Day 6

 We started our day off with breakfast at the Nuuk Cheil Cottages. Once again Marcia did not disappoint us with her cooking skills. She prepared scrambled eggs, fried ham and some fresh fruits. After breakfast we packed up and got into the van and headed on down the road. After a long two minute drive down the road we stopped at a gift store and chocolate shop. The gift shop was full of hand crafted and traditional Belizean art and the chocolate shop had some of the best and most fresh chocolate I’ve ever tasted. From there we took a drive back towards Belize City. It was a perfect day for travel as it was raining most of the day.

 We made a quick pit stop at the Belize Zoo. Once we arrived to the zoo we broke into individual groups and headed towards the animals. Our first stop was Ernie the otter, a friendly and playful otter that was rescued in 2022. We then headed on down towards the coatimundis, they were very energetic, and looked like a raccoon with a skinny face and long tail. I think we can agree everyone favourite stop was the jaguar jungle, one of these jaguars had lost an eye and was brought to the zoo when found scavenging a dump site. The other jaguar was Chiqui, she was a orphan in the Chiquibul jungle and was found drowning in a river. The Zoo also had a few Ocelots, these cats are endangered and are illegal to hunt for. Their unique fur is what makes them so valuable and can take up to 30 cats to make one single jacket. 

 The zoo also had a variety of birds such as the Collared Aracari,  Crested Guan, Ornate hawk eagle, and the Brown Pelicans. Some of the special species of birds was the Scarlet Macaw and Red Lored Parrot. Lastly, the Central American Tapir. This animal is also know as the mountain cow. It is the national animal for Belize and that is why this animal holds such great value. Although you would think that mountain cows were related to anteaters they are more closely related to horses and rhinos! They are very rare to come across, but lucky for us we were able to see one after looking in 5 different pens for them. 

After the zoo we ate at a local restaurant called Cheers. Then made our way back into the city, we were dropped off at the Belize water taxi station to make our way to Caye Caulker Island. After we boarded onto the boat and gave a quick tuning to Landon for being a nail, we set sail for an hour cruise. Once the boat arrived on the island we grabbed our luggage and made our way to the Tropical Paradise Resort. We quickly unpacked and headed back up town through the streets of Caye Caulker Island. A lot of locals provided taxi services on side by sides and bicycles for people to rent. We ended our night with a restaurant that was over the water and fresh 6 ounce lobsters. 

- Maeve Kennedy

Dock at Caye Caulker

Swings 

Streets of Caye Caulker



Ocelot

jaguar 


Scarlet macaw 



Comments

  1. Dave HookerDecember 14, 2024 at 9:47 AM

    Thanks everyone for all of the blogs and photos! Safe travels !

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Join us on a Journey to Belize

Image
Join us from December 7-14, 2024, where Chris Gillard and I will be leading a group of Ridgetown students on a study tour of Belize. We will be visiting a number of farms and agribusinesses throughout the week where we will experience both modern and traditional Mayan agricultural practices. We will get to see some beautiful countryside, experience the different cultures, foods, and history of the region.  To share this incredible adventure, our students will be documenting their experiences through daily blog posts accompanied by captivating photos. Join us on this expedition of discovery—stay tuned and follow along! Jocelyn Smith
Read more

Day 1

Image
  Day 1 was the day we left for our trip. We met at the YYZ airport at 7:15 am. Because of a few delays it took some  time to get through baggage drop off. But we made it through with about a hour before our flight left at 10:15. Me and Steven decided we should eat before the flight so we had smash burgers. The girls didn't eat. We boarded the flight around 9:50 and because of snow on the wings we were not in the air till 11. We landed in Belize around 2pm local time. We then had to wait in a super long line for customs to let us in. We found our bags quickly and got a van and slept most of the way to the resort in San Ignacio. We got there about 6pm and dinner was at 6:30. We quickly went to our rooms. Some people changed and we came back up. We had some really good dinner. Steven and Cassie had the pineapple chicken. I had stuffed chicken and chicken Alfredo. We were planning on swimming after dinner but by the time we had dinner and dessert it was 8:30 and pool closed at 9 ...
Read more

Day 2

Image
 Day 2 in Belize We started off the day with an all you can eat breakfast in the hotel restaurant. We left at 8:30 to take a quick drive to the first sight of our trip. We got to Xunantunich at 9 and took a VERY quick hand cranked ferry over the Mopan river to drive to the site. The site was discovered in 1890 and opened to the public in 1954. We got a private tour by Jr. Jr. (Eder). There were many buildings, but the star of the show would have to be El Castillo marking it the tallest man made structure in Belize thought to be built throughout 5 generations (approximately 52 years per layer for a total 420 years). There were many building we saw including where one of the ruling queens were buried, the ball court, the home of the royals, a trading post building, and accommodating rooms. While we were waiting for the ferry to come back Jr. Jr. our tour guide told us the the road we were on was flooded for 2 months during the wet season and because of the Tropical Storm Sarah and ju...
Read more