Nov 25
Belize City - November 25, 2017
We were at the airport a couple of hours before our 9:40am flight. It was fairly busy, so it was good that we arrived with lots of time to spare. After going through security, we took advantage of Bill’s Priority Pass and had continental breakfast at the KLM Lounge.
Our 2 hour flight to Belize City was uneventful and I was able to nap for most of it.
We were greeted at the airport by our driver Herbie and 2 other guests from the UK, Jill and Paul. Milton from Viaventure welcomed us and provided us with our itinerary for the week.
Herbie then drove us by Caravan for an hour to the dock. The drive was not very exciting. Once we left the city, we only passed through a couple of towns and did not see many people or other vehicles along the way.
George was our captain and tour guide for the one hour plus boat ride to the Lamanai Outpost Lodge. George was great at spotting birds along the way, pointing them out to us and giving us some information about them.
We saw the following birds and animals during our boat ride:
Lesser Nighthawk; the brown colour allows it to blend in with the dead branch it was asleep on
Proboscis or Long Nosed bats were asleep in a row on the trunk of the tree. During the night when they are awake and eat mosquitos
Osprey was in flight over the water
Jacana was also known as the Jesus bird because he walks on the water (on top of dead grass); it is similar to a sandpiper, but dark red in colour
Ringed Kingfisher which was one of the largest of its species, 1/5 kingfishers found in Belize; it was very shy and does not like to have its photo taken
Common Mud Slider Turtle was also shy and jumped into the water upon being spotted
Limpkin was super cool and is the only one of its species. It was similar to an egret in size, but had darker speckled feathers. It had a hooked bill in order to eat snails. George said it makes Jurassic Park-like calls and looks like a prehistoric bird in flight.
Pinto Horse, Holstein Cow, Goats and Chicken at the Shipyard. I say pardon? We were on the edge of a Mennonite village. There are 3,000 Mennonites that still only drive horse and buggy, drive tractors that have steel wheels and grow rice, corn and beans,. They produced 70% of all crops in Belize. We saw a young boy go barrelling by us on a Sea Doo, I guess that there is no rule for that one in the Mennonite handbook. And we could also see a lot of new full-sized pickups. So, I don’t think that they are all strictly religious.
Yellow Crowned Night Heron; We saw 2 adults and 1 immature one
Mangrove Swallows were on a dead branch during our ride and then on the dock when we arrived at the lodge.
Northern Rough Winged Swallow; we saw a large flock overhead during the boat ride
Great Black Hawk which has a yellow beak was sitting on a tree branch all by itself; it eats other birds, so likely does not have many friends
We docked and headed up to the main lodge. We saw a Rufous Tailed Hummingbird on the deck. We discovered throughout our time there that there a lots of these around the dining room, Bushy’s Place. I guess it helps that they have several hummingbird feeders around the area. We enjoyed watching them zip around or occasionally sit on the planter or leaves while we were having our meals. Another cool bird we saw for the first time was the Keel Billed Toucan.
We arrived at Lamanai Outpost Lodge around 3:00pm. We headed to Bushy’s Place and had some delicious potato soup with bacon and warm dinner rolls with lots of butter. We enjoyed our late lunch with Jill and Paul before sitting down with our guide Christian Ramirez. He explained the different tour options and we selected our plans for the next few days while we sipped on a pina colada and a Belikin, the national beer of Belize.
Chris walked us down to our room which overlooks the lagoon. So far we are really pleased with the guides and the accommodations.
Before dinner we chatted with an older gentleman and two ladies from Sydney. This is their last day at the lodge. They have had a great time so far and have enjoyed being at the lodge.
Paula and Janet served us a fantastic dinner. The shrimp ceviche was great and I really enjoyed the chicken tamales. For dessert Bill had bananas flambé and I had the best coconut pie ever! It was almost 100% shredded coconut and tasted so good! I will have to try to figure out how to make it. I think it was made with condensed milk.
After our first dinner in Belize, we did the Spotlight Safari boat tour. Down at the dock it was so clear and we could see thousands of stars. Abdul, Chris’ brother was our guide an we were joined by Mary and Catherine from Boston for the night cruise. We were seconds away from our dock when we began to see animals and birds.
Under the spotlight we saw:
Green Iguana in the branches
Orange adult Iguana male
Could hear the Limpkin and then saw two up in the tree
Morelet’s Crocodile under the water that swam directly under our boat. They are fairly small and get to be 12” at the largest. This one was probably 8 or 9” long.
Bats flying around the ruins dock
Common Pauraque on the ground; it is part of the nightjar family
Marine Toad on the rock; it only has one predator, Kinkajou, which belongs to the raccoon family (and we ended up seeing on the night walk on our last evening)
Basilisk lizard which runs across the water like the Jesus bird
Grey fox dashing around on the bank under the trees
Great Curassow which commonly known as the great turkey. It was a big black male, high up in a tree. It is endangered because it is large with lots of meat. Later we saw the brown female
Northern Potoo. Looks like an owl but not part of the family
Provision Tree flower blooms only at night and lasts for 24 hours. It is pollinated by moths and bats
Yucatan Nightjar standing up in the branches which is almost unique to the nightjar family. It is rare bird to see in this area.
Green Heron on a branch posing for us
Russet Naped Wood Rail or Grey Necked Wood Rail. This bird mates for life and was very pretty
Large termite nests in the trees which we saw a lot during our time at the lodge
Greater Fishing bats went flying by in front of the boat
After an hour we spent a few minutes in the boat with the engine cut and just stared up at the moon and stars. It was so beautiful and peaceful. We could hear some crickets and occasionally hear some birds, but mostly just the sound of the water lapping against the shore.
All the way back to the lodge Abdul piloted us back with the lights off and only the moon and stars to guide us. It was exhilarating and felt like we were flying! The water was so calm and was like a mirror reflecting back the trees and moon. It was a perfect way to end the tour and our day at the lodge.
Nov 28, 8:23am
Lamanai Outpost Lodge
Nov 25, 2:46pm
Nov 25, 9:25pm