Belize Botanical Gardens

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Saturday we finished some general orientation, and headed to the Belize Botanical Gardens for the afternoon. We were greeted by a lunch buffet of barbeque chicken along with vegetable rice. The table was in the open, and some of the workers had laid pieces of fruit out to attract the birds. The birds that showed up were incredible in terms of their size and color.... although I didn't get any sort of identification.

The next stop at the trip took us out on a tour of the gardens. Many of the species found in the extensive gardens were not necessarily native to Belize, but provided a magnificent natural area to be in. The attraction that most people show up to see is the orchid exhibit, which boasts of over 100 native orchids at any given time. The most interesting species I saw was called the pudding tree, which produces large fruits that produce a substance like chocolate pudding when they ripen.

When the tour was finished, the group headed down to the Macal river for some swimming after what turned out to be an extraordinarily humid day. The beach along the river was incredible, and when we first showed up, there was some sort of lare cat climbing along the face of the cliff across the way. The large rock to the left in one of the photos was about 30 feet high and able to be used for diving. Getting up took alot of energy, and I ended up cutting my finger pretty deeply on the jagged edges.

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Photos

Fire Lookout
Faculty Advisor Gary Flo

Swimming Hole
Cliff face along the Macal River

Swimming Hole 2
To the left is the rock used for diving

Comments

[maribeth]

nice
This is great fun Con~ Keep posting! I forward on to other family members. Love, Mom

[Preston]

Flower is a plumeria
The yellow flower in your picture is a plumeria.