We have been running HARD and feeling a bit old this week! We sometimes go for weeks without taking a "preparation day" and we really needed one! We got a group together to show some of the new missionaries around the area and decided to do a "safari" that we had heard about and had seen a few pictures. It ended up to be one of the best days we have had in the past seven months - YES, seven months!! It is a cross between a zoo, a sanctuary, and a safari! the place is located up in the mountains on the east side of the island of Cebu. It took two hours to drive there but WOW! It really was up in the mountains and is the first time in a month that I have been outside without dripping sweat! The air was cool and refreshing and there were NO sounds of a very large city! The place covers quite an area and is beautifully landscaped with amazing animal enclosures and as nice as any "zoo" I've ever seen. Not as big as San Diego but very nicely done! The interesting thing is that the animals had habitat but NO cages! The birds to include large parrots were allowed to fly around and I was really impressed. In the bird show they had several raptors that flew in over the audience' head to include a beautiful Sea Eagle! Medium sized eagle that is almost all white. The Philippine Eagle is bigger and is gorgeous ... looking very much like a Bald Eagle. They have several white lion brothers, and regular tawny lions and cheetahs and tigers and even serval cats. What i like is that the animals were all either from the southern part of Africa and southeastern Asia. They didn't try to drag in Polar bears and make them live in the heat .... all of the animals were naturally acclimated and live with lots of local foliage and obviously well fed and tended. They had various indigenous monkeys and apes. On of the most fun things is that they drove us through big gates that felt like Jurassic Park and WE were the ones in a jeep... or in the case of Lions, WE were the ones in cages. It was really cool.
Now you might ask... what does a safari have to do with a mission.... well ....everyone ends up with an "empty bucket" once in a while and being tired and discouraged just demands a "day out".... This was our day out! And believe me ... we thought about the hand of God all day while we enjoyed the gorgeous Garden of Eden setting and enjoyed His amazing creations in a setting where animals were obviously NOT mistreated. It was a Great day and I'm still feeling the benefit of it. What follows are a BUNCH of pictures of a small portion of what we experienced.
Above; outdoor auditorium where we saw a simple and tasteful bird show! All birds flew in and out of their own accord and there were some good laughs as some of those various parrots etc. did their own thing! In spite of the fun bird show.. I kept expecting a T-Rex to stick his head in over the stage!
Some of the gorgeous McCaws in the aviary we walked through. These guys were flying all around during the bird show - quite the show-offs!
Zebras are no novelty, but there were roaming free and loved seeing the stripes that are as individual as fingerprints right down through their tails. The picture below is a zebra I could have reached out and touched from our jeep.
Above; part of the herd of Wildebeasts, kudu, impala, and oryx
Above; only part of the large family group of gorgeous giraffe. They were young, healthy and obviously had several years of babies. They were beautiful!
Above; only one of the white lion brothers and he was less than 10 feet from our cage! We were just driving through on a jeep trail and they were all taking a nap close together. This particular guy semi-interested in us. These lions are not a weird zoo-cross and a natural to South Africa and colored specifically to blend into sand and dried grass.
Above: a set of fun salads at a local restaurant with all natural and local greens and fruits and even edible flowers!
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