Up the Monkey River with Jason

A Monkey River tour is one of the most popular outings for nature lovers visiting Belize, and for good reason.  Dennis and I have taken a tour up the river many times, including a really fun night tour.  The standard tour is in the morning and we didn't want to join a convoy of boats, so this time we decided to take a late afternoon tour that would finish at dusk.  That was a good call - we were the only boat on the river and could look at whatever struck our fancy at a leisurely pace.  It seems the older I have gotten the less I like to be rushed.

Jason, our preferred tour guide (although all the guides are extremely competent and knowledgeable) driving Dennis, Becki, and me up the river.

The downside to a late evening tour is that the light can be a little low for zoomed photos on a phone camera.  

Great egret fishing for supper.

But sometimes you can catch the golden light.

Great egret on the left with a group of mature (white) and immature (brown) white ibises feeding in the shallows of the river.

A couple of mangrove swallow took a breather from catching mosquitoes over the river.  Yay for swallows!

Willows and cattails grow along the river banks.

This male green iguana is in its bright orange mating colors.  It is more than 3 feet long and was quite distant from the boat.

Adult bare-throated tiger heron.

Juvenile bare-throated tiger heron.

Bare-throated tiger herons are fairly common around here; we often see them at our place.  Even more often we hear them making their gutteral, growling song and barking calls.  They sound like a jungle should sound!

And these towering Ceiba trees look like a jungle river bank should look!  The seeds of these trees, also known as kapok trees, are still a source of stuffing for life vests and pillows.  These particular trees were roosting sites of large flocks of Montezuma Oropendolas, another bird that sounds like the jungle.  The light was too low for photos of these active birds, but we enjoyed watching them get settled for the night.  They have magnificently long tails edged in bright gold feathers, hence the name "oropendola" - golden tail.

Ceiba trees along the river bank at dusk.  Scenes like this bring peace to my soul.

Sand and Early Morning Rainbows

Sand - there is new sand on the beach!  Still nowhere what had been there, but things are improving.

The sandbags along the shore are almost covered by sand; only the tied ends are visible as white blobs on the wet sand to the right of the dock.  The bags to the left of the dock are fully covered.  You can also make out the submerged sandbags of the breakwater that runs under the dock in the foreground.

 The shore is still a big mess with washed up seagrass and driftwood, but even that is gradually getting covered by sand.

View from the dock looking toward the buttonwood tree.  The shore has built up a bit of a slope now.  The brown stuff under the buttonwood is seagrass sitting on top of the sandbags that were placed in front of the buttonwood to keep it from getting undermined by the waves.

As I write this, the breakwater extends all the way down our property to the south and they are still working on the part to the north.  In the photo below, taken Sept 15th, the breakwater extends from the dock only to just in front of the buttonwood tree. Notice how the wave breaks hard to the left of the buttonwood, but is not breaking at all between the buttonwood and the dock.  That is just what we wanted!

Breakwater in action!  See how much flatter the waves are near the dock?

We think we are the right track with the breakwater.  Since I took those photos a few days ago, a lot of seagrass has washed in on top of the sand, so we can't really tell if the sand is still there.

The sea is beautiful and calm today.  The crew made good progress extending the breakwater to the north.  Next week is a short week because Monday is the celebration of the Independence of Belize.  Never-the-less, I believe they will finish Stage One of the breakwater next week, unless the weather turns bad.  Also, we have the electrical engineer, Jose, with us today.  He and Dennis are repairing the big diesel generator.  We had the coil rewound, which required shipping the coil to the town of Spanish Lookout.  So they are working on that as I write this.

Jose and Dennis working on the big diesel generator.  Note the essential tools - the can of Liquid Wrench and the persuasive hammer.

This morning at dawn, a very gentle rain shower drifted in from the southeast.  The sun was low on the horizon (as it tends to be at dawn!), peeking through the falling rain over the sea.  To the west was a gorgeous double rainbow.  By the time I got my camera and went back up to the sunset balcony, the intensity of the rainbow had faded, but it was still a lovely sight.

Rainbow over the jungle.  The Maya Mountains are low in the distance.

A Great Egret flew over.

And thus started another day.