We hired tour guide Gilbert Garbutt from Barefoot Services to do a private transport from Belize City to Placencia with some sightseeing and hiking tours along the way. We took the George Price Highway from Belize City (the former capital) to Belmopan (the current capital) and then got on the lovely Hummingbird Highway to wend our way through the Maya Mountains into the southern part of Belize.
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| We even had color coordinated footwear suitable for hiking the trails. |
After a few hours on the road, we stopped at Miss Bertha's for homemade "fyah haat" tamales for our lunch. It is a popular spot for locals, so we were pleased to arrive before she was sold out. The tamales were excellent.
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| The Poor Man's Refridge referred to on the sign is a cool spring to the back where folks can leave their beverages to cool off for later. |
Along the way to the Jaguar Reserve in the Cockscomb Basin, we passed some of the old narrow gauge railway trestles that paralleled the bridge we were on.
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| Old trestles |
The railway was built around 1930 and was used to transport bananas and logs to the coastal village of Dangriga until 1961 when the Hummingbird Highway was built over portions of the railway bed. The highway has been improved several times over the years and is now a delight to travel along - beautiful views of the Maya Mountains with its many streams and rivers, tiny villages surrounded by small fields of produce and fruit trees, large citrus operations, and mile after mile of untamed jungle. There are several National Parks along the highway and we went back to one of those parks toward the end of Becki's visit.
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| Becki with papier-mâché jaguar mascot of the reserve. |
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| Passion flower on a vine adorning the toilets. |
Gilbert led us on a hike to Ben's Waterfall. It was pretty steep in places and a little slick in some muddy spots.
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| Our guide leading the way up and up |
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| and then down and down. |
Gilbert showed us which trees were safe to grab hold of and which trees to avoid touching. The waterfall at the destination was worth the effort.
I have some good videos of the waterfall, but our internet is having issues at the moment, so all I can upload are still shots.
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| The main fall. The water is so clear and has a lovely blue color in the deepest part. |
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| Looking down on the lower fall. |
The jungle was so very lush and green and alive. We didn't see any jaguars - that's a good thing - but Gilbert did say he could smell one. I caught a faint whiff of it, but I would not have noticed it if he had not pointed it out.
After we hiked back out, Gilbert drove us to Placencia where our friend Jason picked us up in his boat to bring us home to Englishtown. By then it was getting pretty dark and we were quite tired. We dealt with the circus of the dogs meeting a new person, had dinner with Dennis, and then it was time to fall into bed after a long day.
