JUNGLE JAMES CULTURAL TOUR & PETTING ZOO

We finally came to a sign that said "Jungle James Cultural Tour & Petting Zoo (on the way to Frederiksted)

We pulled into what looked like someone's driveway. I wasn't too sure about this. They did have some horses and sheep in the field along the way.

Once we parked, it was at someone's house. There weren't really any signs on where to go or what to do. Do we knock on the house?

Finally someone came out of an area behind the house and we ask if this was the petting zoo. He told us to come with him. It was a family living on 3 acres that grows everything, has multiple animals, and lives off the land. This should be interesting. The cost of the tour would be $5/pp.

We started in an area that had several people (not tourist but people I assumed that lived there) and the smell was horrible. You could tell there were animals there for sure. I wasn't quite sure why these people picked this area to sit in just because of the smell. It was very hot out and the smell of steaming hot feces made things worse. It wouldn't have been my "go-to" spot...just saying. There was plenty other trees on the property. There was just cage after cage in the area.

They had cages with animals in it from "bunny rabbits" to chickens. His daughter was holding one and they handed it off to Sakari. He told us that he cross bred a rabbit and a bunny and this was a bunny rabbit. This one was 3 weeks old.

There was a large fish tank that was green. He stated that it wasn't "dirty" but the sea grass inside of it made it appear that way and reached in and pulled some up from the bottom of the tank. There were guppies, gold fish and fighting fish in there? He stated he never had to feed them because they would eat the mosquito's from the top of the tank and the sea algae kept the water cool no matter how hot it was outside. I was left scratching my head on why he needed these fish and what their purpose was and you could definitely tell that the sides of the tank had algae growing on them and the color of the tank wasn't from sea grass on the bottom.

We continued on and out of this area. As we walked along various areas, he would show us his vegetables and fruits that he had on the property and would let us "try" them.

He has medicinal plants growing and picked one to tell us about how it fights covid and is all natural. He said it breaks up the mucous. He breaks it up and makes a drink and drinks it and he's around people with covid and he doesn't catch it. (It sounded like it he called it "cattle tongue" but I'm not sure).

He also had a plant called "Verb Vine" (I think is what he was saying) and it has health benefits that eliminate viruses from the body and other ailments.

There was a tree that grows a pea on it that is high in nutrients and a handful is equal to eating a steak.

 There were several ponds in the area and even tubs of water. He would explain that the fish in the ponds ate the mosquitos (again, like the tank) and it had tadpoles and frogs in it. He keeps water all over the place to keep away the butterflies because they are destructive.

We came to the bird area. He had multiple types of chickens that laid 3 different types of eggs. There were a lot of ducks in there too, a turkey and several peacocks.

 This really made me wonder...is this their actual operating bathroom? It was just a small box in the middle of all the trees and gardens.

He had been digging a well. It was to be 14-15' deep and that was all that was needed. He explained how it was going to work but it was still a work in progress.

There was a vine around the well with pink flowers. There are several stages it goes through from flowering to turning into a pod and then something that looked like a seed. He said you put the seed in a popcorn machine or put it in oil and it pops just like popcorn and taste just like popcorn. It cleanses the body while you eat it.

It took awhile, but Karl finally decided to hold the bunny rabbit and became quite attached to it. He had also became quite attached to the hubby's vacation hat as well and I don't think the hubby ever got it back the rest of the vacation.

There were vines growing all over a building and he disappeared under them and came out with passionfruit.

Sweet potato...our favorite!

This is a black bean vine. He decided to grow it going "up" instead of on the ground and said he made a Christmas Tree out of it. 😄

Dragon Fruit:

He said nothing on the land is wasted and he trades items grown there for other things. He stated it was a "non-profit" place but I'm not sure of his definition of non-profit. He grew vegetables and fruits and had eggs and so on and sells them to the public he said. He stated that he lives completely off the land and does not go to the grocery store...now wondering if you don't go to the grocery store, what do you use for necessities such as toilet paper (leaves?) or his cooking oil he mentioned for the popcorn. I wasn't completely convinced of this statement...just saying. Where does he get the food for the animals? He did say he involved in the schools and does tours for them and brings animals to the schools.

There were several white doves up in the trees. I'm not sure how he managed to keep them here and them not fly off. But, he states used in weddings.

He built an entire big shed just for this machine. It was a bottle crusher. He would use it for recycling and repurposing. He said it was very expensive. I honestly didn't quite understand why someone who lives off the land would need to crush bottles?

We had circled our way around and was back out to the front. He had a pet tortoise.

He handed a few guinea pigs to the fam to play with.

Then we headed over to another area...the pig area. In one pen there was a baby. To coax them out, he brought food.

Other pigs in another pen. Whew...the smell. He said they were a mixture of pig, pot belly pig and boar because everything here is cross bred.

I spotted an iguana up in the tree. I guess this guy knew the right house to hang out at...it had all the good food and would stay healthy here!

There was a baby horse that was only 3 weeks old. It was so cute!

He did mention he cross breeds every animal. He said that made them heat tolerant. ❓

We had spent a few hours here, tried multiple home grown items, smelled the smells, learned a lot of interesting facts on how to live off the land and now I wanted to go home and start planting things in my back yard...except I'm sure my 3 huskies would help themselves to anything I put out there so I guess that's not an option. It was time to move on.

Here's the location of Jungle James.