An exhilarating physical and visual rainforest experience
We recently sailed aboard the beautiful new Carnival Dream, Carnival’s 130,000 ton, 3,646-passenger “fun ship” from Port Canaveral, Florida to Central America. We knew we were in for a wonderful trip and interesting adventure ahead.
Our cruise itinerary included visits to Cozumel, Mexico; Isla Roatan in Honduras; Belize; and Costa Maya, Mexico.
After all the eating onboard cruise ship’s “all you can eat” food buffets, we decided to go for the “Bacab Eco-Park Jungle Bike Adventure” offshore excursion in Belize.
Visiting tropical Belize
Belize is a beautiful tropical destination with average year round temperatures well into the 80’s Fahrenheit (approx 25 degrees Celsius). Not an island, Belize (formally British Honduras), is nestled between Guatemala and Mexico and is the only official English language country in Central America.
Perfect for travellers, Belize has a good hotel capacity and there are a variety of different types of accommodation available. It is an ideal place for adventure seekers who want to explore this tropical paradise, as well as those who just want to relax and enjoy the great beaches, underwater scenery, wonderful local cuisine, and friendly locals.
Bacab Eco-Park Jungle Bike Adventure, Belize
First used by the Maya traders as a river outpost over 1000 years ago, the park has been uninhabited for the past 300 years. Bacab Eco-Park boasts over 200 species of tropical flowering plants, including massive hardwood trees, palms, orchids, ferns, and supports a large and diverse wildlife population.
After a brief tour and history lesson on the local culture, we arrived at the Bacab Eco-Park. We selected helmets and mountain bikes that were in reasonably good shape – tire pressure good, oiled, relatively clean – considering jungle bike paths are often muddy.
We attended a brief orientation and then our 20-participant group, with members as young as 14 years old and as old as a 65-year-old retired teacher, departed into the wondrous rainforests of the Belizean jungle.
After hearing about the many poisonous plants, abundant snakes, jaguars, wild insects including a variety of strange-looking spiders, and other scary creatures – as you can imagine, we kept close to our two guides and didn’t stray from the bike path.
Right away, we were amazed at the variety and size of the abundant plant life along the path, not to mention the great number of gigantic palm trees shielding us from the hot midday sunshine. Palms everywhere!
We stopped along the path to look at a large nest of termites munching on a decomposing branch of a large tree – probably over 100 years old. There were hundreds of thousands of these tiny insects just producing and re-producing right in front of our eyes. This type of termite is safe to eat for humans, provides substantial protein and actually doesn’t taste too bad, according to several people in our group who insisted on tasting the mighty live insect morsels.
The excursion was more than just a bike ride – it was an educational experience on the ecology and wildlife of the Belize rainforest. Our guides pointed out edible trees with healing properties, trees that shed its own bark to rid itself of insect infestation, the homes of Howler monkeys, giant green iguanas, the Central American tapir, wild orchids, and more.
After our bike ride through the forest, we were taken on a short hike along a path of medicinal trees offering natural ingredients to help humans with a variety of conditions. We also visited the park’s Park and Wildwings Butterfly enclosure for a stunning close-up look at butterflies – we were especially fascinated with one black butterfly with large, bright orange markings – it was spectacular!
Before returning to our ship, we stopped at an outdoor flea market displaying locally created jewelry made from coral, pearls, granite and other local stones and gems. They were very reasonably priced – a genuine pearl necklace for less than $10 USD and it was a lot of fun to negotiating with friendly merchants in English, the official language in Belize.
As the ship pulled out from Belize, we gazed into the warm sunshine with wonderful thoughts of our day connecting with nature in the Belize jungle. What a day!
Looking to plan a trip to Belize or Central America? Check out the tripatlas.com/new Trip Builder where you can talk to travel agents who will help you plan your trip.