Belize outdoes itself…

Today, Anne and I traveled to northern Guatemala to meet my sister, Deb, but before we went, we had one more morning to look around in Belize, so we tried the Cahal Pesh archeological site right around the corner from our hotel. It did not disappoint.

First, I finally got eyes on the national bird of Belize, the keel-billed toucan (Ramphastos sulfuratus). See what I mean?

I also spotted my first white-fronted amazon (Amazona albifrons), a very noisy parrot, but that may be a redundancy.

As I was leaving to go join Anne for breakfast, this amazing creature was perched right outside the visitors center, and it’s a masked tityra (Tityra semifasciata). How do they even come up with these? What’s more, the fine folks at ebird.org describe its call as “a wet quacking or farting sound,” but I didn’t hear it so I can neither confirm nor deny that detail.

Anne went back to the site with me after breakfast, and we did see a few more critters, but let me keep this short and show you instead the stunning creature our driver spotted after the border crossing this afternoon. Here is my very first bare-throated tiger-heron (Tigrisoma mexicanum). Yikes! Right?

We did see a mammal today, a paca, but it ran off too quickly for me to get a picture. Instead, let me show the gray fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) that Anne spotted as we left Caracol yesterday. Even our guide and driver were stunned.

Finally, as we left Cahal Pech for the second time, this astounding butterfly, a regal hairstreak (Evenus regalis) appeared to be looking for minerals on this rock that has been painted white, and I sure hope it eventually finds what it’s looking for.

We did all meet up later this afternoon, and tomorrow we’ll drive north to another hotel right near Tikal. Everyone who hears that we’re going there says we should be able to see amazing critters, maybe even a jaguar, so I’m really looking forward to it.