"Uhh, I think that's a negative on the pole."

Belize! Wow! It was a great experience. I was lucky to be able to go with a group of nice (never underestimate the importance of niceness), laid-back people, people who would not freak if a van happened to be stuck in a foot of mud in the road in front of us, or if the water taxi's engine happened to stall out three times and require some approximate maintentance half a mile from the coastline, or if the owner of the station we were staying at decided to cut our electricity for three days. I was also lucky to be able to go and experience things that most tourists don't get to see -- night hikes with local guides, research stations and equipment, coral reefs in virtually untouched waters.



I saw a bunch of animals that I had never seen and some that I never knew existed. Tapirs, jaguars and black jaguars, ocelots, agouti paca, coatimundi, a harpy eagle, black howler monkeys, a barracuda (bad ASS), a stoplight parrotfish, a manatee, and collared and white-lipped peccaries. All were very cool to see in person, some in the wild, some in captivity. Here is a tapir: