Heading north

Our last entry, "Sunsets over Mountain Pine Ridge", described an amazing 24 hours capped with spectacular sunsets in the Maya Mountains of Belize. This entry covers 36 hours where sunrises and sunsets blurred together out of bus windows in two nations: Belize and Mexico.

Saturday, January 7, began with us waking up at Blancaneaux Lodge. They had held a party with Belizean cuisine and a Marimba band Friday night--good times, but everyone was moving slow the next morning.

I worked during the morning while Rhea went to visit friends at Moonracer. I waited for her before lunch, and shouldn't have--she had so much fun there she came back too late. We quickly checked out and drove down the Georgeville road. Rhea stopped for snacks at the junction with the San Antonio road:

From Rhea Belize 2012

Once on the Western highway, we went west to Central Farm to visit friends at the Belize Wildlife & Referral Clinic.
Delightful people, and we stayed too long. We left at 4 pm, had to return our Jimny to Budget in Belize City by 5 pm, and buy our bus tickets before they sold out for the 7 pm bus to Mexico.

We made excellent time east on the Western Highway but of course our mission was impossible. We pulled into the driveway at Cheers  and used their telephone to call ahead to Budget, saying we were running late. No time for food, but I did buy a 2012 Belikin calendar as gift for a friend.

The manager of Budget in Belize City had patiently waited for us despite having to get to a child's birthday party.

From Rhea Belize 2012

He even drove us to Novelo's in his own car when he could easily have told us to call a taxi. Great service.

At Novelo's bus station, we went inside to find the ADO ticket counter:

From Rhea Belize 2012

The agent, Alice, had sold all her allotment of tickets. She did not have a computer, but she helpfully used her cell phone to call other ADO agents in Orange Walk and Corozal to determine if they had unsold tickets she could sell to us. That was the case so she sold us our two tickets for BZD19 each. I paid with two 20s and asked if I could give the dollar coins to her two daughters who had to spend Saturday night at Novelo's with their mom. Smiles all around.

We had an hour, and had not eaten lunch. I left Rhea with the luggage and went out to see what food I could find in Belize City after dark on a Saturday night. There was a hot dog stand, but it was crowded. The convenience stores were open only through those little cage windows which are off-putting to me. Across the canal I found a Chinese restaurant open. I ordered take-out dishes. Enormous portions, cooked fresh after ordering. Very little money. I carried the sack back to Novelo's were we ate the tasty food and chatted with our fellow passengers. We also used the Novelo's bathroom to change into clean clothes for the overnight bus ride to Mexico.

Right on time the bus to Merida left and then it was our turn to board the bus to Cancun:

From Rhea Belize 2012

and then take our seats:

From Rhea Belize 2012

The huge bus made its amazing passage out of Belize City in the dark and onto the Northern Highway. The same lame movie, American with Spanish subtitles, that we were shown on the way down was played. This time I knew to press the mute button on the speaker above us. I tried to sleep and was out by the time we got to Ladyville. The bus pulled in at Orangewalk but no one boarded. The bus was less than half full. Back to sleep. The bus also pulled into Corazol and again no one boarded. I stayed awake this time as I knew we were almost to the border.

At the border, we got out but left our luggage on the bus and walked through the Belize immigration office. There was a departure tax of BZD37.50. We expected this despite not having been alerted by Alice at the Novelo's bus station in Belize City. The couple behind us, Germans, were not prepared. They had no Belizean, Mexican or U.S. currency--only Euros and credit cards. This caused some problems. At 10 pm there were obviously no banks open. The Germans were eventually allowed to pay the tax in Euros. Advice: have the Belizean currency set aside for the departure tax.

While we were all in line, the bus went through to meet us on the other side. The crossing took a while for all the passengers. The passengers chatted. The Germans had spent a week on Caye Caulker and loved it. We boarded the big bus again for the very short trip (100 meters) to Mexico. This time we got off with our luggage. Lined up at the same counter where we had entered Mexico late in 2011 (blog entry here). No attempt to get bribes this time. They handed us the FMM form to complete, which we had thoughtfully packed a pen for:

From Rhea Belize 2012

With the new FMM form in hand, we went through Mexican immigration with no problems at all. Dragged luggage across a parking lot to customs. There, we all lined up for the fun "red light/green light" game. The young tourist couple in front of us got the red light. They set their bags on the counter and had to open them for the customs officer. He made a cursory search and waved them on. I pressed the button and we got the green light. Smiles! I playfully told the young couple in front of us, "we won!" and the Mexican customs man smiled at the feeble joke and waved us through.

