Cockscomb Basin Jaguar Reserve and Sapotilla Lagoon, Belize
We cruised away from Belizean cayes today and arrived at Dandriga, on the southern mainland of this beautiful country. After snorkeling, diving and swimming for the first two days of our journey, most of us were ready to spend some time on solid ground. Here in northern Central America, right on the line of the Tropic of Cancer, one sees the subtle transition between the tropics and temperate zone. Looking at areas that combine pines with Cecropia trees, Toucans with Grosbeaks, and Monarchs with Blue Morpho butterflies, one senses the great genetic exchange that occurred when North and South America were joined in comparatively recent geological times.
Walking around on the trails of the Cockscomb Reserve, we saw waterfalls, rivers, lush forest covered with lianas and epiphytes, Peccaries and foxes secretively moving around and many species of birds flying around us. It was hard to take the binoculars away from our eyes. Honeycreepers, flycatchers, wrens, motmots, jacamars, tanagers, antbirds, hummingbirds, and like in the picture a Black-headed Trogon came and perched for a long time above our heads. It forced us to take a break, and reminded us of how special this group of birds (like the Quetzal), were to the Mayan people that lived here for thousands of years and valued the beauty of this magnificent bird like we do nowadays.
In the afternoon we repositioned the ship a bit south to visit Sapotilla Lagoon located at the mouth of the Cabbage Haul Creek, a wonderful place that combines a mangrove swamp estuary with pine savanna, and surrounded by rain forest. With the calls of flocks of parrots, herons, egrets and ibises that were coming to rest in this forest isolated by water, and with a colorful sunset in the sky, we went back to the ship not only with new species on our life list, but with new feelings of understanding and appreciation of this astonishing tropical ecosystem.
We cruised away from Belizean cayes today and arrived at Dandriga, on the southern mainland of this beautiful country. After snorkeling, diving and swimming for the first two days of our journey, most of us were ready to spend some time on solid ground. Here in northern Central America, right on the line of the Tropic of Cancer, one sees the subtle transition between the tropics and temperate zone. Looking at areas that combine pines with Cecropia trees, Toucans with Grosbeaks, and Monarchs with Blue Morpho butterflies, one senses the great genetic exchange that occurred when North and South America were joined in comparatively recent geological times.
Walking around on the trails of the Cockscomb Reserve, we saw waterfalls, rivers, lush forest covered with lianas and epiphytes, Peccaries and foxes secretively moving around and many species of birds flying around us. It was hard to take the binoculars away from our eyes. Honeycreepers, flycatchers, wrens, motmots, jacamars, tanagers, antbirds, hummingbirds, and like in the picture a Black-headed Trogon came and perched for a long time above our heads. It forced us to take a break, and reminded us of how special this group of birds (like the Quetzal), were to the Mayan people that lived here for thousands of years and valued the beauty of this magnificent bird like we do nowadays.
In the afternoon we repositioned the ship a bit south to visit Sapotilla Lagoon located at the mouth of the Cabbage Haul Creek, a wonderful place that combines a mangrove swamp estuary with pine savanna, and surrounded by rain forest. With the calls of flocks of parrots, herons, egrets and ibises that were coming to rest in this forest isolated by water, and with a colorful sunset in the sky, we went back to the ship not only with new species on our life list, but with new feelings of understanding and appreciation of this astonishing tropical ecosystem.
