The Real Macaw

This morning we woke up feeling fully reenergized after yesterday’s early bus ride. For breakfast we scarfed down delicious French toast made with home baked bread accompanied with marvelous marmalade. Also home made. We found that the food at our hostel is really quite amazing and have been eating here the majority of the time.

After breakfast we ran around getting same errands done, buying bus tickets, booking a day/night on a coffee plantation/cattle ranch – we get to be cowboys for a day. Once all that was settled we made our way to one of the local tourist destinations – Macaw Mountain.

Macaw Mountain is not your ordinary bird sanctuary. It was created to save the macaw’s from illegal trafficking and also as a way to keep the species from being endangered. They developed a program to realize Macaw’s back into the Copan Valley to join and restore the current population. As you walk between each aviary, you are immersed in a very tropical jungle that has hundreds of flowers and different tropical plants. The sanctuary has various species of birds and they love attention so they come right up to the sides of the cages and try to nip off your fingers. At the end of the tour there is an interactive area where you can hold macaw’s or make parrots say “‘¡Hola!” or “Goal, goal, goal goal!” by using various hand gestures.

What they don’t warn you about is the sneaky Toucan that is out to get you. We wandered over to the open toucan cage and admired him singing his song. Then he noticed us – this is where things got interesting. He showed interest towards us by titling his head to both sides – kind of like a confused dog – then he would quickly hop towards us snapping his large, razor sharp, bright yellow beak. It is amazing how quick these little things are. Whenever he hoped towards us trying to nibble on our toes we would run away and scream like little girls. The park employees definitely got a kick out of us. It was funny because he would let us come really close for a photo opp, then he would turn evil and chase us away. Watching a 10 inch tall bird chase away full grown humans is really quite hilarious.

Once we had enough with the toucan we went over to the bird keepers and they put full grown macaws onto our shoulders, arms and head. It was really cool interacting with the birds, especially when they are chewing on your sweaty hat or hitting you with their wings. Overall we found this place to be really cool and we will never forget the sly like a devil toucan.

When we returned we had a quick lunch and a little siesta and then we parted ways. Carling opted for the afternoon massage, while I watched the soccer game and enjoyed a few cold beers. Her muscles are now back to normal after the volcano hike which is good because tomorrow we will be riding horses and wrangling cattle all day. We’re not sure if the ranch has wifi, so we will post about our experience as soon as we get the chance. Adios.