The bus had again moved ahead to wait for us. It was parked along a road with several open restaurants:

From Rhea Belize 2012

that had delicious-smelling Mexican food. The bus passengers chatted with each other.

After we were all through customs, we boarded the bus yet again and fell asleep.

Note on bus temperatures: there have been many complaints about the ADO bus being too cold. It was not on this trip. The driver must have heard the complaints as he diligently cycled the AC off and on all night to keep the temperature comfortable. Well done, ADO!

We were awoken again in Bacalar. We had to get off the bus and stand on line in the middle of the night to pay the rest of our bus fare. No idea why this was done here, vs. in Belize City, or even at the border. Poorly done, ADO!

Back on, then northward over the excellent highway. Pulled into Tulum but no one got off the bus there.

We got to Playa del Carmen about 3 am. We were tired and wanted to sleep. But where? We had been given suggestions for motels near the ADO Terminal Alterna. I left Rhea with the luggage and set out on foot to find them. No luck. I did see many drunk gringo/gringa tourists staggering out of night clubs. But every hotel was closed to all except guests who had already registered. I spent over an hour walking around Playa.

Eventually I gave up and went back to the Terminal Alterna and did my best to doze on the benches:

From Rhea Belize 2012

which was NOT comfortable given my back surgery in September.

When the sun came up, I walked to a hotel that had had a particularly helpful night watchman. Confirmed room availability and early check-in and found a taxi. We arrived at the Sian Kaan by 7:30 am and were in our room by 8 am. Nice room. Great location--half block from beach! We promptly went to sleep.

Later in the morning, we went down to the beach. It is a broad white-sand beach. Very crowded but we found a spot sheltered from the chilly wind where we could doze some more.

View to the south, showing the ferry arriving from Cozumel:

From Rhea Belize 2012

View to the north, showing a SCUBA dive boat coming back from a morning dive trip:

From Rhea Belize 2012

We spent the rest of Sunday dozing on the beach and walking up and down 5th avenue in Playa. Many shops. Rhea bought me a nice hat but that was the extent of our shopping. Nice city; we may visit again.

Sunsets over the Mountain Pine Ridge

I love sunsets. I always have. As a boy, my father would take me to the Pacific shore to watch the sun set over the sea and he would use that as a visual metaphor for, well, for whatever he wanted to talk to me about. Getting things done on time. Passage of time. The world. New horizons. Everything under the sun.

This blog entry shows what we accomplished between two sunsets, Thursday, January 5 and Friday, January 6. I have embedded snapshots I took and short, unedited video-clips by Rhea. Just a little text so you can go through as fast or slow as you wish. As always, comments are appreciated, either here, by email or on Facebook.

After our busy day at Hidden Valley Inn, we went home to Blancaneaux. The kind people there love wildlife and have helped me in my attempts to learn more about the mammals that live in the forest around their wonderful lodge. If you have been a guest there, you know what a magical place it is. If not, their website give a sense of the wonder: http://www.coppolaresorts.com/blancaneaux

I use the word "home"' as Blancaneux feels homey. The people who work there greet us like cousins they have not seen since the last reunion. Those reunions come too far apart!

We went up the stairs to our usual room and looked East:

From 2012-01-06

and then West:

From 2012-01-06

Yes, we had used every bit of daylight before we arrived. Fortunately we knew the steps to the huge horseshoe-shaped hot tub down by the stream bank and so could soak away the muscle aches from a long day of hiking.

After breakfast, we set out with the legendary Roni deep into the Mountain Pine Ridge. We paused periodically to admire the view:

From 2012-01-06

From 2012-01-06

Yes, that is the same Cockscomb we watched the sun set near from Maya Beach just last year:

From 2012-01-02

(Oops, Victoria Peak is not visible in this snapshot, but trust me, it was just out of frame to the right.)

