Nassau Bahamas-"Live in the moment" part 2

Our second day in Nassau was a beautiful sunny day. As usual Tom was pretty excited to have another opportunity to add a few more birds to his ever growing list for the year.  He did schedule a day with a birding guide, but since that was a day or so away, we opened to go hunting on our own.

The Botanical gardens were our destination.  We were disappointed, and a bit miffed at the concierge
 at our hotel, when we learned that the gardens are closed, and have been since it suffered damage in Hurricane Mathew - August of 2017!  You'd think the people with info just might have that kind of info!!

In looking around and checking our map, the Ardastra Zoo and Gardens entrance was about 50 meters away.  Off we went to see if we could turn this day around.

One of their 'attractions' is daily exhibits of flamingos. They've got a small covered 'arena' where the cruise ship tourists can watch one of the keepers herd the flamingos around for photo ops.  I preferred getting my shots before and after the 'show' as they birds were just sort of milling about, preening and sleeping.

Needless to say, I had fun spending up close and personal time with them.  They didn't seem to mind at all!

They've got a couple of raccoons, two ocelots, three capybaras, a monkey, some meerkats, and a few other animals.  I'm not so crazy about the captive animals ever since we've had the opportunity to see them in the wild this year.  No photos of the ones in cages.

This little guy, I believe, is a long tailed meerkat.  The zoo was lacking in signage and this was as close as I could come with internet research.  It seemed a happy animal - look at that smile!

This lizard is called.........yep, a curly tailed lizard.  This one is about eight inches head to curly tail - if it was unwound.  During our stay in Nassau, we saw them all over the place, but none this big.

We spent several hours here, wandering and watching.  Tom found a couple of endemic species to add to his list.  I just enjoyed the colors of the macaws.

The trip back to the hotel by taxi was very slow as the traffic was stopped.  There's a two lane, one way,  street for either direction.  About halfway back to the hotel, we opted to walk the rest of the way.  That gave us some really nice views of the harbor and a good overview of Atlantis and Harbourside, the smaller waterside villas - our home for the week.

As always the unusual sign caught my eye.  Traffic Calming?  Really? Does going over a series of speed bumps really make one feel calmer?

I'll have another few photos soon, stay tuned!