Christian In His Natural Habitat: Gumbalimba time

Well today I took a break from diving for turtles (A never ending task it seems) and instead went zip-lining down the island at Gumbalimba park. We started at the top of the island from where you can see the shore on both sides (it's a rather narrow island shaped like a chili pepper) and made our way down from platform to platform all the way down to the water (I sort of wished it had dropped us directly in the ocean but for fairly obvious reasons it did not) at speeds ranging from 9-35 mph. Needless to say it was quite exhilarating. After the ridiculous amount of diving I have done already, however, it really wasn't all that scary. :) Anyway all along the route we saw beautiful iguanas (Two species: the green and black), a few leaf cutter ants, and the occasional spider. Upon reaching the bottom, we followed the tour guide (And yes on this particular day I was a bonifide tourist, albeit one with a more comprehensive understanding of the island and its biota than the typical tourist), into a rather extensive mounted insect collection from around the world, and a pirate cave hosting a scattering of assorted pirate and Mayan memorabilia (which may or may not be at all related to the island). Upon leaving the cave we journeyed past the iguana nest where the park rangers were feeding island iguanas lettuce and bananas. These creatures are truly marvelous, but rather than attempt to describe them I'll simply let you peruse the pictures below. After our brief iguana stop we journeyed over a rickety suspension bridge (which of course had to be called the "pirate bridge" for no discernible reason) and on to the birds. We were greeted by a park employee and invited to take pictures with a beautiful (and very well trained) military macaw (Ara militaris) who posed obediently on our shoulders and occasionly cawed very loudly in our ears. We also saw several vibrant scarlet macaws and a few of the local cowbirds lurking about (the equivalent of our North American Crow). We journeyed on from the birds to meet the capuchin monkeys (Note: they are not native to the island), and boy were they adorable. We probably spent 10-15 minutes just letting them run around and over us, munching on sunflower seeds from the keepers hands. They would grab just about anything you had that was shiny, including your water bottle, hair, sunglasses, and camera, and would leap several feet from person to person. Alas, as with most awesome things, we eventually had to leave. On the way out we saw a few Agoutis (probably the widespread Central American Dasyprocta punctata rather than the endangered Dasyprocta ruatanica that is endemic to the island), and passed by the iguanas again for one last goodbye, then headed home. As we headed back to West End over the crest of the island we could look down either side and see the Caribbean waves lapping peacefully at the shore. I have posted a smattering of pictures from the experience below for your perusal.