We continued down the road, descending

From 2012-01-06

into the broadleaf forest of the upper Macal River valley:

From 2012-01-06

From 2012-01-06

until we were forced to park and walk

From 2012-01-06

to the bank of the river:

From 2012-01-06

Where Rhea took videos:

From 2012-01-06

From 2012-01-06

From the river bank, we ascended back up into the pine forest on the ridges.


Much of the tropical pine forest in the Mountain Pine Ridge area of the Maya Mountains was damaged by an outbreak of pine bark beetles in 2000-2001 (Report by U.S. National Public Radio, with 5' audio option, from August 3, 2001, is archived here: http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/2001/aug/beetles/beetles.html ; regional overview here: http://www.fao.org/docrep/007/y5507e/y5507e05.htm ).

This video clip by Rhea gives a sense of the roads through the pine forest:


With the deforestation caused by the beetles, much of the canopy was lost, letting sunlight to the forest floor and allowing a proliferation of herbaceous vegetation. This sometimes had to be cleared to allow passage:

and sometimes we used the powerful vehicle to push through:

We were of course navigating by GPS to wildlife camera trap locations on a grid. Since I described that in the previous blog entry, I won't bore you with that again.

I do want to talk about logging. Harvest of timber from tropical forests gets a bit of bad press from some parts of the conservation community. I'd like to share my perspective. I grew up in Oregon, where the wood products industry dominated the economy in the 20th century. The logging methods commonly used up there back then, clear cutting, devastated forests and the watersheds in them. The Northern Spotted Owl received the most international press coverage, but I was personally more impacted by the damage to salmon spawning beds. My father was a commercial salmon troller (sales pitch for his book on the subject: http://www.amazon.com/Fishing-Beyond-Buoys-Salmon-Trolling/dp/1878175041). The fishing industry was destroyed by the logging industry. So, I saw the environmental damage from poor forestry practices along with the economic benefits of the wood products industry to rural communities. Can forestry ever be practiced responsibly and sustainably?

I would like to share a few snapshots of what I believe is an example of responsible forest harvest in Belize. I know the name of the company, but am not sharing it here as I neglected to ask explicit permission to blog. If you are the owner, feel free to comment or to ask me to remove these photos.

Pine tree cut down in a selective logging operation:

From 2012-01-06

Log loading point:

From 2012-01-06

Note the small "footprint" relative to the scale of the operation!
Logger's forest camp:

From 2012-01-06

Again, this operation directly damaged very little land area relative to the amount of wood harvested. From an ecological standpoint, it reminded me of a large wind storm.  This selective harvesting had no resemblance to the clear-cut logging on steep slopes I saw routinely practiced in Oregon in the 1970s and 1980s.

From this place, we headed up higher and higher through beautiful terrain:

From 2012-01-06

to the highest places in the Mountain Pine Ridge:

From 2012-01-06

where only a few small trees grew:

From 2012-01-06

but many other interesting plants did:

From 2012-01-06

Hypercium:

From 2012-01-06

From 2012-01-06

and even Lycopodium, an ancient plant that in the tropics is found only at high elevations:

From 2012-01-06

Rhea of course took videos.

From 2012-01-06

From 2012-01-06

Here are a few:
Looking down from the pine forest we drove up from--

Looking out over the bald hills of Belize--

Watching the evening fog roll in over the Bald Hills of Belize--

Walking through the grasses on top of a bald hill--


I am saving the best for last. In this video clip, Rhea covers the landscape ecology of the area in just one minute. Amazing! If you watch only one of her videos, let it be this one:



We get up to Baldy Beacon itself

From 2012-01-06

as the sun is going down:

From 2012-01-06

It was a truly amazing day.

Hidden Valley Inn

You know the experience of wanting something unattainable. We hope you also know the joy of getting there. This blog entry describes such an experience: a visit to Hidden Valley Inn.

