Hi, all!
At the airport in San Pedro Town on Ambergris Caye we parted ways; the Mikes flew to BZE for their flight back to the US. Cherie, John, Susie, Jennifer, and I flew to the Belize City Municipal Airport where we were greeted by Wilfred from duPlooy's Jungle Resort, our awesome guide for the next 3 days. We loaded into the van and headed west to our 1st stop, the very unique and worthwhile Belize Zoo. Check out this Wikipedia page if you're interested in a little background. Here are some of my favorite photos from the zoo.
Tapirs
Spider monkey
Harpy eagle
Morelet's crocodile
Toucan
Jaguar yawning
We stopped at Amigo's for a Belizean Special lunch...
...and then headed west to the Green Iguana Project in San Ignacio.
Then we headed into the jungle to our home for the next 3 nights, duPlooy's Jungle Resort. This is our lovely 3 bedroom Macal House overlooking the Macal River.
The restaurant and bar and a meandering deck were at canopy level and the birdwatching was fantastic. Such a delight to see aracaris (toucanettes) and chachalacas at the feeder and in the trees.
duPlooy's has a huge, lovely Botanical Garden and we took full advantage of Wilfred's birding skills and spotting scope.
White-fronted parrots
Summer Tanager
We also took the birding on the road, although I think I'm being overly generous to use 'road' to describe the rocks we ground over for hours and the rivers we forded in order to explore the Caracol Maya site one day and to canoe into Barton Creek Cave to see the wonderful formations and 1000-year-old pots and bones the next. Here are some highlights:
Northern Jacana
Roadside hawk
Baltimore oriole
Black-headed trogon
Our last morning in Belize the Botanical Garden offered up more gifts: the Orchid House, the Medicinal Trail, and the River Walk Trail. I left a rock rainbow in return.
Then we headed to the border, left Belize behind, and started the Guatemala chapter of our trip.
All looks lovely. Thanks for posting about your trip. I showed my husband and he nodded. "Good find!"
ReplyDelete