Home again...

...and normal programming will resume tomorrow.   Even though coming home means facing mountains of laundry and an almost empty fridge, I'm divinely happy to be here.

The place we stayed in Nuevo Vallarta is also home to some performing parrots...

We missed the parrot show, but I wanted to get some pictures of these gorgeous animials as they were sunning themselves while cages were being cleaned.  While I was trying to compose and get this shot, another bird off to my left was squawking up a storm for attention.

It was this guy in the foreground.  As soon as he saw I was pointing a camera at him, he took a bow...

...with his wings slightly spread, and held the pose until I got the shot.  What a ham!!

There is (or was, couldn't quite get current information) a big cat rescue facility associated with the property.  There are always some big cats on display.  The first time we stayed, there were lions who roared all night.  We've seen leopards and jaguars, but this time there were tigers!

Just to show how close one can get to the tigers, the pics below were taken on my iphone without any zoom.  We're talking probably 2-3 feet.

Here, kitty kitty!!!

The cats here are offspring of rescued tigers.

What does a tiger smell like, you ask?  I'm not sure about in the wild, but these smelled like big dirty dogs.  I don't know whether they're kept in the cages (which are probably each about 20x30 feet) all of the time or have other habitats.  Yes, I know that these probably are not optimal conditions.  But I have to admit it's thrilling to get this close to one of my favorite "wild" animals.
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