Museu Emilío Goeldi

Monday was a holiday and many local businesses and attractions were closed. However, that did not stop the veterinarian at Museu Emilío Goeldi from agreeing to open the park and give us a tour of some of the animal and plant life typical of the rainforest. Two other animal trainers joined us for the morning, sharing lots of interesting information and giving us experiences with the animals that we will not forget.

 The Museu was established in the late 1800s. In the time since, it has served as a wildlife preserve, research center, zoo, and animal sanctuary. The city of Belem was built up around this location.

Giant Tree

 Beautiful Plant Life

 This helps the tree not drown with all the rain.

Our guide telling us how this plant has been creeping forward over the years. He called it the "Walking Tree."

Giant Lily Pads

These guys were very common in the park.

This parrot greeted us loudly when we arrived.

He was trained to come and pose for pictures...

...but he got a little hungry.

In addition to the free animals that are attracted to the park there were also several animals in captivity. The museu serves as a research zoo for the city. 

 There were two jaguars.

 The trainer has been working with one of them and he sniffed our hands through the cage.

 Here are some ducks in a row...

  Lots of turtles.

 We even got to feed them.

 This caiman was over 70 years old. 

Rio!

 Baby Monkey in the Nursery

One of the highlights was the opportunity we had to interact with the animals.

We all got to hold this parrot.

Teanna and Anna

Our friends, Bel and Farid. 

One of the animal trainers.

Of course, our favorite part was the sloths!

We got to hold a baby sloth!!!!

Roommates

Friends! We all had a great time!