Daniel Johnson's Animal Santuary

Daniel Seems to be a real animal lover.  I definitely got the feeling his animals were loved and well cared for.  The area in his back yard was very clean and didn't smell bad at all.  He even has a few guys that work for him and help him care for the animals.  The sloths live in the trees by his house.  They don't have a cage.  He actually climbs up into the tree to get them down for guests to hold. 

But first we visited with the Capuchin Monkeys.  These crazy little guys don't stay in a cage all the time.  They get free time in the yard too.  They return to the enclosure when they are called.  I didn't feel like we were bothering the Capuchins at all.  Actually we served as a 4 person jungle gym for them.  They jumped on us, crawled in our clothes, and explored our belongings. They were like tiny energetic, mischievous toddlers.  They were super cute to watch.  These little guys are popular as pets...but it was easy to see why so many people get them as pets and then want to get rid of them.  They really need each other-they are very social and I think a Capuchin would be miserable and very destructive living in a house with people. 

We were all taking photos. The kids took so many videos.  The little guys made it really hard to take a photo...they wanted the camera.

Hey! There's a monkey in my shirt.

Monkey's Monkey's everywhere.

Can you say adorable. Those precious faces and those tiny people hands.

But they weren't exactly gentle...

Daniel had a few Spider Monkeys too.  This one was very young and she was still quiet a handful.  Daniel says they get pretty aggressive as they get older and he doesn't trust the older one with guests.

I didn't even want to hold this sweet baby.  She was just too rough-precious but rough.

This is Daniel, our amazing guide.  He is holding one of his Green Conures. He said they are the most popular pet on the Island. 

And these gorgeous scarlet Macaws.  You could tell they were very intelligent.

While the climate might make Roatan a good habitat for these animals...they aren't necessarily safe being free.  There are still a lot of uneducated people on the island.  Some of these guys might be killed if the wrong person got a hold of them.

This was one of Daniel's sloths up in the trees by his house.  They were rescued from the mainland-from  an area being logged.  Daniel told us that the native people believe the sloths are dangerous because of their long claws.  One of the reasons he has guests come and hold the sloths is to spread the word that they are kind and gentle. 

There were so many precious photos....I couldn't narrow it down.

Daniel goes into the jungle every day to collect leaves that the sloths will eat and he hangs them up for the sloths. 

Here is an up close photo of those claws. I'll admit they did pinch a bit but it was worth it to hold this precious girl.

Beautiful Roatan Part 1

I fell in love with Roatan from the moment I stepped off the ship.  It was so beautiful, lush and green surrounded by amazing blue water.  Our guide, Daniel, has a small animal sanctuary in his yard.   He has rescued a few animals and to pay for their upkeep he brings a handful of people to his home to see them.  He also does occasional tours of the island.  He was such a wealth of information- explaining everything from island culture to sanitation, shopping,  industry and history.  We learned so much about this beautiful island.

Meeting Daniels’s animals was the highlight of our visit. I will put those photos in a separate post.

When we first met up with Daniel outside of the port, he was accompanied by a couple that was the very definition of  loud mouthed ignorant Americans.  They actually made us feel petite and the woman-wow-she had so many ignorant comments and opinions.  I was worried for a bit that they were going to join us for the day but luckily Daniel was just dropping them off at a local beach and we came along for the ride.  My favorite part was when Daniel mentioned his sloths...and the woman said "what's a sloth"   "T" whispered in my ear "does she really not know what a sloth is ?"  If Daniel has said a Coati or a Tapir...maybe I could understand -but who hasn't heard of a sloth. 

 I think the only thing I didn't like about Roatan  (and I also saw it in Mahahual) was all the trash washed up along the shore.  I even wondered if it comes from the US.  And of course who is going to clean it up.  Not the Roatan Junior League.  I still don't know the source of the trash but in Mahahaul the population couldn't possible produce that much plastic trash so it must come from elsewhere.  I really hope the US isn't creating this environmental nightmare.

After seeing Daniel's animals he reluctantly offered to take us to an Iguana farm.  I have mixed feelings about this place.  They have hundreds of iguanas which is cool.  The iguanas are free to leave but they stay because the food is plentiful.  However they also had two monkeys in cages and some penned up fish.  I could tell that these animals just weren't loved and cared for that much.  "T" was very upset being here and it wasn't the best way to end our day.  Daniel offered to take us to the beach to end our day but we were tired so we headed back to port.

At the port we had enough time for some touristy beverages.

 

Upon returning to our room this was off the balcony. 

It was the official Flagship of the Columbian Navy

I took a few photos as we sailed away from Roatan.  This is the tiny port.

One of the other cruise lines has a private port on the Island.  Daniel explained that the private port really hurt local businesses as the intent of the  cruise line was to keep the passengers in the private beach area for the day vs. giving them access to the island.  These port cities really depend on US cruise passengers and their American dollars.