Belize - February 3, 2008

On Day 3 we awoke to rain..hard rain. But, we could also hear the sounds of Howler Monkeys who didn't seem phased by the rain. By the time we were up and out of bed, the rain had stopped and the sun was coming up (Don't expect to sleep in when you are in the jungle).

Before breakfast we hiked out the main road to the suspension bridge. We frequented this area a lot since it was a hot bed of wildlife activity:


In the area by the bride we could see a Green Heron, a Purple Crowned Fairy (humming bird), various kinds of Manakins, and more Spider Monkeys. We could also hear the haunting call of a Great Tinamou. Such a great call.

And they look pretty cool too:


Green Heron:


White-collared Manakin:


After breakfast we took a long walk around the Upper Plaza area and down Sylvester road. Here are some of the sights from that hike:

Rainforest Toad:


Slaty Tailed Trogon:


Pair of Pale Billed Woodpeckers:


Roadside Hawk:


The afternoon was really eventful including our first actual sightings of Howler Monkeys, a brief glimpse of an Agouti as it crossed the trail, and some closeup looks at the Mayan tombs. But the highlight was our encounter with a Collared Peccary. We were approaching a Y intersection in the trail when we saw movement coming down the left hand side of the Y. So, we froze until we could see what it was. This Peccary was sprinting down the trail and my first thought was that he was coming for us (I know that Peccaries can be agressive). So, my heart starting beating 1,000 beats per minute. However, our friend Mr. Peccary cruised through the intersection and didn't pay any attention to us.


We then thought that maybe he was running from something so we stayed still for another few minutes but the imagine of a running Jaguar that I had in my head never materialized in real life. Oh well, maybe next time. Other images from the walk included:

Tawny Winged Woodcreeper:


Owl Butterfly:


After dinner, we built up enough courage to head out by ourselves in the dark searching for critters. We saw enough Wolf Spiders to last a lifetime on the hike but not much else. When we returned to the cabana, we saw that our old friend the Basilisk was back:


Along with some buddies including this House Gecko:


Another great day packed with wildlife. But, still no wild felines. We decide to make the search for these felines a priority for tomorrow.