Sunrise on Saturday, February 4

We decided to take a break from chores today. Instead, we went to breakfast at a small restaurant called La Chata, which was not far from Marina Cortez. It had a cheerful mural on one of the walls.

Christi ordered something that we haven’t seen on any other menus yet: a carne asada omelette. It came smothered in tomatillo salsa and was delicious.

After breakfast, we met Sirena at an animal sanctuary called El Serpentario, which was close to the big Chedraui. The sign said that the rescued animals were sick or injured and that they would be released back to the wild after they were rehabilitated.

At the entrance, they sold food for some of the assorted animals so that you could feed them. As we walked out the entrance into the sanctuary, the display to the left was a pond full of small turtles. Here is a video of them being fed. In case anyone was wondering, we were discussing a place where you could feed turtles in a suburb of San Diego called Chula Vista.

To the right was an iguana.

Just past the iguana was a large enclosure with several tortoises.

Past the turtles pond was a large series of small glass cages that contained creatures indigenous to the area, including spiders, frogs, lizards, and a disturbingly large variety of snakes. We had no idea there were so many versions of rattlesnakes. And they were so hard to see! It made us realize we’d probably passed rattlesnakes a thousand times when we were out hiking and simply didn’t notice them. Here is a small sampling of the creatures.

They also had a few species on display that were not indigenous to the area. It appeared that in addition to rescuing wild animals, they also take people’s abandoned pets. We’re going to assume that the former pets don’t get released to the wild. This was a python, which was indigenous to Africa.

Beyond the small glass cages was a series of cages that were fenced. They housed a variety of creatures. There were several birds on display in solo cages, including two varieties of owls, some parrots, a raven and this beautiful bird that was not identified.

There were several lizard displays, some indigenous, some not. Some of the indigenous displays had multiple species together. The indigenous lizards were also well camouflaged, didn’t move much and were hard to notice.

There was also a small crocodile and a small alligator. But the big draw of this center was the very large fenced cage that housed a variety of birds, bunnies, guinea pigs, and a few turtles. Up to eight people were allowed in the cage at a time, and you could feed the animals.

Keith wanted no part of animal feeding. Knowing the creatures may very well jump/land of him even if he didn’t have food, it took some coaxing to even get him to go into the cage. He was horrified at the creatures all over the kids feeding them. He didn’t stay in the cage for long.

After we finished, we decided to get lunch together. They suggested we go to their favorite restaurant, Fish Claro, Jr. We happily went back there again. Christi ordered something called the mixed seafood tower. It was huge!

They also loved the gelato at the place in Marina Cortez, so after lunch, we all went there for gelato.

Before we returned the rental car, we made a quick stop by a large church that we’ve seen many times as we traveled to Chedroui. It was far larger than the central cathedral. It looked like they were in the middle of remodeling a portion of the church, though it is possible it was a new addition. The part of the church that was open looked like it had been recently remodeled, both inside and out. There was a service in progress, so we didn’t go inside.

We only had to wait a few minutes before an Uber driver accepted our ride. Here was the sunset.