Crocs, camels, and snakes… OH MY

 The sun is setting here in Arusha, and I’m relaxing on the roof, excited to share today’s story.

Ben, Heather, Jonathan and I went to the Snake Park. We weren’t completely keen on traveling 40 km out of Arusha to see a bunch of caged snakes, but since our time is winding down, we figured we ought to spend our Sunday out of the house.

At 12p I ran out of the apartment with my habitual toast with PB, to meet our taxi driver and the others (I am always the last one to leave).

We traveled out of town, and once we were arrived we found that the price to enter was much more expensive than we anticipated it to be. I have been budgeting to a T, so this unexpected price ticked me off (we were told volunteers get a hefty discount).

I paid the fee anyway.

Upon walking in we were matched to a guide who would be the one to tell us about the scale-ly lil creatures surrounding us in glass cages. He knew so much about snakes and had been a guide for nine years. I was impressed.

We saw a variety of cobras, pythons (2), and a few garden snakes. We even got to hold a brown, tamed garden snake!

We then proceeded to view other reptiles that were maintained in the park. 

We held a Nile crocodile, too!

As we were walking back to where we had started our guide explained he had to be on his way… It was feeding time for the snakes. They are only fed ONCE A WEEK. We all got very excited, in a twisted way. “What do you feed them?!” “The python, which eats once a month, will get a few rabbits or a chicken… depending on the menu.” Yes, He honestly told me that they hold true to a menu when feeding these animals.

We later found that rabbit was on the menu. If you are reading this Marie, I am so sorry! 

Oh, I ought to tell y’all the snakes are fed live animals because they have very poor vision and use sonar via their tongues to locate food.

What we didn’t realize is that this process is lengthy… We waited an hour for the rabbit to become dinner, without any luck. I don’t know if I’d call it luck… but you know what I mean. We got to see some other events of the “circle of life.” We witnessed many small snakes poison baby chicks with their venom. Wow, this sounds so sick.

On a happy note; Heather and I rode a camel! We had too much fun, especially on the way down. As the camel kneeled on all fours we nearly slid right off  his hump! This calls for a little Black Eyed Peas: My Humps.

Have a good night y’all!

XO