Like most regular visitors to the Cayo district of Belize, we knew of HVI as the exclusive resort off the road to the Thousand Foot Falls high in the Maya Mountains of Belize. Here is the description of the highest waterfall in Mesoamerica on the official tourism website of Belize: http://www.travelbelize.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=104&Itemid=325&Ytemid=407

Here is a snapshot of Dr. & Dr. Terdal (Erik's parents) at the 1000' Falls back in 2009:

From MPR 2009

Hidden Valley Inn itself (http://www.hiddenvalleyinn.com/) has 12 rooms on 7200 acres (2900 Ha). Think about that for a minute or two. Most of the land is high on the Mountain Pine Ridge at about 2000 feet (600 meters) above sea level. The north of the property features an escarpment dropping down to tropical broadleaf forest along Barton Creek. You know the 1000' falls? Bad name: it is more like 1600' (500 meters). Yes, Erik has wanted to explore this area since his first visit in 1999 when he bought a copy of Means, D. Bruce. 1997. Natural history of Mountain Pine Ridge, Belize. Bull Run Overseas, Ltd., Benque Viejo del Carmen, Belize. 94 pages. 


We knew HVI had the best raptors in Belize, but what about mammals? Erik has wanted to find out for over a decade. Erik had introduced himself to the managers previously, and was waiting permission to set camera traps. In late 2011, he got it! Much thanks to our friends at Blancaneaux Lodge (http://www.coppolaresorts.com/blancaneaux) for coordinating. 


The morning of Wednesday, 3 January, we awoke at Clarissa Falls (http://www.clarissafalls.com/) where we feel like family, having been regulars since 1998 and often staying for a month at a time.

Erik breakfasted on his favorite, huevos rancheros with corn tortillas:

and did work for his University (http://www.nsuok.edu/) using the strong WiFi signal Clarissa Falls has.

Erik made a little time for photography, his hobby:

Erik uploaded both of these to his Facebook page and immediately was hated by his coworkers.

We checked out, paid and drove the Suzuki Jimny

From Garden Centre Belize

away, after leaving behind at Clarissa Falls the Areca palm (Dypsis lutescens) Erik won months earlier in a Facebook contest sponsored by the Garden Centre (http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Garden-Center-Belize/157287564315902?v=info).

We bought out the store in Santa Elena of Duracell D batteries , then continued east on the Western Highway to the Georgeville Road. Headed up that. Fun! If you have driven up that way, you can imagine how delightful it was to drive a Suzuki up that collection of boulders called a "road" in jest.

We appreciated the excuse to stop at Moonracer (http://moonracerfarm.com/default.aspx). The official reason to stop was to ask them to telephone HVI to say we were running late, but really we wanted to smell the bread baking in their new oven: http://moonracerfarmbelize.blogspot.com/2011/10/cooking-with-wood.html Moonracer has a great chef; if we didn't already have dinner reservations at HVI we would have tried to finagle a seat at the table....

We made our way up the road, past the Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve checkpoint. Staff there are always friendly. Continued up, turning left onto Cooma Cairn road at the signs for 1000' Falls and Hidden Valley Inn. Past the Bull Run fire lookout tower to the entrance sign for Hidden Valley Inn. Proceeded to the circle drive by the main house. Parked and went in. Front desk staff came out to greet us warmly. Big smiles all around!

We were given warm tea and offered massages. Rhea enjoyed a hand massage as her hands were hurting from tightly gripping the Suzuki steering wheel up the Georgeville road. Erik was eager to get to work and so refused to sit down.

Massage over, we set out in the Suzuki, following HVI staff in their vehicle. First stop was Butterfly Falls. We parked and walked part way down the path to the ecotone where pine forest blends into broadleaf forest. Ecologists have loved edge habitat ever since Aldo Leopold established its importance for wildlife back in the 1920s. We placed our first camera trap:

From 2012-01-06

and tested it to make sure it worked:

From 2012-01-06

We placed another camera trap in the pine forest:

From 2012-01-06

and tested it:

From 2012-01-06

We were running out of daylight and so headed back to the HVI main house. From there we were directed to our cottage. Rhea examined the bed:

From 2012-01-06

and then the fireplace:

From 2012-01-06

as it was cold!.
Good thing there were matches behind the note on the mantle, plus wood in the fireplace and more on the porch.

