Paget's Belize Journal
The Preliminary Trip-
It Begins The Actual Stay-
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Dec 10, 1999 A Trip to Cockscomb BasinThey called me Wednesday from Pelican Beach and said that there was a tour going to Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary on Thursday that had space available. So I went. There hasn't been much opportunity for me to tag along on tours lately because there haven't been many tourists about. But the end of the hurricane season means the beginning of the heavy tourist season and more trips. The guide was Godfrey Young, a very knowledgeable and enthusiastic guy (a native of the Cayo district up in the Maya Mountains) who spent 30 years driving trucks in the states and then came back to Dangriga where his wife is from (the writer on this list assures me the new rules allow us to dangle when necessary). When I was here in June, Godfrey was the guide who took me to the zoo and Xunatunich. Tour guides here have to be trained, tested and licensed and I suspect Godfrey is one of the best. The Cockscomb is 160 sq. mi. of jungle wilderness, the only jaguar reserve in the world and the place where jaguars who are killing cattle and chickens or frightening people in villages throughout Central America are re-located. It's also the site of extensive efforts to re-introduce the black howler monkey to its former habitat in these watersheds. I have the impression that this sort of goes together because jaguars are very fond of howler monkey, but no one has actually said so. When I was wandering along the jungle trails admiring the wildness and beauty of it all, it occurred to me that I haven't really said much about the common elements of the environment here birds, butterflies, fruits, flowers and fungi. These are everywhere in such variety and profusion, even in town, that it's hard to think what to say. On this particular trip we saw many, many different birds, parrots, flycatchers, canaries, hawks, buzzards, exotics that don't fit any family I'm familiar with. One pair of birds were actually clear, bright turquoise, not lorikeets. As I said about the fish I saw when snorkeling, though, I'm not really motivated to identify things. It seems enough to just marvel. On the way home, we drove by acres and acres of blooming Bird-of-Paradise plants, and wild banana trees, which also have a very exotic bloom. It's really eye-boggling. As is true in many animal sanctuaries, you're likely to see birds and insects at the Cockscomb and maybe the occasional snake, but no animals. We heard a fair amount of exciting rustling and snorting in the brush, saw a few paw and hoof prints in the mud and actually smelled that an animal had been by very recently (very likely one of those smelly wart hog thingies, which I think is actually a white-lipped peccary). At one point we were walking close by the river and heard an animal apparently digging a burrow into the bank. Great thrashing and splashing and then clumps of mud and sand would come flying out into the water. We waded around and crashed through the brush trying to get a glimpse, but even though it sounded like we were within 5 or 6 feet of it, we never saw it. And it never quit digging. Obviously, we didn't smell like a predator at all and the animals that hang out near the paths know they're safe from humans. In this sanctuary, you can't bring a gun, of course, but also, you can't bring a large clearing machete, only a small "finishing" machete. Makes keeping the paths clear even more labor-intensive, I suspect. The other fairly exciting animal activity was that I finally got to hear the howler monkeys. Pretty impressive. Godfrey said they were a long way away, probably 2 miles. They can really howl! If the animals are content, the people who used to live in the reserve are not, I'm told. Several small Mayan villages were re-located when the reserve was established. They're all together now in a village called Maya Centre, which is at the entrance to the reserve. It's very tidy and has a gift/crafts shop with wonderful baskets and slate carvings and jewelry. And all of the reserve staff is Mayan and mostly drawn from the displaced villagers. But it seems almost like "Here are the pet Maya." They have to have permission from the government to build or use additional land for crops and so on. I guess they could always move somewhere else and it's certainly not an uncommon situation for various other reasons (consider the great dam-building era in the states and how many people got displaced), but somehow it seems worse when you do it to people with a truly subsistence lifestyle. After visiting the Cockscomb, we went to an undeveloped Maya site quite near Dangriga (but too far to bicycle so I haven't been there). It's called Mayflower and has five mounds that have barely been explored. This is really all jungle except the paths that have been hacked out between mounds, but you can get a good idea of how large the city center square probably was. Lots of interesting things to speculate on, since no one has done the research yet. Did the little river really run through the square? Or has it moved a lot in the last 1,000 years. How much DO rivers move in 1,000 years? The waterfall that comes down out of the Maya Mountains and turns into the river certainly seems stable in relation to the mountain passes and rock formations. These mounds are not very tall, compared to Tikal or Xunatunich. Does that mean it was a less wealthy city? Or just a trade center? Or what? And why do I want to know this when I don't care much what kind of bird I'm looking at? Well, I won't expose you to in any more of this sort of thing, but does make the brain move around a little in an interesting way and gives me a reason to re-read some books. The other good thing that came our of the trip was that Godfrey said I could go on a tour to see the migration flights of the Scarlet Macaw in January (well, if I can afford it and/or I haven't used up all my credit with Tony and Therese by then.) Have a great week-end everybody.
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