Into the Wild...

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Pook's Hill near Belmopan, Belize

Our next destination was Pook's Hill Lodge, located in the heart of the Jungle about 40 miles west of Belize City. We took a flight from San Pedro to Belize City, and then our friendly guide picked us up from the airport to take us to the lodge. On the way, we had a chance to stop at the Belize Zoo, which was amazing. The zoo was created to protect the native animals of Belize. All the animals are found in the wilderness of Belize, and the ones living here are rescue animals... all of which seem to love their new home!

The Belize Zoo

The Tapir, national mammal of Belize:

Freshwater crocodile:

A young jaguar:

And an old guy perched in the tree:

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Pook's Hill

Pook's Hill is nestled deep in the jungle, approximately 6 miles of the highway down a dirt/mud/rocky road... taking 40 minutes after leaving the highway to get there. After driving through the dark ominous jungle, the vegetation opens up to rolling hills covered in grass where the lodge sits, overlooking the rainforest. The main lodge consists of 10 thatched roof cabanas, and one large thatched roof deck where the guests would socialize, eat and drink in the evenings. Our cabana was set apart from the rest of the lodge, we would walk down a series of cobblestone steps, across a river via a bridge, then straight out to our cabana sitting 20ft in the air.

Our cabana was the one on the right, and the 2nd pic is the way back to the lodge:

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The other cabanas and the 2nd pic is the view out our back windows:

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The main lodge:

The spider we found on Mom's chair, eeek!

And our quaint room:

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Wildlife found at Pook's Hill

It was raining for 2 of our 4 days at Pooks Hill, so we spent that time exploring their thousands of acres. We saw all kinds of wildlife including toucans, leaf ants, and a dead armadillo that we expect was a jaguar's dinner the night before!!!

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Caracol

Caracol is one of the Mayan ruin sites found throughout Belize. This particular site took us 3 hours of 4WDing on muddy roads through the jungle. You typically need a military convoy for the journey becauce guerillas have sabatoged tourists on the route, but when we arrived at the checkpoint they said their vehicles were damaged and we could opt to go "at our own risk." We risked it, and made it w/o any problems... whew! Then on our way back our tour guide informed us that that was the 1st time he's ever gone without the convoy, and he was really nervous!

The large temple in the photo is about 15 stories high. If you look closely to the first picture, you can see a guy beginning the climb, and in the 2nd picture from the top you can see my Mom on the grass wearing white.

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Next stop Cave's Branch Lodge, where the real adventure begins!!!

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