JVS 2 - Snakes
Our first group adventure in the Channel Islands was a trip to the Jersey Zoo. We made our way to the quiet bus station in the middle of St. Helier and boarded the zoo-bound bus along with 5,000 teenage girls from Holland. Or Sweden. I don't know.
The island is less than 10 miles wide yet it took a surprisingly long time to get there. We started off with the cheeky meerkats and pristine ring-tailed lemurs, spent a surprisingly long time in the botanical garden, moved on to the larger-than-life Livingstone's fruit bats, shared some laughs with the Sumatran orangutans, then finished up with the Andean bears accompanied by their comic sidekick of an Oriental short-clawed otter.
Then we had lunch and made sure that the seagulls didn't steal our food like in the warning photos. And then we lied down on the lush grass and slept in the warm summer sun.
My favorite part was definitely the orangutans. They're just so fascinating. And wacky! Especially that mischievous one who kept hiding in a burlap sack. And the little babies. And that giant one with the flappy things on his face. So strong. So exact in their movements. So intense in their gaze. So kooky.
After the zoo, we wondered off down the endless hidden country roads along the coast on our way to a little pub in a little village with big glasses of much-needed beverages.
Here's Emily taunting the snakes in the sugar bowl: