Laughing Bird Cay and Monkey River, Belize
Like shiny pink and white slippers all in a row, Queen Conch shells lined the coralline pathways of Laughing Bird Cay. As sea dwellers, they use their operculum to dig into the sand and “pole” themselves forward with a contraction of the foot muscle. Not fast movers by any stretch of the imagination, but look where they live. Who would want to explore this treasure chest of jeweled fish, sparkling shells and frilled corals at breakneck speed? Certainly not us and we leisured in the warm waters, strolled along the parrotfish poop beach and lounged under the shade of coconut trees.
This was our first outing as we explored the reef system along the coast of Belize, and we literally dove into the experience. Outfitted with snorkels and flippers, we hobbled over the knobs and fragments of corals past and became undersea explorers. The soft coral fans waved friendly hello’s as we floated at the waters surface. Wide-eyed squirrel fish started back at our masked faces and darted into the safety of coral folds and crevices.
With the afternoon we had a stark contrast in waters. We navigated to the Monkey River and found it pouring its sediment load into our cerulean playground of the morning. Our explorations were above water level this time. In either kayaks or Zodiacs we puttered or paddled upstream and searched the canopy and waterline for everything from iguanas to egrets. We found both, and oh so much more. A bare-throated tiger heron wearing the ebony bars of its namesake was found perched on a riverside cecropia tree. A few found black shadows of howler monkeys in the distant tree tops and most of us found iguanas, clasping their lofty tree top perches as they basked in the late afternoon sun. One iguana was sighted on the end of a cohune palm frond, and we decided this iguana was having the equivalent of a roller coaster ride, as the twenty foot frond dipped and swayed in the afternoon breeze.
The “bird of the day” was a plumbeous kite, which was extremely cooperative and timely as it came to rest in a tree right next to where we met a Zodiac dispensing ice cream treats. Eating ice cream on a river with birds and binoculars at hand, that is our pace as we explore “The Reefs and Rivers of the Mayan World.”
Like shiny pink and white slippers all in a row, Queen Conch shells lined the coralline pathways of Laughing Bird Cay. As sea dwellers, they use their operculum to dig into the sand and “pole” themselves forward with a contraction of the foot muscle. Not fast movers by any stretch of the imagination, but look where they live. Who would want to explore this treasure chest of jeweled fish, sparkling shells and frilled corals at breakneck speed? Certainly not us and we leisured in the warm waters, strolled along the parrotfish poop beach and lounged under the shade of coconut trees.
This was our first outing as we explored the reef system along the coast of Belize, and we literally dove into the experience. Outfitted with snorkels and flippers, we hobbled over the knobs and fragments of corals past and became undersea explorers. The soft coral fans waved friendly hello’s as we floated at the waters surface. Wide-eyed squirrel fish started back at our masked faces and darted into the safety of coral folds and crevices.
With the afternoon we had a stark contrast in waters. We navigated to the Monkey River and found it pouring its sediment load into our cerulean playground of the morning. Our explorations were above water level this time. In either kayaks or Zodiacs we puttered or paddled upstream and searched the canopy and waterline for everything from iguanas to egrets. We found both, and oh so much more. A bare-throated tiger heron wearing the ebony bars of its namesake was found perched on a riverside cecropia tree. A few found black shadows of howler monkeys in the distant tree tops and most of us found iguanas, clasping their lofty tree top perches as they basked in the late afternoon sun. One iguana was sighted on the end of a cohune palm frond, and we decided this iguana was having the equivalent of a roller coaster ride, as the twenty foot frond dipped and swayed in the afternoon breeze.
The “bird of the day” was a plumbeous kite, which was extremely cooperative and timely as it came to rest in a tree right next to where we met a Zodiac dispensing ice cream treats. Eating ice cream on a river with birds and binoculars at hand, that is our pace as we explore “The Reefs and Rivers of the Mayan World.”
