A Day At Parrot Jungle Jungle Island

When we were soaking in the warmth of the Miami sun, we were pretty much at the pool and beach all day every day, but I knew that there needed to be one day set aside to do some other extracurricular activity.

We could have gone on any number of excursions. We could have gone to "Monkey Jungle" - I like monkeys. Or we could have toured the Miami Zoo. There was an "Animal Safari" close by. We could have also visited the "Miami Seaquarium" and paid an astronomical amount of money to swim with the dolphins. Except Hun and I already swam with dolphins in Eilat, Israel in the coral reef before we had kids. And the price for that was so moderate, we actually paid extra to have the whole experience filmed underwater as we swam all scuba geared up. Only no one will EVER see that footage, because Orah in a wet suit is ALL SORTS OF WRONG!!!

But I am done digressing. I knew right away that the one place we would go is "Parrot Jungle". Because, although I have been to Miami, probably 6 or 7 times in my childhood, for some reason, out of seven kids in my family, I am the only one who has never been to "Parrot Jungle". I think I was the kid who always got lost in the shuffle.

For those of you who are unfamiliar, "Parrot Jungle" is a zoo like park that has many different species of parrots and other birds, and the majority of these birds are just sitting on perches along the pathways. I mean, anyone can pretty much grab one. But no one does. They also have shows and opportunity to get up close and personal with the birds, including feeding them.


However, it has come to my attention, that this "birdie" zoo has actually changed it's name to "Jungle Island". This may have to do with all the other animals they currently display and "show".

Such as...


This rare breed of tiger.

We saw him at a show along with some other ferocious beasts and we were only separated by a four foot fence. Hmmmmm? And even more "hmmmmmmm", was the fact that the first five rows of the outdoor seating area had written, in very bright red paint, the words
"NO CHILDREN MAY SIT HERE"

I think they gave him Benadryl, though - so all was okay.

We also saw...


...him!!!
They call him "Croccosaurus" - I wonder why? I do not even think this picture can capture how enormous this thing was.

We saw Crocossaurus, just after we had a private Q&A session with some "Parrot Jungle "Jungle Island" representatives over this little dude.


I would have liked to capture on film, the moment this thing whipped its tail and became free from any responsible care taker, but I was too busy running for my life. But subsequently, I learned that when an Alligator is acting up, if you just flip it over, it falls right asleep - like a hypnotic state of sleep. I kinda wish I could just flip onto my back and be out for the count.

We also went to the "classic" bird show, where amongst other tricks, birds can do this...

Yep, that is a Cockatoo riding a bike.

And we ended up at the lorikeet cage at just the right time to get in a cage with a slew of pooping birds and feed them or don't feed them - doesn't matter, they WILL land on you anyway. This of course led to the poop on Hun that was posted yesterday.


We would have stayed in the Lorikeet cage longer, only Ro and Ate were not having Hitchcock's latest debut of "F. Family Meets The Birds".

But Ro and Ate were absolutely adorable as usual, away from the birds...


We also saw other species at this "zoo", including some bizarre fish, amphibians and reptiles in the "Everglades" area and some small monkeys as well as Orangutans. But i will spare you all the pictures.

We were there from 12:00 until closing at 5 PM and the park was EMPTY, which made it oh so much more enjoyable. We had an amazing time.



But my favorite part was actually when we got back to the hotel. Because I realized what a great time the kids had when they could not stop talking about everything they saw and did. And then to top it off, So sat down and drew this...


I am actually happy I decided to make this a "Family" vacation rather than just a getaway for Hun and myself.