ELEPHANTS!!!

We spent an incredible day yesterday getting to meet some wonderful elephants at the Elephant Conservation Center (near Chiang Mai in Thailand). We got to feed them bananas, we got to ride an elephant thru the jungle, we got to see some baby elephants with their mothers and then we watched them take a bath!

Rodolfo's birthday is tomorrow and one of his biggest dreams for the trip was to ride an elephant!! WE DID IT!!!!!

Elephants are incredible animals!!! They eat a lot, drink a lot and poop a lot, and they're covered with the most incredible black stiff hair with extremely rough, dry and hard skin. (They made special gift paper out of their poo. Really pretty!)

There is a great conflict in Thailand amongst westerners whether or not riding/visiting/seeing elephants is humane. We visited the particular center where they also keep the royal white elephants and it also houses an elephant hospital and their were mainly Thai visitors in the center. The area is full of big natural ponds for elephant romping and a serene forested country side. The elephants we met looked extremely happy to be there! The caretakers use a stick with a small metal hook on the end to communicate with their elephants behind their ear, but they never hit or hurt the elephant with it....our particular elephant rider spent a great deal of time massaging his elephant behind the ears with his bare feet and calmly talking to her as well to communicate where to go next.

Although I don't speak elephant, they looked very happy to me, and we were extremely happy to meet them!
WE LOVE ELEPHANTS!!!!