Belize Rainforests: Wildlife to terrify and fascinate us

If there is one holiday that threw us straight into the unfamiliar the moment we left the airport – this was it. We went into this stage of the trip with some trepidation, not really having much idea what to expect from a country we had barely heard of, and that seemed to be remarkably uncovered by most of the routine travel literature. This made the holiday that bit more exciting, it felt like our own little secret venue, yet exceeded so many expectations for adventure and wildlife.

All the logistics had been arranged by Reef & Rainforest, who I think are probably the best travel agents we have ever used, specialising as they do in family trips to…. Reefs and Rainforests. They had arranged for us to be met at the Airport by Francisco, a guide working for Pook’s Hill Lodge, the fantastic but tiny hotel in the thickness of the rainforest that we were due to stay in. Over the next week, Francisco was to become our greatest friend. His vast knowledge and enthusiasm for the wildlife, Mayan culture, and scenery of Belize was matched by his patience with the children.

Francisco suggested stopping at the Zoo on the way to the Hotel, as it was quite close to the airport, but when we arrived there it wasn’t remotely like the European City Zoos that we were used to. Fransisco parked the van next to a couple of old pick-ups in a small clearing in the jungle which looked more like his mate’s farm than a visitor attraction. Then the excitement began. I hate snakes. The boys love them. Filled with dangerous ideas from TV wildlife shows of Boa Constrictors and the Fer de Lance (one of the largest and most deadly snakes of Central and South America), we were greeted at the gate by a chap with a boa constrictor in his arms. He draped it round the shoulders of the gleeful boys, while they asked whether the zoo had a Fer de Lance. The not so re-assuring answer was that they did, but it had managed to get out of its enclosure a couple of days previously so they weren’t sure where it was!

As it was, the zoo was a lovely informal collection of creatures hidden and not so hidden in the trees around us. The zoo was very much in the thick of the jungle, with a vast variety of some of the local larger cats, including Jaguars and Ocelots (fortunately separated from us by secure enclosures). We also so the very odd-looking Tapir, often hailed as Belize’s national mammal, huge numbers of vividly coloured shrieking birds, more crocodiles than I would usually choose to associate with, the odd snake scuttling across the path in front of us  - all in all this was a great way for kids to start a visit to a new country!

We continued on to the hotel, the excitement rising as we eventually turned off the main road into the driveway. However this was no ordinary driveway – 5 miles of rutted track later and almost an hour since we’d left the main road – the jungle cleared and a stunning collection of thatched huts appeared in a little clearing. Separated from the rest of the hotel by a tiny footbridge, our room stood on stilts above the valley floor raising it to the level of the rainforest canopy. This enabled us to be level with plenty of birds and animals. Loudly growling howler monkeys were a theme of the night and early morning, we also saw a huge owl, numerous toucans and humming birds and the occasional group of bats from our balcony. Lower down on the ground next day, Francisco took us for a walking tour of the grounds, extracting rubber from the rubber trees, showing us more wildlife hidden in the jungle, more snakes. Later on we repeated the walk after dark to see the shining eyes of the nocturnal animals reflected in our torch beams, and tarantulas coming out of the holes in the forest floor.  Back again the next day, we drifted in rubber inner tubes down the slowly meandering river that bordered the grounds, after a warning to watch out for crocodiles. We made clay models from the clay in the river bed, hardening them in the sun.

Our major day out from here was to visit the vast Mayan ruin of Xunantunich. Rising 130 feet from the jungle floor, this was quite an effort to climb to the top in the heat, with howler monkeys giving a steady amused commentary on our progress. Francisco carried our 5 year old daughter most of the way up, after that they were firm friends. The view from the top was amazing, dense jungle covered mountains in every direction. We were less than a mile from the Guatemala border here, marked by a river hidden somewhere beneath the trees. The site is huge, it must have been a vastly populated thriving city in the centuries before European invaders. We toured the remains of numerous buildings and paved spaces across it, Francisco explaining many of the customs, beliefs, and games, including a version of volleyball where the losing team would have been beheaded. The boys were keen to start a game but it was a bit hot and humid for us all to join in.  

We continued on to the small town of San Ignacio, having a look around the town and a good wander through the market. We finished off the day with a canoe journey up the river with 2 guides to help us paddle the canoes and spot the wildlife. This was where we saw the hideous 4 foot long dinosaur-like Iguanas. They perched perfectly still on the branches overhanging the water, so much so that they were hard to see until we were almost on top of them; at which point they would clumsily and surprisingly quickly retreat crashing through the forest. We disturbed a colony of bats in a cliff overhanging the river, that flew off in a dense swarm, did a quick loop of the river and returned to exactly the same spot.

The final day we were so sad to leave, it had been a really wonderful stay after such trepidation in advance. As we sullenly munched our breakfast in the dining room, Francisco suddenly ran in to grab the boys with the news that a King Snake was lying on the driveway. They ran off to see the last horrifically deadly animal of the trip before we returned to the van and headed to the seaside for the next stage of our adventure. Before we went to Belize, all the children were addicted to the adventures of Steve Backshall and his “Deadly 60” series, in which he hunted out deadly creatures around the world. In just a week, we managed to cover plenty of these ourselves, but right there, in the wild, and in person rather than the safety of a sofa in front of the TV. This was the trip where the unfamiliarity made the excitement of travelling.