Our first real sight-seeing stop in Belize was at the Community Baboon Sanctuary in the town of Burrell Boom on the Belize River. The buildings in Burrell Boom are pretty typical of the rural countryside in Belize.

When we pulled in, unannounced, we were met by Fallet Young, the long time manager of the sanctuary. We arranged our vehicles for the night, and then got our introduction to the sanctuary. There are no baboons native to Belize. What they call baboons are actually Howler Monkeys. The sanctuary is all private land, so it is a loose administrative concept in some ways. It covers about twenty square miles along the riparian corridor of the Belize River, prime Howler habitat. They have about 95% participation by the landowners. The participating landowners agree to leave 25 feet of forest along their fence lines, and try to leave trees which are of benefit to the Howlers when they are clearing land. Fallet says the things the Howlers need are things the landowners generally don't need or want, so it works out pretty well.

Fallet Young and the gang

Fallet took us for our introductory walk through the jungle, where we found a small band of Howlers that are pretty well accoustomed to seeing people. He pointed out different trees, shrubs, small plants and birds along the way.

Cashew Trees	Mahagony

• Cahun Palm
  used to make brooms.

  

• Ceiba
  Known as the "Cotton" tree to the locals because of the cotton-like seeds it produces, the Ceiba tree is used to make poor dugouts. It is too soft, so canoes made from it don't last very long.
• Trumpet tree
  The Trumpet tree is hollow inside, and used to be used to make flutes.
• Logwood
  Once an important tree used for making dyes.
• Dogwood
• Spiny Bamboo
  It's poisonous
• Giant Bamboo
  Its lumber is used for furniture and houses
• Royal Palm
  Also known as the "Cabbage" tree
• Gumbo Limbo
  Also called the tourist tree because it has a red peeling bark, like sunburned tourists. It is also an emergency short term antidote for snake bite, it doesn't cure it but slows the uptake of poison.
• Jackass Bitters
  A plant from which you can make a salve for insect bites. You make a potent, ugly, smelly brew from it that you then slather on the bites. Sharon tried it, and it seemed to work but needed frequent renewal.
• There was a plant used as a contraceptive. The woman is supposed to chew it. Fallet says he was done having children and hadn't had any for a few years, and then his wife didn't use the plant and he had another one.
• There was a plant whose leaves you could crush and put on your skin to take off warts. Fallet showed us places where he had had warts removed; he had a lot less scar than I do where I had some burned off as a child.
• And Philadendrons, whose vines are used for all sorts of things; they are really tough.

We saw a huge leaf cutter ant colony, something we would see many more of. The ants cut highways through the jungle, about four inches wide. You see thousands of them marching along the highways, hauling little bits of green back to their huge mounds.

Leaf Cutter Ant Colony

The only plant I remembered was the Mimosa, which closes up if you touch it. If you look closely in the photo, the leaf next to my finger has closed, and the one next to it is partially closed.

Mimosa	Wasps' Nest

We were about out of wine, and asked if there was anywhere we could buy some. We were told the best wine, "cashew wine", was available up the road from its maker. So Bill, Carol, Craig and Sharon set off on their bicycles to find some. They located a bottle of the stuff and brought it back somewhat reluctantly. It was a far cry from any wine I have ever tasted. More like white lightening of some sort -- after one sip we all thought we would go blind. Blech! Horrid. I can't remember how we finally got rid of it, but we didn't drink it!

Back in Corozol, when we were getting Craig's truck unstuck, I got bitten by some ants. They were little critters, so I didn't pay too much attention to them. But by the time we got to the Baboon Sanctuary, I could no longer ignore them. The bites they had given me had swollen up into huge blisters. I popped them and put some hydrogen peroxide on them and things got better.

That night, we took a night walk in the jungle with Fallet. We were gone about two hours, traipsing all over, but unfortunately didn't see much except a bunch of spiders. They were everywhere, once you learned to look for them.

The next day, we took a canoe trip down the Belize River, again with Fallet as our guide.

	Bill and Carol	Uneven distribution of labor	Craig and Sharon

We had a great time, and saw lots of birds:

Black Capped Night Heron	Great Blue Heron	Bare Throated Tiger Heron

Other birds we saw included:

• Social Flycatcher
• Mangrove Swallow
• Tropical Kingbird
• Yellow Backed Oriole
• Anhinga, a fish eater and diver.
• Grooved Bill Anis, also known as "Tick Bird". It is all black, has a long tail, and is often around livestock.
• Black Vulture
• Green Kingfisher and
• Belted Kindfisher
• Wood Stork
• Great Kiskadee
• Cormorant

Cattle Egrets

We saw a bazillion Green Iguanas:

and quite a few Howlers.

• Gary's home page
•     Index of what's been going on
•         Winter 2002-3 home
•             South through USA
•             South through Mexico
•             Belize Mainland
•                 Corozal (Previous)
•                 Belize Zoo (Next)
•                 Gales Point
•                 Cockscomb Wildlife Preserve
•                 Nim Li Punit (Mayan ruin)
•                 Punta Gorda area
•             Guatemala's Rio Dulce
•             More about Malakii
•             General Poking Around in Belize
•             A few weeks with Lynde in Belize
•             A week with Brian and Bob in Belize
•             A week with Ian and Trudy and Melissa in Belize and Guatemala
•             Attempts to return from Belize