with some other plans, who did I see but Richard, waiting with other drivers for the ferries to come in. 

"Hey, let's do something!" he said. 

I had no specific plans, and one of the things left on my bucket list? The zoo. 

"The zoo?" I said.

"The zoo!"

We got in his ride. 

He quoted one fifty American, but I tried to finesse. 

"I heard another guy say he could do it for ninety."

"But that probably didn't include all the fees."

"Do you think you could do a hundred?" I asked.

"If you cover the charge for the zoo."

He took me to the bank, so I could get the cash. 

Richard Lord in the Wild, awaiting payment

On the drive out to the zoo, he repeated some of the facts I'd heard before. I shan't repeat, so I'll catch up on facts I've previously missed: 

• The main road we drove down is two lanes, no lights. Occasional speed bumps, but that's it. 
• There are two stop lights in Belize City. Otherwise, everything's Stop signs and traffic circles. 
• The highway travels along the path of the river, which, because the country is so much lowland, often overflows, which means the highway is surrounded by swamp. 
• With so much swampy land, lots of properties end up abandoned, or never finished. 

Here's one I'm gonna buy:

Or... maybe not.

Sigh... Someday soon.

Very pretty land. I keep getting the feel from The Road Warrior, though. I'll retire out here, some old geezer, and then this old gang of young turks come through, taking whatever they want, until I transform into young Mel Gibson. Maybe it's not that bad, after all. But a lonely life, is what I'm saying, and isolated. The islands seem better. 

It takes maybe forty five minutes to reach the Belize Zoo, which I pay the fifteen bucks entrance for. 

Because of the rep Belize has as eco friendly, and that so many of these animals have been saved from bad situations, I'm surprised that they're mostly in cages. 

A Pelican

Another Pelican - really nearby

A couple of Tapirs, which I had absolutely totally heard of before today

A spider monkey, not in the least bit showing off

Same Spider Monkey from before, same smug attitude

Oh, keep it up, Spider Monkey. At this rate, you may even get your own MCU franchise.

What do you say about a zoo? Animals are cute. They had deer there. So what? They had gibnut there. Apparently, it's only available for the eating come Easter. Why Richard hadn't mentioned that more forcefully the other day is beyond me. Maybe he thought there was a chance? Whatever.
The monkeys aren't really contained; they can go where they want. The gibnut, too. The pumas and jaguars can stay the fuck where they're supposed to, though. A lot of them aren't allowed to comingle, even within species, because some were born in captivity, some born wild. So lots of Offspring have to be (ahem) kept separated.
Wait. I can do that better. Gimme more time.
There were crocodiles, too.

Snore fest...
Good zoo. Best I've been to in ten years, I'll bet.

Yeah... whatevs. 

On the way back into town, I asked Richard to stop by the markets, so I could see Frank. He was there, and he had made something more me. He wrapped it up while I ran to the bank to take out money for him. I'll unveil it later. It's a surprise!