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.

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.

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!