Blog 3: La Paz Waterfall Gardens

            On Saturday, May 17 we visited the La Paz Waterfall Gardens. There were a ton of animals to see. All of the animals were rescued from the wild. I saw birds, butterflies, monkeys, big cats, snakes, frogs, toads, and oxen. A toucan perched on my shoulder. It was really awesome! One of the monkeys had a short tail because his had been broken off in the wild. This makes him disabled because monkeys rely heavily on their tails. One of the cool things about La Paz was that it wasn’t like a zoo in the United States. The areas where the birds and butterflies were kept was a place that people could walk into and touch and hold the animals. Also the habitats for the animals were very realistic and even gave the animals privacy if they wanted it. In Costa Rica animals are very protected. Jabier, our tour guide, told us that you are better off killing a person than an animal because the animals are so protected. Even the wild animals in Costa Rica are protected. This is the same everywhere in Costa Rica. When there were insects or lizards in my Mama Tica’s house she would never kill them even though she didn’t like them. She would just always scoop them up and put them back outside.

            After seeing all the animals at La Paz, we continued to see the waterfalls. Costa Rica has amazing waterfalls. I could just stare at them all day. They are muy bonita (very beautiful!) We saw around five different waterfalls at La Paz. There was a ton (I mean a ton!) of hiking and stairs to get to them but the view was well worth it! There was a spot where we could get fresh water by the waterfalls and the water tasted amazing! It was very refreshing after the long hike to the waterfalls. After viewing the waterfalls we left La Paz Waterfall Gardens. It was a great day. Seeing the animals and learning about how well they are protected was very interesting. At home bugs kind of freak me out, but I am really trying to emerge myself in the culture and be okay with bugs. I find that when I don’t freak out about them, I stay calm and they mostly leave me alone. Every time I see a bug I try to avoid it and I don’t kill them (except for I did kill a spider because spiders scare me too much.) Don’t tell Mama Tica!