Mom's visit: Part 2

we spent the second half of mom's visit in Hopkins with cuz Maya. on the way there, we stopped by the Belize Zoo, which i highly recommend. it was started by an American woman who initially came to Belize to work on a documentary film. she has since carved her little zoo that could out of the woods halfway between Belize City and Belmopan. the animal enclosures are basically just fences put up in the jungle, with paths carved out between. all the zoo's inhabitants are native to Belize, and all are rescue animals - whether from injury, abandonment, illegal ownership, or threatened death at the hands of angry farmers. since most are unfit for re-introduction to the wild, they're re-educated and sent to zoos in the states. the signs all around the zoo are written in a Kriol/English hybrid, and stress the importance of conserving the natural habitats in which these species live. they've got spider and howler monkeys, a couple tapirs (Belize's national animal, which is much bigger than i'd expected, and kind of reminds one of a fat anteater, but which is apparently related to the horse and rhinocerous. pretty prehistoric looking, if you ask me), eagles and scarlet macaws. but the highlight, for both me and mom, were the cats. Belize is known as one of the only places in the world where jaguars live in the wild. they're absolutely exquisite! a few examples...



who wouldn't love that face? he's about a year old, with paws big for his size.



black jaguar pacing. he did this the entire time we were standing in front of the cage. head down, back and forth, back and forth. we got down on the ground at one point to see his face, and i can say with authority that i would NOT want to meet him in the wild. all muscle and pent up energy. one interesting note: you can see the typical jaguar patterns on his fur, just that they're in shades of black and very dark brown.



ocelot curled up in the corner for a nap. he was maybe twice the size of Rufus. SO tempted to take him home...





Hopkins was wonderful. relaxing as a seaside vacation should be. we wandered about town, bought some carved wooden pieces from Maya's neighbor, walked the beach, ate some of Belize's best pizza and Indian food, and sailed down the Sittee River and out to Southwater Caye on a catamaran. didn't take mom long to find her favorite spot right at the front of the boat, where she could gaze into the impossibly bright blue and turquoise of the Caribbean. Maya and i did some snorkeling, where i started out by seeing an eel, swam with several schools of fish, encountered lots of my favorite Stoplight Parrotfish (look them up online, they're really cool), and ended the adventure with the sighting of a huge stingray. and i got to introduce mom to the world's best Mormons, Ashli and Todd, who charmed as usual.



Southwater Caye. one of the few places in Belize with a white sand beach. and you can see where sand comes from, as most of the beach consisted of small pieces of shells in the process of being ground down. the clouds in the background became increasingly threatening, and i got to watch as a gathering storm descended upon us. note: when being rained upon and choosing between the options of staying on not-so-sheltered land, returning to the boat, and hanging out in the water, definitely go for the latter. it's way warmer under the waves.



baby palm tree just trying to hold it's own (with a little help) against the sea breeze.



frigate bird circling for fish guts being tossed out by the fisherman cleaning the day's catch