Crocs! (no, not the shoe)

We are happy to have Nanna (Allison’s mom) visiting from Alaska for a few weeks. She’s thawing out a bit and enjoying the low hum that is the activity around our house. And she’s learning a lot from our nightly research questions that are reported on at dinner. But yesterday we had an outing so no time for homeschool!

We went to CrocoCun, which means “Crocodile Nest” in Mayan. And “nest” is really a very accurate term for crocs. We learned that they like to hang out in piles, which is their strategy for staying warm. When I first saw the pile I thought most of them were statues. They looked completely unreal. But if you look closely you’ll see breathing or a twitch of a limb. I think they were dreaming of chasing bunnies. Or maybe energetic 9 year olds.

croc11 — Pile o crocs! Can you count how many? Evidently when they keep their mouth open like that they are cooling down. Its the croc equivalent of panting.

This “zoo” is about 20 minutes away from our house so it was an excellent little field trip. It was informative and interactive and a great experience for the girls and the adults. We learned from our previous experience and asked for the “locals price”. It took a little while to come up with some identification that would prove I’m a local but once I showed the cashier my auto insurance and my Costco card, she knew I lived here. Tourists don’t do Costco, evidently.

We had a very informative tour guide all to ourselves and we got to hold crocs, feed spider monkeys, white tailed deer and turtles, get up close and personal with some very large crocs, see some strange Mexican hairless dogs (hairless by nature, not artificially) and we also had some interactions with some very pretty birds and surprisingly soft snakes.

croc2 — Haley was very uncertain about holding this little guy. His mouth is held closed by a pony tail holder. Crocs have 7 muscles in their law. 6 are used to close the jaw but only 1 is used to open it, so it doesn’t take much to secure it shut.

croc3 — Zoe’s turn. He was surprisingly cold, solid and heavy.

croc4 — Nanna was VERY uncertain at first! But you have to be confident. Crocs are like dogs, they sense your energy and react to it!

croc7 — Here we were walking in an open area among really big crocs. I cropped this picture so you can see the look on Nannas face!

croc8 — Full disclosure: the angle of this photo makes this croc look huge. He was big. And there was nothing separating us from him other than a few rocks. So you can still be impressed.

croc5 — Haley and a snake. The snake was sooo soft.

croc6 — Nanna and the snake. Evidently 9 year olds think it’s funny to see adults who are very uncertain! But she’s one to talk, I had to bribe Zoe with sweets to get her to hold the snake.

croc9 — We wrapped up our tour with the birds.

croc10 — But first, gotta take a selfie.

We had a lovely time and were able to have a lot of up-close-and-personal encounters with animals. The weather was wonderful too. The girls raved about it and started listing all the friends and family that we will take there when they come to visit. You know who you are! And if you’re not yet on the list there’s still time to book a week in our guest room!

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