Before
leaving home we had, through the net, engaged Kevin Modera to take us to
Monkey River Village and then with a Belize Certified Jungle Guide aboard
to continue up river and then through the jungle on foot to search for
various Flora and Fauna.
Our particular
target for the day was to see and video Howler Monkeys.
We left the dock
in Placencia at 6:00 am for the 1 hour ride to the Mouth of Monkey River.
Arriving shortly after 7:00 am we were treated to breakfast at
"Alice's Restaurant". I brought home Alice's recipe for her
"Monkey River Eggs". It must be noted here that the eggs in
this area have very dark orange yokes. It must be the diet they
eat.
Basically the
recipe for Monkey River Eggs goes something like this. Take 2 eggs,
break into a bowl, then add chopped what ever you might have available such
as bacon, ham, onions, peppers, cheese, basil, garlic and what ever.
Scramble to your taste over a medium heat and serve with "Johnny
Cakes".
After breakfast,
Kevin introduced us to Percy (Alice's son) who would be our guide and path
finder through the Rain Forest, on our search for tropical Flora and
Fauna. Percy, had been born and raised in Monkey River Village and
knew the Rain Forest like the back of his hand.
We started up
river slowly with Percy pointing out Huge Iguanas sunning themselves high
up in the shore line Mangrove bushes. We also saw Great Blue Herons,
White Herons, Cormorants, Hawks, large termite nests, trees and bushes
which are medicinal, and many other birds and plants.
After about a 30
min ride, Percy motioned for Kevin to pull strait into the shore, through,
the plant life until the bow was on shore. This done we stepped
ashore and with Percy cutting a path through the forest, set out to find
what we could find.
We had only walked
for about 5 minutes when Percy motioned overhead where there was a large
Toucan jumping from branch to branch above us looking for food. The
birds who live in the canopy of the trees in a rain forest are almost
impossible to photograph from the ground as the leaves and branches most
always hide part of the bird or critter.
Percy cut our way inland
away from the river pointing out the various bugs, birds and medicinal
plants. After about 20 minutes Percy stopped, looked, listened and
then took his machete and with the flat side beat on a large hollow bamboo
stalk. All of a sudden the tops of the surrounding trees was alive with
freshly awakened Howler Monkeys.
Evidently Howler
Monkeys do not like to be rudely awakened as they started doing what their
name implies. All of them (there must have been 20-25 of them at this
location) howled at the same time, it was defining.
We then headed
back to the boat which I had no idea where it was but Percy cut us a path straight
to it. On the way we came upon another group of Howler Monkeys and a
beautiful Amorphous Butterfly as well as several tropical insects.
The only down side
to the trip was that there are lots of Mosquitoes in the jungle. We took
and used (36 Deet - Deep Woods Off) and it worked very well.
Don't even think of going into the Rain Forest or any other inland forest
without good insect repellent.
On returning to
the boat, we headed back to Monkey River Village and a lunch of fried fish
paddies, rice and beans, tomatoes and a diet coke at Alice's and then
started working our way slowly back to Placencia.
Along the way, if
we saw a spot that looked like it would be good fishing we stopped and
fished for a while using Kevin's Tackle. We managed to hook and land
several snook, needle fish, jacks and barracuda.
We went into the
area of the Shrimp Farm and were lucky enough to come upon a flock of beautiful
Roseate Spoonbill birds sitting on the top branches of a Mangrove
Island. They like flamingos get very pink if they have a day to day
diet of shell fish such as shrimp. These were bright pink.
We arrived back at
the dock in Placencia at about 5:30 tired but satisfied with a great day.