2.16.16 - Greater Miami Area

For our visit to this area, many thanks to Hank and Elaine, John and Sergio for dinner away from our usual digs.  The company and food were terrific.  

We were surrounded by Butterflies at Butterfly world, a business enterprise that sprung from a hobby gone wild.  Butterfly World in Coconut Creek Florida is the first butterfly house in the United States and the largest in the world.  

We were told that it is good luck when a butterfly lands on you.
Butterfly World has over 20,000 butterflies.  Kris's favorite butterfly on the outside, then on the inside:

Piano Key Butterfly:

Colorful birds (mostly finches) flying amongst the butterflies:

a lorikeet ‘encounter’ area:

an arboretum of flowering vines that butterflies love including passionflower vine:

a terrific bug room with preserved bugs from around the world, and live bug exhibits
These pictured bugs are about 6" long.  Glad we don't have them here!

There was quite a bit to see here and we stayed longer than we expected to.  Additional butterfly pictures at end of post

 Zoo Miami 

 Zoo Miami is over 750 acres with a 3.5 miles loop trail that winds through animal habitats (organized by continent) with noticeably few bars or cages.  We walked over 12,000 steps.   The weather was sunny and cool – the animals were out and active.  This zoo is a special place.

There is a rare male baby Sumatran tiger (there are only 500 left in the world) that they let outside for public viewing a little while each day.  He was born Nov. 14.  We were lucky to be there at a play time.

75 year old MONSTER Galapagos tortoise: 

This guy gave us many roars at the end of our day.  

Some of the rest:

Extra Butterfly Pictures:

Next post:  Vizcaya and Fairchild Botanical Gardens