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What is one to do for entertainment in Atlanta on a day when the heat's soaring to over 100 degrees? Well I would think that it's obvious really, take a drive outside the city with Nic and her friend Holly, to a Reptile exhibit, where there were a million heat lamps burning brightly in a room filled with hundreds of every kind of reptile and critter not to mention some of the scariest looking people, and the heat inside exceeded the heat outside… I really didn't think that was possible.
The heat in the exhibit soared as more and more people came in, and when I say it was hot, I really mean hot. If we were slightly sweaty before we entered the exhibition, we were soaking when we left.
The experience was bittersweet for me, because I love gecko's, snakes, lizards etc, but I'm terrified of spiders, and there were lots and lots of them in the exhibit, thankfully for me (but not so much for the spiders) they were all safely contained, but I have to add that I really don't like seeing anything in a cramped plastic box where it barely has room to move, even if it is a spider.
The exhibit had so many incredible gecko's, some of them were really friendly and cute, whereas some of them were freaking out poor things, there were some amazing and colorful snakes, from tiny little worm size things to huge 15 + foot long Boa's.
People were walking around wearing their pet snakes around their necks like jewelry, I wasn't impressed, I felt as though they were exploiting the defenceless creatures, and I couldn't help but feel so very sorry for them, but that's just me, I love all creatures, but I also believe that most would be happier being left in their natural environment instead of being draped around someone's neck. Truthfully though I have to say I don't know what scared me the most the people or or the tarantulas?
Nic's friend Holly who has several vivariums and critter tanks, bought a beautiful little gecko, rescuing it ( I felt) from further exhibits and road trips.
Nic and I resisted the temptation to set up a vivarium ourselves, we both loved the Gecko's, but weren't sure we could deal with the insects required for feeding them.
Then we saw the beautiful little rain forest frogs, so colorful and so tiny, tiny, tiny, unbeliveably cute, no wonder Bob and I were never able to spot them in the jungles of Panama, no matter how hard we looked, they're about the size of my fingernail, you would almost need x-ray vision to spot them. We also loved the baby bull frogs, so colorful, fat, and adorable, we actually very nearly came home with some, but thankfully sensibility took hold and we left the exhibit empty handed.
It was a hot sweaty way to spend a Saturday afternoon, but a really fun and different one, I'm so glad I went. Holly's little gecko is now called Gunther, I'll see if I can post a picture of him…
Life in Atlanta is turning out very different to how I imagined it would, but I'm loving the change.
