Cockscomb Basin Jaguar Preserve, Belize
This is what the tropics are all about: warm climate, tropical rainforest, animal and plant diversity! Very early morning found us anchored off a small community near the town of Dangriga, in the Atlantic country of Belize. We took a 45-minute bus ride to the Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Reserve near a small Maya community. The 120,000 acre reserve is known for the high numbers of the so-elusive jaguar as well as 250 species of birds.
Different groups had been earlier established: short and long hikes into the jungle, as well as more fun-loaded meanders down a pristine river cutting through the rainforest, back to the Visitor’s Center. Because we had started so early, we had marvelous opportunities to see lots of wildlife, including a wondrous variety of sea and land birds, which included mot-mots, crested guans and chachalacas, trogons, so-scarlet tanagers, as well as hawks and tiny hummingbirds. Some mammals were seen, in form, like the red squirrel, and in tracks such as those of tapirs and the shy jaguar (photo). In the case of this last animal, so endangered in the rest of the New World, here are tracks of a female with her cub!
Box-turtles along the muddy path, and small two-striped pocket bats were enjoyed, as well as so many of the jungle trees, huge living beings, hundreds of years old. Some of them, those near to the streams and rivers had wide buttresses to give them more support along the muddy banks. Heliconias, lianas and many smaller plants in bloom decorated all the paths through this cornucopia of vegetation. Some flowers were very fragrant, others were just beautiful...
By midday we were back on the ship, and commenced a jaunt along the coast to a small locality known as Nautical Inn, where we rested on the beach the rest of the afternoon, after having seen two huge green iguanas in the coconut palms of the place. Yes! This is the tropics!
This is what the tropics are all about: warm climate, tropical rainforest, animal and plant diversity! Very early morning found us anchored off a small community near the town of Dangriga, in the Atlantic country of Belize. We took a 45-minute bus ride to the Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Reserve near a small Maya community. The 120,000 acre reserve is known for the high numbers of the so-elusive jaguar as well as 250 species of birds.
Different groups had been earlier established: short and long hikes into the jungle, as well as more fun-loaded meanders down a pristine river cutting through the rainforest, back to the Visitor’s Center. Because we had started so early, we had marvelous opportunities to see lots of wildlife, including a wondrous variety of sea and land birds, which included mot-mots, crested guans and chachalacas, trogons, so-scarlet tanagers, as well as hawks and tiny hummingbirds. Some mammals were seen, in form, like the red squirrel, and in tracks such as those of tapirs and the shy jaguar (photo). In the case of this last animal, so endangered in the rest of the New World, here are tracks of a female with her cub!
Box-turtles along the muddy path, and small two-striped pocket bats were enjoyed, as well as so many of the jungle trees, huge living beings, hundreds of years old. Some of them, those near to the streams and rivers had wide buttresses to give them more support along the muddy banks. Heliconias, lianas and many smaller plants in bloom decorated all the paths through this cornucopia of vegetation. Some flowers were very fragrant, others were just beautiful...
By midday we were back on the ship, and commenced a jaunt along the coast to a small locality known as Nautical Inn, where we rested on the beach the rest of the afternoon, after having seen two huge green iguanas in the coconut palms of the place. Yes! This is the tropics!
