Travel
Snow in Miami! It is Winter Wonder in Jungle Island
“Snow in Miami,” screamed the headline on The Miami News. It was 19th January 1977 when Miami saw its first snowfall ever in the recorded history. While most of the states in the United States are blessed with snowfall during winter, Florida, especially the southern part, has not been much lucky.
However, if you are in Miami or travelling to Miami and missing the snow, then you do not have to go anywhere far. Winter Wonder Island in the famous Jungle Island (Coupon Included) will help your wildest dreams come true! The special event will begin on 29th November until 5th January every night. It will be very special to visit with kids, family or your special one this Friday if you are not camping outside your nearest electronic store for Black Friday sale.
The place, where you can have photos done with Santa Claus amid the snow, will have holiday themed like lighting, laser show and a special screening of holiday movie. Take it out of your mind that Miami is hot, here you can play with snowballs and make your snowman.
Jungle Island, previously known as Parrot Jungle, is an interactive zoological park that can interest any kid or bring out the child in you. Some of the most beautiful, rarest and harmless birds fly freely here and you can have face-to-face encounter with them. Jungle Island is also home to many exotic animals from all over the world, which includes Tigers, Lions, Orangutans, Cassowary, Lemurs, Kangaroos, Penguins, reptiles and many more!
Apart from the regular animals, Jungle Island is also home to world’s largest living cat, Hercules. Hercules is a liger. Now what is that? Liger is the crossbreed between a male lion and a tigress. The Guinness Book of World Records recognizes Hercules as the largest living cat on Earth. Today Show, Good Morning America, Anderson Cooper 360, Inside Edition and an article in Maxim in 2005 have already featured this famous Liger.

Photo by flickr/Bob B. Brown

Photo by flickr/Bob B. Brown
When I visited Florida on my educational trip, my friend offered me to visit this place with her, and I am glad I agreed. It was one of the best zoological park in my opinion, though the design of cages were not very creative. Sometimes I felt bad for the animals looking at the small size of the cage, but what made it the best park is the human-animal interaction. This was more like an educational park where you learn a lot about animals, their behaviour and nature. Even the fiercest animals can make you laugh and make your day! It is not a joke, a black leopard literally marked its territory on my friend by coming up to the fence and spraying its… you know!
Almost all the time the park is busy organizing shows exhibiting exotic animals, or live music, however I kept myself busy with the animals, though I would advise you to not to skip any shows. You can talk to parrots as much as you want, and it was very funny for me when parrots greeted “hello” and “bye”! I was flattered when a parrot called me “pretty bird”. You can buy handful of bird food for 25 cents and feed the parrots on the go.

Flirtatious Parrots! Photo by flickr/Bob B. Brown
I paid extra $5 to enter the Kangaroo cage, I fed them and I could pet and cuddle with them. They were so soft, and did not kick me as I have seen in cartoons. I also tried to cuddle a penguin through the fence, but a worker stopped me. I could see that little baby penguin really wanted to hug me.
The place was not so big and required only 3-4 hours of a day to see most of the things. However, if you have really amalgamated in the environment with the animals then one day is not enough for you. It was the same case with me. The place was slightly pricey for a student like me, we had no knowledge of any discount coupons at that time, but now I know, and I have shared the link with you above. I really wanted to see the lemurs, but that required additional $79.95 plus taxes! I heard lemurs are very funny and love to play. You will be taken to a separate room where you can watch them play with each other and with you too.
You can take photos, but if you want to pose with the animals, then you will have to pay some money, which was costly. All you can do is take many pictures and get a CD done for you for $50. Which was relatively cheaper, but still costly.
Huge cost is understandable, as animals require a lot of attention and proper caring, we could see that well, as all the animals were in happy mood and they can make you laugh. I am sure if you were here once, you would definitely come again. I have made my mind that if I travel to Miami ever again; this is the place to visit. If you come to Miami often, I would suggest you to buy a yearly pass. While one day admission ticket will cost you $35.26 including tax for an adult, a yearly pass will cost you $48.10 just a bit more expensive, but worth. You will get additional discounts on various internal excursions like “The Lemur Experience” if you have a yearly pass.
If it was not the snow festival, Miami can be very hot otherwise. It is a “must-see” attraction in Miami. Let me know your opinion and experiences if you have been there, share your views in the comment box below or read my other travel experiences here.
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