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!

New Years Day 2012: year of the Maya begins

2011 was challenging for Terdal Farm, and frankly we couldn't wait for it to end. We savored each sunset late in our Annus horribilis:

From New Years Day 2012

and looked forward to 2012. Was anyone else looking forward to 2012 as eagerly as us? It turns out that some are, and some are anxious. Typical. This late-2011 blog post by travel writer Joshua Berman did a fine job  of describing what 2012 may hold for Mundo Maya:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joshua-berman/post_2775_b_1176085.html

With this in mind, we completed our chores early on Sunday, January 1, 2012 and set out in the finest automobile available for exploring the world of the Maya:

From New Years Day 2012

We drove up the Placencia peninsula, west to the junction with the Southern Highway, then south to the Toledo district village of Indian Creek. Drove up the short dirt road from the village to the visitors center for Nim Li Punit (http://www.southernbelize.com/nimli.html):

From New Years Day 2012

which is one of the few major Maya sites we have not visited.

We paid our admission and signed in, as the first visitors of 2012:


The NICH staff person on site thought it was funny that we considered it a big deal to be the first visitors of 2012. He said very few people visited Nim Li Punit. We assured him that 2012 was going to be a big year for him. He laughed and started showing us the museum exhibits. The joke was on him when hordes of visitors with the same idea as us began to arrive. He had more visitors by noon than he expects in a month.

We began by examining the stelae in the museum.

First was the eponymous stelae, the 9 meter long stelae featuring the big hat:

From New Years Day 2012

and then some of the other stelae:

From New Years Day 2012

and attempted to read the words for clues as to what 2012 would bring:

From New Years Day 2012

Good news! Jaguars seem to figure prominently:

From New Years Day 2012

but I admit I could not read all of it. No clue what this part says:

From New Years Day 2012

but I don't think it is good.

The museum was getting crowded at this point (seriously!) so we hurriedly went out to see the site itself.

From New Years Day 2012

Rhea pulled out her trusty (waterproof, dropproof) camcorder and went to work. I am embedding several of her raw, unedited videos. Feel free to watch or skip these, depending on your interests. She took many!

From New Years Day 2012

At some point she realized that she had lost Erik. Where was he?!?

There he is, back from the dead:

From New Years Day 2012

More details on the Plaza of Royal Tombs:


Rhea moved on to Royal Tombs 2 & 3:

From New Years Day 2012

and then showed the view to the south:


When she looked down, Rhea found leaf-cutter ants:


Rhea loves Atta!

Erik loves palms:

From New Years Day 2012

but to get close he had to go down some steps made for the benefit of fat gringo tourists:


which hardly slowed the intrepid Dr. Terdal:


on his way to see more palms.

He was most excited by a large Bayleaf palm (Sabal mauritiformis):


and took some snapshots for his fellow palmophiles:

From New Years Day 2012

while not ignoring other interesting plants, such as the strangler fig (Ficus sp.):

From New Years Day 2012

and the tourist tree (Bursera simaruba):

From New Years Day 2012

Erik continued photographing palms:

From New Years Day 2012

From New Years Day 2012

while Rhea sat down and videotaped the ruins:

From New Years Day 2012

We walked back to the visitors center, skipping the West Group (see map at http://www.southernbelize.com/grc/map_nimli_lg.gif).

From New Years Day 2012

so that Rhea could shop for baskets:

From New Years Day 2012

while Erik kept taking snapshots of plants:

From New Years Day 2012

including the first rose (Rosa sp.) bloom he saw in 2012:

From New Years Day 2012

We followed this SUV down the road and off towards the next Maya site, Lubaantun!

From New Years Day 2012

Lubaantun (http://www.southernbelize.com/lubaantun.html)

From New Years Day 2012

is special to us as it is the first Maya site we visited together. We were married on Caye Caulker and honeymooned in Toledo district.

Rhea pulled out her trusty camcorder:

From New Years Day 2012

to document the unusual architecture:

From New Years Day 2012

Erik of course kept photographing palms:

Another bayleaf--

From New Years Day 2012

and a cohune (Attelea cohune)--

From New Years Day 2012

and what may be a large Chameadorea sp.--

From New Years Day 2012

Cohune palm with epiphytic ferns on the trunk--

From New Years Day 2012

Base of that palm--

From New Years Day 2012

and a lobster-claw Heliconia rostrata for the flower lovers:

From New Years Day 2012

We spent our 2004 honeymoon driving through the forests of the Toledo district and visiting Maya villages. We decided to do a bit of that on the first day of 2012. Here are some scenes from San Miguel village and surrounding areas:

From New Years Day 2012

From New Years Day 2012

Boys playing football:

From New Years Day 2012

And a 1 horsepower string trimmer at work:

From New Years Day 2012

While a man with a gas string trimmer tends the plot of Achiote shrubs (Bixa orellanae):

From New Years Day 2012

You have to indulge us (not like you haven't already, if you have read this far) as we love our recado. We took photos of achiote cultivation:

From New Years Day 2012

From New Years Day 2012

From New Years Day 2012

From New Years Day 2012

And of course as Erik ran through the orchard taking achiote snapshots, Rhea made another video:


It was getting late. We headed back north up the Southern highway. We made excellent time in the Chevrolet Aveo. If you have never driven one, you are missing out. It is truly a great car.

We pulled in to Independence, hoping to find a pharmacy open. No luck. We drove into Big Creek on the same quest. No pharmacy, but we did see the oil storage facility:

From New Years Day 2012

From New Years Day 2012

which may seem like a strange site for a tourist to photograph, but as Okies it felt homey.

Truly a great day. We finished with dinner at Mango's in Maya Beach. Rhea had lobster:

From New Years Day 2012

and Erik fish:

From New Years Day 2012

A good first day of 2012.