Belize

While people back home are making sacrifices like restricting their movement, no large gatherings and only purchasing one package of toilet paper at a time, we too were making sacrifices like not going to Guatemala and instead going to the Belize zoo and staying in a jungle lodge. Painful, i know :)

I had heard the belize zoo was small but really well done. They were mostly right. Extremely well done and not small at all. It was a zoo for only animals found in belize and was basically set up in the jungle. For example, monkeys weren't in enclosures but in a forest area. And all the animals are rescues from the wild with the goal of setting them back into the wild once they are better and able. Animals include spider monkeys, howler monkeys, crocodiles, jaguars, jaguarundis, pumas, ocelots, tapir, coatis, vultures, harpy eagles, toucans, and deer. And more, but i forget now.

After the zoo, we drove to the jungle lodge "Jaguar Creek" i booked the evening before. It was in a very isolated location in a heavily forested area of jungle. We had an entire 2 bedroom cabin to ourselves. Alexa and i hiked the 30 minute loop trail through the jungle and then hopped into the creek's natural pool by a small waterfall to cool off, while mom relaxed at the cabin. This place has no A/C, no tv and no wifi, which i didn't realize when i booked it, but its really nice to be out in nature. Mom was perhaps less enthusiastic as it took me a while to convince her there were no snakes inside her mattress.

Disappointingly, we didn't spot any wildlife here, but we did hear the ferocious roar of the howler monkeys as we went to bed. Hopefully tomorrow we will reach the coast.Read more