Feliz Cumpleanos in Guatemala

What a great way to spend a birthday. I did not open one gift, but had the only gift I really wanted, our family of five together. We spent the first half of the day at the La Aurora Zoo, about a five minute cab ride from the hotel. Since it was Wednesday, there were not many people at the zoo. There were a few school groups and families with small children, but mostly we had the run of the place. The zoo is clean and well kept but very stinky. A few of our favorite animals were the Pavo Reals (Peacocks), Ocelets, Axis Deer, Monos (monkeys) and, of course, the Jaguar. It was great watching the kids faces when they saw some of the animals. The Tapir put on quite a show for us and was so close we could have touched him. Luis really liked watching the spider monkeys and we stayed at that exhibit for at least ten minutes.
Just before leaving, we waited about 15 minutes to take the train ride around the zoo, but when we rode the train the ride only lasted about 5 mintes. I think we got the gringo version of the trip.

When we returned to the hotel, we went swimming for a couple of hours. The kids had a great time again and Luis continues to get more confident and trusting in the water. I could tell when he went in the deeper water with me that he was trying to imitate the swimming strokes he sees from Christopher and Caroline.


After getting cleaned up we went out for a birthday dinner. The plan was to go to Tre Fratelli's but we could not find it. So we went to San Martin's instead. It is a cafe and they have the best bread. We bought some muffins to bring back to the hotel for breakfast tomorrow. Finished up the dinner with a little cheesecake for my birthday. Overall, a great way to spend a birthday!!!