I never knew I had a thing for butterflies

Until this trip.

Well, I suppose that's not entirely true.  I've always thought butterflies are beautiful.

But on this trip, I found myself captivated by just how stunningly beautiful and unique they all were.

I probably took over 200 pictures of butterflies and other insects and animals on this trip.  No, I didn't take the time to upload *all* of them... but here are a few of my favorites:

I really liked this lizard.  I'm pretty sure he was smiling for the picture :)

One of my favorite butterflies from the whole trip
(plus I think the picture turned out pretty well)

Ah, this butterfly was EVERYWHERE.  It was SO cool, but I am so sad I couldn't get a single picture of the inside of their wings; it's a beautiful blue on the inside.  Luckily the outside is so cool I'm still satisfied!

Another butterfly I really liked :)


Then, after spending a full two days looking at the Falls in Brazil and Argentina, we spent our last day at a ridiculously awesome bird park, where I took even more pictures!

Oh ya know, just me hanging out with a toucan.

Did you know there are about 40 different species of toucans?? 

(I suppose I hadn't really ever put much thought into exactly how many types of toucans I thought there were, but I was definitely surprised to learn there were so many!)  

This little guy had a cool green beak and kept trying to get in pictures with people.  I thought he was pretty cool.

Now, you might be wondering:  If I have SO many good pictures of toucans that I could have chosen from to post, why in the world would I pick this one?  You can't even see his sweet beak!
Well, it's because I LOVED this bird's eyes.  

Is that weird?  Probably a little bit.  Then again, maybe not.  Because they really were neat.  

(And besides, you all know what toucans look like, and you can see the whole toucan in the picture I'm in.)

Ha.  Whooda thunk that a toucan could be such a good photobomber??  Lisa got some good pictures of this type of toucan, but this picture just makes me laugh, so I had to post it anyway.  I don't even want to admit how many of my attempts to photograph this particular bird ended up like this... I think he was trying to be photogenic and pose, but he just kept being all...awkward.  Ha ha.
A bird after my own heart. :)

Next at the bird park, we went to an enclosure for hummingbirds and butterflies!

Sadly/frustratingly, my pictures here didn't turn out as well.  But still, it was cool to see so many different types of hummingbirds (some with black and white stripes--those were awesome!) and butterflies with wings that each had unique patterns and ranged in size from about one to five inches.

Really, you had to be there.  It was gorgeous.  I loved it.  But, since you didn't get to be there, here are some pictures of the hummingbirds so you can pretend you were. :)

I just liked this owl's face.  Isn't he so cute??

And then...

Macaws!

They have an enclosure for macaws, too, so you can walk through and get really close to them.  They have huge beaks though...so I wouldn't suggest getting too close.
The thing that most amazed me was how LOUD they were!  Seriously.  You know that sound typically associated with parrots?  The annoying squawk?  Yeah, they totally make that sound.  And then when you get a whole area full of them trying to out-squawk each other, it's ridiculous.  But in a cool way.

This guy was kind of funny, too.  He'd go get food then bring it over and sit on the rail and watch us.  Again, kind of scary (as much as I love animals, their big claws and stuff still make me nervous) but super cool.

Just me again, ya know, with some macaws in the background...

(sorry you can't see any of the "traditional" red ones in any of these pictures.  We DID see those, too, but apparently they didn't make the cut for the photos.)

And then just me being cool because I have a macaw on my shoulder.

I think I look like a pirate.

Well, no, I don't actually.

I'm probably too smiley to be a pirate.

But I'm okay with that.

Because it was still awesome. :)