Saturday, January 15, 2011

Adventures with Elvis, Part 3: A Scarlet Macaw Named Tito

We rode horses over the mountain to the town of Pejibaye, where Elvis' family lives. It has a different feel than Uvita which is more of a tourist town. We had a wonderful visit with Elvis' wife, Jenni, and their 6 children, Ramses (20), Samantha (18), Nicole and Elvis (11 year old twins), Rahid (4), and Naomi (18 mo). They are a sweet and beautiful family, and Naomi has adopted "Uncle George"!

We all walked to their nearby swimming hole, and along the way we had a surprise visitor. This beautiful scarlet macaw flew into the tree right above where we were passing, and hung upside-down looking at us.

This grand bird named "Tito" was a domesticated pet in his earlier years, but now lives "wild" around the town of Pejibaye. (Scarlet Macaws can live up to 80 years old.) He is very sociable, as you will see, and Elvis said he also loves to play soccer with the local kids. He also, evidently, loves chocolate, and he was lured down out of the tree by some chocolate-filled cookies that the kids were eating. Here, Tito is licking off the chocolate layer of the cookie before he spit out the rest of the cookie!


He was willing to take a turn with each of us.


Here's a good family portrait of us with Tito.

Tito also really likes hats, and he quickly scrambled onto my head.

Tito caught rides with all of us while we went to the river. Once in sight of the river, Tito flew off, only to land in the tree right above the swimming hole. Evidently he's done this before! He's the red spot in the tree.


We had a good dip and cooled off in the water.

George soaked his saddle-sore bum and back in the waterfall.

Then, as we headed back to town, Tito caught a free ride back on our heads.


When we reached his "stop" he flew off for his next adventure.

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