jaguar paw

Kick the Blues with Kinkajous

If there was ever a lodge in the Jungle that would make Walt Disney misty, this might be it. About an hour’s drive from Belize City, Jaguar Paw resort is nestled in the dense jungles surrounding the Caves Branch River in the Cayo district of Belize.

From the municipal airport in Belize City, we enjoyed a surreal taxi ride in Mason’s wood side-paneled late seventies mag-rimmed station wagon as we bumped along the rain soaked roads to blaring disco-Motown tunes. Bizarre. Descending deeper and deeper in to the tropical rainforest, the party wagon finally slid to a halt at the end of a very muddy road. As we hopped out, we were greeted by a scene right out of Indiana Jones.

Welcome to the Jungle

A slight drizzle dampened the brick pathway leading to the lodge’s main building – a small Mayan themed outpost, which strained against the encroaching jungle.


Laissez les bon temps...	Funky Furniture	Suzie and "Bob"

A pack of recycled dogs of all shapes and sizes escorted us through an extremely vibrant, lush, overgrown labyrinth on the way to our cabana. I am not sure cabana is the right word, but in any event, our room can only be described one way: bizarre.

Stepping from the nearly impenetrable jungle we were greeted by a Victorian era brothel-themed room complete with black and red walls, rich silk tapestry and walls of French Quarter paintings and nude photographs. Whoa. I’m not saying the room wasn’t nice, because it was. I’m just saying that this is exactly the last thing you’d expect to find HERE.

Another Weak Photo

Jaguar Paw is probably best known for its cave tubing expeditions, where flashlight toting tubers are dropped off up stream, to float merrily, merrily, merrily through the limestone caverns of Cave’s Branch enjoying the cool crystalline waters of the rain forest. This area is so perfect for such pastime that Jaguar Paw actually leases the use of its property to the cruise lines for shore excursions.

Which leads to bizarre encounter number 3 in as many hours: here we are in the middle of nowhere, sitting in the tiny dining room, when just outside the entrance there came a parade comprised of hundreds of doughy, loud, red and white, north eastern cruise slugs. There is no exaggeration here, 40 or so huge greyhound busses packed to the gills literally belched out mobs of cigarette-smoking , coke-drinking, barely-fit-the-tube-about-their-waist, big-basketball-shoe and hideous day-glow floral-bathing-suit-wearing mob. The procession was non-stop.

Turns out that Tuesday is cruise ship day, which under normal circumstances, is little more than a minor irritation for half an hour one day a week as the tubers, like lemmings, drop into the river and float away. But on this particular Tuesday, tropical storms had dumped so much rain onto the region that the river was dangerously overflowing. When the river rises too much, travel through the already tight cave system becomes quite understandably impossible. So while the thought of losing this massive crowd to a watery caving disaster doesn’t appear at first blush to be problematic, imagine the ensuing paper work for these poor lodge owners and tour guides.

So as we sat, mouth agape, this stream of humanity began pooling up, and like a clogged toilet, overflowed into our delicate jungle sanctuary. Ire was the word of the hour, and these folks weren’t shy. They complained loudly and often. They made demands on the poor lodge owners. They whined and stomped about, until they suddenly disappeared into the buses as quickly as they came and wheeled off in one big diesel fumed huff.

All was quiet again, as it remained for the duration of our stay. Sadly, the rain continued to fall during our stay, preempting any chance to explore the caves by tube. We opted instead to hike through the drier passages of the cave system, which were amazing in their own right.

Guard Dog


Flora	Cave Lighting	Odd Rock Formations	Tranquility


More Cave Craziness	Deep in the Dark	Suzie Makes a Find	What's This?

After lunch, Suzie and I thought it best to don our sandals and head deep into the jungle without the inconvenience of a guide or anyone that has the first inkling about the jungle. So off we went, slogging down a muddy trail doing everything wrong, like not really looking at the ground as we walk, when I damn near stepped on the deadliest snake in all of the Americas, the ill-tempered and aggressive fer-de-lance.

By all accounts, this is a nasty little fellow. The fer-de-lance is the third deadliest snake in the world, killing approximately 2600 people a year. You get the idea. Fortunately, I stumbled on the friendlier end of the snake, as he casually proceeded along the path.

The Awful Snake

Without any sense of urgency, he (or she –what the hell do I know) found a nice little hollow under a log and coiled up in a defensive position. After snapping a few pictures, common sense overcame us and we decided to hire a guide for deeper forages.


The Namesake	Arachnid's OK	Wily Tapir	On the Move

We returned to the lodge and explained to a local naturalist what we had seen, showing him a digital picture for confirmation. I was amazed at the reaction. The guides and workers were very alarmed and asked if I could take them to the snake. We retraced our steps, but by the time we retuned, our slick little buddy had disappeared deep into the dark jungle. So that was exciting (more so when we saw the guide’s reaction, and found out how unusual it was for a path-loving couch potato to actually see one of these snakes).

Sleep at Jaguar Paw was peaceful. Gentle rain fell during the evening, and the air was surprisingly cool. We slept with the windows open, protected from the elements by an ill-fitting screen. But happily, the presence of bats in the area eradicated most of the mosquitoes, so bugs were never really a problem.

As I was saying, sleep was peaceful EXCEPT for when the howler monkeys decided to bellow in the nearby trees at full tilt eeaarly in the morning. The noise so loud and eerie it makes your teeth shiver and rattle. But the roars added a fantastic soundtrack to the night that I wouldn’t have traded for solitude.

Tree Fella

Banana Buddy

The owners of the lodge are the Mother Teresas of the animal kingdom, and in addition to collecting dogs, were also nurturing such beasts as a pack of coatimundis, loads of rabbits, one abandoned howler and the most entertaining of the lot, a mit-full of kinkajous. After dinner the friendly staff would let us into the enclosure to play with these extremely friendly, overly inquisitive, beasts. Soft any wooly, the Kinkajous would wrap their prehensile tails around our necks and swing freely digging through pockets and backpacks with such speed and agility, that it was impossible to counter their intrusions before we had a wet nose print on a camera lens or a full kinkajou wrapped up in a backpack. Kinkajous are loads of fun and were the highlight of the stay at Jaguar Paw.


Funning Around	Look at that Grip	Cuddly Little Guy


Curiosity	A Shoulder Perch	Overrun by Kinkajous