third and final week - back to Belize

we got a ride from Tical with the owner of our hotel

he took us to his other hotel in Flores

we thought we should at least spend a few nights in a Guatemalan town

Flores is a picturesque little town on Lake Peten

 our room had a great view

 and a great bathtub 

which I thoroughly enjoyed

 there were lots of great little restaurants on the island
which you could easily walk around

but to go over to Santa Elena it was nice to take the little bike/combi things

so next morning we took one of those to the bus stop in Santa Elena

and got a van back to the Belize Guatemala border

one of the highlights of my whole trip happen on that ride back -

I had a good seat in the second row of the van with a clear view of the road ahead

there was nothing on the road and then I see a big black cat crossing the road

what I thought was a regular cat but

he/she was huge

and when it leaped off the side of the road I knew it was not a regular cat - no way

I had seen the famous black panther

called a jaguar in Central America

the image of that huge cat crossing the road

is burned in my memory
(you know that's not my photo right?)

we again walked across the easy and friendly border of Guatemala and Belize
took a cab back to San Ignacio

and to my favorite hotel in time for sunset

and to see a rainbow after the storm

we had planned to go out to Tobacco Caye and snorkel for our last few days

but the weather was not good and it was too cool for us Floridians

we decided to stay inland and check out the Belize Zoo

this was a display of bird feathers in the restaurant

 it was a small zoo

 but we could see howler monkeys up close

 and the big cats

 they just paced their perimeter around the fence

it was wonderful to see them but hard to see them caged

the zoo was a rescue zoo but still....

 this was a huge bird - can't find it's name

the toucans were hams - they literally posed for us

 this is an eagle that we don't have in the states

 no mistaking it from this angle

they had a black Jaguar but we didn't see it

which made my sighting from the van even more special

 the birds were talking to me

right near the zoo was

  usually they had lots of young people who stayed
and did environmental study programs there

but no groups were there and we got the big cabin

with the big view

it was lovely

and just a short walk to a good restaurant

and then we played cribbage on the porch until the sun went down

we spent the last 4 nights at the Community Baboon Sanctuary 

in Bermudian Landing

only 30 miles to the airport but a world away

(remember 30 miles means 2 hours on the bus....)

they are really howler monkeys and not baboons
but the people had been calling them baboons for so long and the name stuck

I know, but that is what they told me

the community got together and protected their habitat
so that it is continuous through private land
you never know when you would get woke up by their eerie howling
but you knew you would
I never got use to it

it was nice to be in a town again
that had so little traffic cattle roamed the street

the first night we got there, a group of teachers were having a reunion
they had all gone to teachers college in Belize City 20 years before together

they were staying in the cabins, but we were the only other guests

the man on the right is Dr. Roy, his uncle started the place
and now he runs the Nature Resort, he was also part of their group

http://www.natureresortbelize.com/

the man on the left was there 20 years ago in the peace corps
helping young teachers and back for a visit

they took us in like we were their long lost relatives
they feed us - a very tasty barbecued chicken dinner I might add
then they sang and danced
they danced in a circle and someone would yell out -
do the lawn mower
and we would all do our version of the lawnmower
do the helicopter
that was my favorite as we all spun around
do the washing machine
these folks knew how to have fun

they invited us to breakfast and lunch the next day before they left
saying it was Belize love
they did let us bring the beer

I loved these amazing women
most of them have gone on to be principals and administrators
all over Belize

I can attest to the fact that the kids of Belize are in good hands


too soon our trip was over

but the memories as they say - last a lifetime

xxoo

   - thanks W. Michel for the great photos and D. Cooper for this wonderful artwork

ps - on to California in a couple days for a family memorial
and a week camping in Death Valley afterward
hoping the desert will be in spring bloom

stay tuned