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| Striped Basilisk |
Friday, May 09, 2014
Boy, it was hot last
night. Whew! I finally got up just to sit outside for a
while in hopes of a breeze! A little
after 6am I walked up to where we saw the toucan yesterday to see if I could
spot him again. I took pictures of many
plants that at home are in pots, and grow like crazy here, i.e. philodendron,
Bromeliads and pathos. And then: I heard
a fluttering in the tree and saw a toucan in the tree! I managed to get a nice photo before he flew
away. Success! (Collared Aracari)
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| Common houseplants here are growing wild here! The vines just climb the tree trunk. |
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| Collared Aracari |
After a nice
breakfast, Rico and I mounted up for my last ride. June has been a wonderful horse for me to
ride. We rode through the jungle for a
while, then through the pine forest that has no pines. The pine beetle has decimated most of the pine
trees in Belize, then fires have reduced the numbers even more. But we finally rode through areas where young
trees are growing again. We cantered a
few times and trotted a little. June’s
trot is pretty rough. Definitely prefer
the canter! She is a fast walker, so that
is also preferred to her trot!
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| A view of the valley, MET is waaaay off in the distance. |
We took a rest at a
nice overview point to look into the valley of the jungle. We could see MET way off in the
distance. Continued riding until we got
to the hitching area at the Big Rock Waterfall.
We had to climb down a very steep set of rocks and stairs. Whew, worried about coming back up!
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| This is just a small portion of the steep stairs and trail to the waterfall. |
The waterfalls are
spectacular! This is what I have wanted
to see!
Met up with a couple
of back packers, Lauren and Ryan, from Colorado. I took some pictures of them jumping off of
the rocks into the pools below the waterfall.
They shared lunch with us, chicken and rice soup, marinated cukes and
green bell peppers, and brownies. It was
fun chatting with them and giving them some ideas on what they may want to do
as they head toward the coast.
Jackie and I had a
wonderful refreshing swim in the pool below the falls. We did not jump off of any rocks…
We slowly and
carefully climbed out and continued on our way.
We stopped to see a stick bird… you just have to see it to believe
it. I got some really good photos of it and
its baby! Then we stopped at a little
shop to get some spices, then to the butterfly farm.
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| Lauren and Ryan jumping into pool. |
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| Sliding through the chute! |
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| Jackie enjoying a dip in the pool. |
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| The Stick Bird and baby. (This is NOT photo shopped!) |
We had a very nice
tour through the little farm (and sweated buckets) and got some nice pictures
of different butterflies. Back to the
ranch for some yummy fruit juice and a nice rest before packing up L L L. Hard to
imagine that we are leaving tomorrow morning.
This has been a
fabulous trip: good work done with World Vets, lots of critters taken care of,
got to see some buddies and make new friends with members of the WV team, saw
some really neat sites in Punta Gorda, made new friends in Placencia and did
some incredible diving, and made more new friends and saw amazing things in The
Jungle with MET. Jackie has been
wonderful to travel with. Hope we can do
it again soon!
Until next time!
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