Belize February 2017
We spent 9 days in Belize this year on a birding and snorkeling trip.
We stayed at the Crystal Paradise Lodge in western Belize
This is the dining/social area - all open, no bugs
Both Dinners & Breakfasts were at 6:30
There were feeding stations on the deck that attracted lots of birds.
Click HERE to see more of the birds we saw
This is our room. It's an eco-lodge with naturally air conditioned rooms.
Notice the large screens and thatched roof.
Despite this being central america, nights were quite plesant (high 60s).
We had four full days of birding visitong a wide variety of habitats.
We identified 161 species, 130 of which we had never seen before.
On one trip we crossed the Belize River on a unique car ferry...
Pulled across the river on a cable via hand cranking
This was quite a unique experience
Birding took us to a number of wildlife preserves
Andy (left) was our full time guide. His knowledge of the birds of the area was impressive
and his ability to spot birds in very difficult locations was incredible
One of our trips was to Tikal National Park in Guatemala.
The Park encompasses 575 square kilometres of jungle and thousands of ruined structures.
The central part of the ancient city alone contains 3,000 buildings and covers about 16 square kilometers.
It is a major Mayan site that was abandoned over 1000 years ago.
This is a monument that has been partially excavated.
There were three identical structures like this on this part of the site.
The other two like this one have not been excavated.
It's amazing what 1000 years in the jungle can do.
This is at the rear of what's called Temple 1
This is the front of Temple 1
Our group in front of Temple 1
This is a view of the Grand Plaza with Temple 1 on the right
Tikal was featured in In “Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope,”
We are standing in front of the largest temple rising 70 meters above the jungle floor.
The last 3 days of our trip were spent on the Belize coast on Caye Caulker
Belize has the second largest barrier reef in the world.
In Caye Caulker the reef is almost a mile offshore so, to go snorkeling, you need to take a boat out there.
This is the main street in Caye Caulker - Kind of laid back.
There were a lot of nice places to eat there.
This one had a great atmosphere for lunch.
We birded and traveled with John and Abbie Dux who we didn't meet until we arrived in Belize.