Community Baboon Sanctuary

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I needed to escape this horrible, putrid city of Belize City and find some peace and nature so I went to the "Baboon" Sanctuary about an hour west of town. It is actually a Black Howler Monkey nature preserve, but they are called baboons in the Creole language.

While in Tikal, Guatemala I had only heard the wild howls of this animal, here I got to get up close and personal. These Black Howlers are found in northern Guatemala, Belize, and southern Mexico and are considered engandered due mostly to loss of habitat due to logging and unsustainable agriculture as well as hunting. But the local community got together and decided voluntarily to create this preserve as a 20 square-mile network of connected private lands. They benefit from the local ecotourism dollars and the howlers and other species benefit from having their habitat maintained. It seems to me to be a great grassroots experiment in conservation.

The park had a small but informative museum educating locals and travelers about rain forest conservation and sustainable practices. Belize has declared a significant percentage of its already small territory to protected national park status, something like 30-40%. Much of that is offshore marine parks, but it is still quite amazing when you think about it. Some 50%+ of Belize is still forested.

I saw about a dozen monkeys in all (out of an estimated 2000+) and you could hear their howl from all directions, defending its territory. Howlers live in small troops with a dominant male and they eat exclusively leaves and fruit.

I took a night hike tour with a guide, but unfortunately we didn't see the local anteaters, armadillos, small cats, or the national animal tapir. But we did see some bats and hear some strange noises and identified the cashew, chicle, xate palm tree, and the giant american oil palm. And my guide sold me some local moonshine wine made from the fruit of the cashew tree. Oh yeah!!

I decided to camp on their grounds but had a horrible night because 1)there were locals playing reggaeton and caribbean rap (i am so tired of that music! In fact i really don't like a lot of the music downhere...i like some reggae, but the rest is obnoxious to me, reggaeton, punta, cumbia, and please, please stop playing that damn shakira song "hips don't lie." It's not that she doesn't have a good voice, but i have heard that song down here 1,856,438 times and the beginning of this song makes me want to wretch and you can't even go to the monkey preserve to get away from her!!), and 2)it started to rain by midnight and continued all night and my poor little tent and myself were wiped out.

But it was all worth it because I got to experience some amazing animals and get out of the city. I know the pics are a bit redundant but i think they are such captivating creatures.

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