Belize Day 3: to Caracol, May 29, 2025

 Antiquities Day 1!. Up at 6 a.m., and ready at 6:30 for the longish drive S and then SW to Caracol, with Julio Tut, our guide. The Belize - Caracol road is still under construction; the idea, apparently, is to take cruise passengers from Belize City to the Mayan ruins by bus, through that seems like a long drive to me. 

After passing Mountain Pine, we stopped to see and photograph a beautiful Laughing Falcon, perched on a high dead tree.

Apparently a million dollar bridge, but not done yet. 

Bridge under construction

As seems to be true elsewhere in Belize, the roads are either recently-completed and excellent, or unimproved and execrable. About a third of our trip was on the latter. Nevertheless we arrived; the site itself is also still under construction, with the visitor’s center and museum still incomplete. The Mayan pyramids were finished a couple of millennia ago; of which more anon. And the oropendola colony had already moved on…

Belize Day 2; May 28, 2025

Up at 5 a.m. to do a pre-breakfast birdwalk. Saw two species of parrots (red-lored and white-fronted), a black capped trogon, and miscellaneous small fry. 

After a decent breakfast, we boarded Julio's brother's car and drove 4 miles up the Macal river, to start our canoe trip. I was initially confused, thinking we'd paddle upstream against a steady current, just so we could return to the car, but instead Julio said he was driving, sitting in the stern while Marjorie and I kibitzed. And so we paddled 4 miles downriver, back to the resort. A very pleasant little jungle river.

Saw Amazon and Green Kingfishers, Neotropic Cormorants, Northern Rough-winged Swallows, river otters, and a lot of Russet-napped Wood Rails, which I didn’t at all expect.

That afternoon, we repaired to our air-conditioned room, so I could struggle with Affinity Photo 2. More anon.

Day 1: to Belize

Up at 4:50 p.m. to catch the 5:30 airport shuttle. Far too early, as always. Flight left 7:57 for Miami, and we have a 2 hour connection to Belize. Miami airport Is looking cleaner than I remember (from a long time ago). Found our business class seat allows us into the Admiral’s Club, and a free Bloody Mary.

On-time take-off, and thanks to Belize being GMT+7 instead of +5, we should land before we set off. Yay! 

We didn’t stop at the Belize Zoo, but took a turn-off at the Monky Bay Reserve, to break up the long, hot, dusty ride up to Chrystal Paradise resort. There, Julio our guide found us ruddy ground doves, tody flycatchers, great kiskadees, social flycatchers, spot-breasted wrens and sulphur-bellied flycatchers.

Sulphur-bellied flycatcher 

Black-headed saltator

Julio had some interesting stories about the Modern Mennonites, who came to Belize from Canada in 1958. Apparently they didn’t like Hispanics, and so their town is called Spanish Lookout, which originated as a warning. Neither very Canadian nor very Anabaptist, I would have said. But maybe the two congenital politenesses cancel each other out. We also saw a regular Amish buggy; not all the Mennonites are modern. 

Crystal Paradise, just south of San Ignacio is a beautifully kept resort, and the time before dinner we whiled away watching the vast number of birds that visit their feeders. I’m still trying to make my graphics software work on my iPad — I decided to leave behind the laptop because it might have drawn the attention of the Trumpkin CBP goons — but the learning curve for Affinity Photo 2 on the iPad is steep. Still, to tide you over, here’s a red-legged honeycreeper. 

And, of course, one can’t show too many pictures of Collared Aracaris!

Collared Aracari

We collapsed into bed, after a passable chicken dinner, at 7 p.m.; I was helped by two antihistamines I took to quell the itch from the fire-ants I stood on the day we left.