From El Remate Guatemala , we travel across the border by bus to Belize.

Discover on crossing border to Belize that there are no ATMs at the border contrary to what we were told by tour agent who sold us bus tickets and additionally, immigration regulations state that we must stay on the bus past our intended destination of Belize zoo and go direct to Belize city. i.e No one allowed to disembark between boder and Belize City. At Belize City we look for an ATM....First 3 ATMs tried did not work so we got taxi to take us to bus station via an ATM that did work..we luckily managed to get a lovely old taxi driver who was more than willing to help and knew which bank would be successful...and he did .....deed done then onto bus station where our necessary bus was about to leave. Glad to get safely out of Belize City as it is renowned as very high risk to get robbed at knife point or gunpoint here.

After 35 minutes back along western highway we got off at Belize zoo. This zoo only takes rescue animals native to Belize and tries to release back to the wild wherever possible. They provide nearby accomodation in a jungle area with various trails through the trees.

Our accommodation is the pond house...a wooden chalet with a large covered deck enclosed with mosquito proof mesh . All this is set on stilts out over a small jungle lagoon which has crocodiles basking around the edges. ...It comes complete with 2 freestanding fans so hopefully we will have a cooling night. Out on the deck, there are two hammocks and also another bed if we chose to sleep outside. Plentiful food is included in our accomodation deal

We book on a night tour at zoo which starts at 7 pm.....This is specifically to see close up, the nocturnal animals which are generally sleeping out of sight during the day. We get amazing close up views of the animals in their huge enclosures with our headtorches....they all come close to the fences..as curious of us as we are of them...huge puma, a jaguar, an ocelot and a margay...like a very small jaguar. .Elaine hand feeds carrots to a tapir, which is a jungle cow with a mouth a bit like a camel. Altogether an excellent tour.

We revisit the zoo on the following day in daylight to see those species which had been sleeping at night. Some of these animals such as spider and howler monkeys have an "open ticket" and can come and go as they please between the outside jungle and the trees in the zoo.

Great to see the difference in how the various animals behaved between day and night.