A long overdue blog by Eli and Ava Our last week has been a busy one and we are finally able to post a Blog! Hello to everyone! Besides some interesting bug bites, we have all remained happy and healthy. For the last week we have been back at basecamp in Belmopan. We have been  working  at an orphanage called "Marla's House of Hope" Marla's House of Hope is an organization that takes kids up to 18yrs out of abbusive situations. We have have befriended all of the kids. A few of the younger kids  were born there and their young mothers are with them. The kids all seem very comfortable and happy.  After we would help with homework, we would go out and play. Most of the kids we played with were under 4 yrs. Old.  We had a chance to play basketball with a couple older kids and learned of their stories. 16 yr old Rosa Garcia and her little sister Briellen are soon moving to a foster home. Rosa tells us that she doesn't want to leave. Marla's House of Hope is different from most orphanages they are there not to be adopted but  to be given a secure home, a christian education and eventually placed in foster care. Many don't want to leave as it is the only home they've known. Miss Shellie,the director of the orphanage, tells us that one of the kids went to a family and calls her everyday to tell her how she is doing. It was sad for us to leave the kids but it was time for us to Venture on and pick up Troy. The night before Troy arrived we decided to spend the night at the Belize Zoo. Adjacent to the zoo is an educational center with guest houses. Our stay included delicious meals and a nocturnal tour through the zoo with flashlights.  Since we had time, we decided to check the Zoo out in the daylight. In the day we saw king vultures, boa constrictors, deer( not that exciting for us north-west-ians)  One of our favorites was a large black animal with long legs and a nose that looks like an anteaters. It's called a Tapir. Nicknamed: "Mountain Cow." Tapirs are Belize's national animal. They are very friendly and we got to feed them carrots on the nocturnal tour. We saw spider monkeys, Scarlet macaws and crockadiles but our tour really turned into a adventure at the howler Monkey exhibit. As we were searching the trees for the monkey's just five feet from the railing/ fence that kept them in, a branch plops down, A mother monkey and her brand new born baby on her back was staring at us...She was SOOO close to the fence, we were all wondering if she was gonna jump out. And sure enough, she did!! She jumped right in front of us!!  She walked along the railing so close we could have reached out and touched her. There happened to be a puma exhibit right behind us, the puma  growling loudly pounced on the cage and scared US and the monkey back in to her habitat, for a few moments it was mayham! We finished our time at this amazing little zoo with a visit to the Cautimundi and a  Jaguar pacing by my side 2 feet away, the only thing separating us was chain link fence!    The nocturnal Tour was plump full of information  It was quite a experience except for my mom stepped in a red ant hill at the tapir exhibit and her feet got severly stung! After that we went to our awesome guest house right outside of the zoo, It was a super fun stay despite one of our  coldest nights here and the mouse Visitor in our room:-)  What an adventure we are On!    Troy arrived safley on the 28th and we have spent some time in the jungle where most of these animals were rescued. Our next blog will be about our trip into the ATM caves, a exquisite adventure of climbing cliffs, swimming through tight channels and viewing the artifacts from back in the times where the Mayans would hold human sacfafice andvritual offerings to their gods