You Better Belize It! Day 8 (Branch Mouth)

April 22, 2011 · by Curly · in

The bridge at Branch Mouth.

We had one full day left (April 7th) to bum around Belize, but we had done everything within easy access and we were about out of cash. We had no desire to pull money out of an ATM, so we decided to walk a mile down the dusty road from our hotel to Branch Mouth. Branch Mouth is where the Mopan River from Guatemala and the Macal River from Belize converge to form the Belize River. Apparently it’s a popular swimming place for the locals so we put our suites on in case we wanted to swim, but we changed our minds when we got there. It’s a beautiful spot, but we didn’t want to share the river with the rather robust pig who was hanging out there. We crossed the hanging bridge that looks like it belongs in a movie where someone on the other side cuts the rope before the other people can get across, causing them to dangle over the 200 foot drop to sudden death. OK, it wasn’t that bad. But like most things in Belize, it was a little scary. Some of the wooden slats looked like they would give out at any moment, and indeed some had probably done just that and were then haphazardly repaired with less than ideal replacements. We swam at the hotel when we got back, but there were some local guys who jumped off the bridge and swam for a while at Branch Mouth.

This pig was by the bridge when we crossed it, then went down the river bank...

...and settled in the mud.

It was quite a pretty spot.

Another view of the river.

Curly by the river on the way back into town.

Bee on the road back to the Midas Tropical Resort.

Sadly, this was the only frog we saw on our trip. It was lying in the road between our hotel and Branch Mouth quite flat and dehydrated.

Flowering trees like this are all over Belize. They brightened up the dusty road.

It was a fairly lazy day for us. After we swam we went into town to take some pictures, had lunch at Hode’s, and then went back to our room to pack for our trip home the next day.

Hode's Place, where we ate most of our meals while we were in San Ignacio.

We walked by this mural several times and it made us laugh. The HIV/AIDS awareness message is serious, but the choice of words is a little comical.

Since we don’t have a lot of pictures to share from Thursday specifically, I thought this would be a good time to throw in some of the photos we took throughout the week of plants and animals we encountered on our hotel grounds.

These flowering bushes grew on the side of the road by our hotel, so we saw them every time we walked over to Hode's to eat.

Bee takes lovely photos of plants and flowers.

These brilliant plants grew on the grounds of our hotel.

This was a flowering tree at our hotel. They're very delicate and remind me of snapdragons.

 

This picture shows how big the red orchids get.

A banana tree near our cabana.

This was the view from our cabana. You can see the playground at Hode's place where the red trees are (you might have to enlarge it).

The grounds of the Midas Resort, where we stayed.

There were quite a few resident iguanas on the grounds, who we saw on a daily basis.

We saw this guy frequently. He would lay on the sidewalk in the sun and then scurry into his hole under the sidewalk when we came within about 3 feet.

This may be a woodpecker.

My mom had a mother-in-laws tongue when I was growing up. I've always loved it, so I was so excited to see it growing on the grounds of the Midas resort. It's the tall yellow and green plant.

I was also amazed by the size of the dieffenbachia. I grew up with this plant as well, and have one of my own.

I liked this large spikey plant.

A random little pineapple plant at our hotel.

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