From Rhea Belize 2012

We showered and changed clothes, then went to the main house. Drinks in the bar and chatting with other guests. The couple we talked to most were from Scotland and had saved money for years to come to Belize.

Dinner was great. Erik had a snapper fish filet that was superb. The chef (who came out to introduce herself) let the fish stand out as a flavour rather than masking it, as too many chefs do. Rhea had the cowfoot soup. Call her a traditionalist. Sorry, no photos: we were too famished to take the time for pictures. Portions were large, so Erik took his pecan pie and ice cream desert back to the room as a bed-time snack. One more note: tap water in the cottages is safe to drink and especially tasty. We love our water and appreciate the taste difference in water from granite vs. limestone. Terroir and all that.

With the fire crackling, we slept very, very well.

In the morning (Thursday, January 5, 2012) we rose and walked through the lovely gardens to the Main House for breakfast. Served buffet-style, we had yogurt, fruit and coffee. That is one of the HVI trademarks: they grow and roast coffee right there. Doesn't get any fresher. While we enjoyed the fruit pieces on our plates, a staff member set out fresh fruit (i.e., what we were eating) on a platform feeder for the birds just outside the dining room. The birds were clearly expecting him and they flocked. Erik's favorite was the green jay (Cyanocorax yncas).

After breakfast, we packed up our luggage and loaded the trusty little Suzuki. Disappointed to have missed the legendary Butterfly Falls despite being so close the previous afternoon, we headed there first. Be patient for several amateur photographs....

Bridge on path to waterfall; another visitor to HVI took snapshots of a jaguar on this very bridge recently.

From Rhea Belize 2012

Scene on the trail to Butterfly falls:

From 2012-01-06

And at last the falls themselves:

From 2012-01-06

Which required the mandatory posed snapshots:

From 2012-01-06

And of the two of us:

From 2012-01-06

And finally with our friend, the legendary Roni:

From 2012-01-06

We hope you can forgive a digression. On the hike back, Erik found a palm he could not identify. Here are a few snapshots. If you have a guess as to its identity, please comment. In brief, it is a slim--trunked feather (pinnate) palm of the undercanopy. Not found in the pine forest or the broadleaf forest--just this ecotone between them. Other palms in the area are Schippia concolor, Attelea cohune and Chameadorea spp. Not one of those. Best guess is the Maya palm ( Gaussia maya). Help, please!

From 2012-01-06

From 2012-01-06

From 2012-01-06

From 2012-01-06

And for the flower lovers following this blog, here is an epiphytic orchid:

From 2012-01-06

From Butterfly Falls, we hiked back to our vehicles and sought a third camera trap site for our grid. The first place we checked was the overlook to Tiger Falls:

From 2012-01-06

in an area that experienced forest fires last May:

From 2012-01-06

from which the vegetation is recovering:

From 2012-01-06

From 2012-01-06

We decided not to place a camera trap at Tiger Falls as the GPS receiver reported that it was too close to a "trap" we already had on non-HVI land. We set off by vehicle instead towards the HVI airstrip and found a perfect site: a bridge over a steep-banked creek which will funnel wildlife through the trap:

From 2012-01-06

Don't tell the tapir (Tapirus bairdii), but this is what our camera traps look like:

From 2012-01-06

Having daylight left, and wanting a better sense of the landscape of HVI, we went to the King Vulture Falls:

From 2012-01-06

and of course spotted a King Vulture (Sarcoramphus papa), through a spotting scope:

From 2012-01-06

on this ridge (zoom in the see him! [kidding]):

From 2012-01-06

(Hint: he is roosting in a tree near the upper right LOL).
The broadleaf canopy below us was fascinating:

From 2012-01-06

as was the vegetation clinging to the cliffs:

From 2012-01-06

Good times!

Our work done, we returned to the main house for lunch. Erik had a fish sandwich and Rhea a Greek salad. Both good, but the Greek salad was exceptional. It burst with flavor from fresh ingredients. Our friend had a burger, and our HVI host the stewed chicken. We shared stories and generally had a delightful repast. While we dined, the HVI manager brought the owner over to our table to meet us. There is definitely something to be said for staying at an exclusive resort with twelve cottages!