Our intrepid travelers ran into some unexpected glitches on their way, and we are waiting for final word they made it to Lima (and maybe points beyond).
Here’s a brief update from Alle from South Florida, where they made the most of their time waiting to get to Peru after missing their original flight out of Miami.
A real live bearcat welcomes Alle and Ric by trying to steal Ric’s hat.
Ric and I made it safely to Ric’s brother’s house last night, and Ken (brother), Denise (sister in law) and Kylie (neice) have been amazingly welcoming and have turned a frustrating situation into a happy side-trip to our adventure. We arrived at their place around 9pm where they had a delicious dinner waiting for us (since we had not eaten since breakfast), and we just sat around the dinner table talking, sharing stories and laughing until well passed midnight. Ken taught me some card tricks so we can wow our fellow travel buddies, and at the end of the night we had a safe, warm, cozy place to sleep and we couldn’t have asked for anything else (except maybe to be in Peru!). But given the circumstances, we were very lucky and with good company.
We woke up Friday morning and grabbed our cameras and quickly went to Lion Country Safari, which is a drive-through animal experience in West Palm Beach, and also where Denise and Kylie work! They had given us a couple tickets so we could spend some time there seeing the animals and exploring the walk-through part of the Zoo.
Rhino at Lion Country Safari in West Palm Beach
We spent the entire morning and part of the afternoon there, and then Ric and I contacted a few friends at the West Palm Beach Zoo and then went straight there! So today was all about the animals/zoos in Florida. We toured the West Palm Beach Zoo, and walked around and saw a white american alligator named Marti! He was no where the size of Mighty Mike, but he was still pretty interesting.
White Alligator at West Palm Beach Zoo
And after we were done touring the zoo on our own, we met up with Colleen, an old Part-time Biologist at the Newport Aquarium, and an old friend of mine from the Cincinnati Zoo! She showed us behind the scenes of a few places and let us meet her Binturong (AKA, Bearcat), and he climbed up on my shoulders and then decided that he REALLY like Ric and moved over to steal his hat. Overall, we had an amazing day touring zoos from 9am-7pm and came home to another lovely meal with Ric’s family. And another bright side to missing our flight: We got to see the opening to the Olympics. Yay!
(Update: They made it to the airport early Saturday, and presumably are on their way to internet access.)
Waiting and working ….
Aquarium Works 
So sounds like the “missed flight” was filled with family, fun and critters. Right up your alley Ric! Hope you have made it there by now…of course, it is Monday morning!!!!!!!!! Be safe and we will keep up with you. Good work that you are doing. Skip the water and go straight to the margaritas!!!!!