Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary

Another installment in the PTS Mini-Series, by Ginnie

As our closing for CBT, we took a trip to Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary. It’s only a 20-minute drive from Dangriga, so Anthony, Stanley (the PC driver) and I picked up the Armenia folks and then continued on to Dangriga to load up my vehicle with all the training supplies and to pick up the rest of the group, then it was off to the sanctuary.

The Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary is home to the only jaguar reserve in the world. Among the jaguars live the other cats found in Belize as well as nearly 300 species of birds. It’s extremely rare to spot a cat – first of all, they are nocturnal and second of all, they aren’t interested in people and shy away from us. However, I had hoped to see some birds, like a flying toucan or a scarlet macaw, but no such luck!

Due to time restraints, we only had 3 hours in the park. I suggested we split up and everyone take their own choice for hikes, since I know we all have different ability levels and interests. The group decided to stick together, and somehow we ended up on the Tiger Fern Trail, listed as strenuous and 3km (well, a printout Anthony and I brought from a website said 2, but it is definitely NOT only 2!). The hike was a HIKE, considering I continually put myself in these experiences that I don’t thoroughly enjoy, I made the best of it. We had good company, but it was a really tough hike for we non-hikers. {Yes, I did complete P90X, and yes, people did give me grief about that, but P90X and hiking up steep, mucky, jungle terrain are NOT the same thing!!} Unfortunately, it was too strenuous for a couple people. Anthony and I were in the middle, making it to the very scenic waterfalls in about an hour. The first people to make it did so in 45 minutes!

We spent some time resting at the falls, and some people even swam and enjoyed the cool respite from the heat of the jungle and all that walking. Then it was back for another hour-plus of walking to get back to the entrance. The steepest part was to climb back up the muddy, rocky terrain to get out of the waterfall area and back up to the top of the hill overlooking Cockscomb and Victoria’s Peak (Belize’s highest point). We then had a downhill climb to reach the nice first km of the trek that is flat. The walk back was not as bad, but still hot. I wore full pants and long sleeves because I am petrified of being bitten by a mosquito carrying a botfly (the botfly is larvae that gets in the bite and they hatch in your skin- gross!!), so I was pretty hot, but protected nonetheless!

Some views along the way; the bottom one shows what I saw for the majority of the hike - I just keep my eyes on the ground to watch out for critters, muck, and other danger. Clearly, I manage to look around once in a while to capture the other views, when I remember! :)

After we all reached the entrance, we ate some delicious homemade moist chocolate cake I made the night before (it's my current favorite cake recipe!) and gave my final wrap-up card and invited everyone to our house for a pizza party when they return from their future site visits. We then had to get back in the vehicles and return to sites for the trainees to enjoy their last night with their host families and say their goodbyes.