The loud roars of thunder and lightening kept waking us up last night! The island was a little flooded in the morning and everything we had put out to dry was much wetter than it had been to start with. We debated for a while about where to go, we couldn't decide whether to head south or just go towards Mexico where we will soon need to be. Although Belize is a tiny country the buses aren't as regular as other places and don't seem to run as late in the evening which means we'd still end up wasting days travelling. After a short while umming and arring over breakfast at Popeye's we decided to go back to Belize City and then to Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary, which is about 36 miles north-west of the city. There was one bus there in the morning which we missed so we had to get a taxi, they initially said US$100 but we managed to go for BZ$100! The taxi driver would not stop chatting the whole way, "hey Nathan man I'm a proper tour guide, you gotta Belize it man" and so on. I was asleep for most of the journey so got away with not listening to his life stories whilst Nathan had to stay polite and interested.

Crooked Tree is a tiny village 3 miles of the main highway, we stayed at Sam Tillets Village Lodge in a cabin with a palm tree roof with really pretty surroundings. After our disappointment at Rio Claro we were a bit nervous about staying at another nature reserve but from the outset everyone was really friendly and our cabin looked lovely, for a very reasonable price! (BZ$30 each per night). We took a map of the trails and went off for a walk around the lagoon and through the forest, it was so quiet and the only other visitors we saw were a group of school children. We were only in flip flops at this point and walking through the forest we had ants crawling over our feet, so we went back to put on proper shoes and go back out at 4pm when the birds are more active. We found a restaurant for lunch, which was more like an outdoor kitchen with a couple of benches, they didn't have a menu but just a select few options and we actually had really nice chicken and chips for BZ$5! The village is still developing and isn't touristy at all, we expect that it will get more popular in the coming years but hasn't quite got there yet! It was nice though being away from the crowds and doing something a bit different.

On the walk we saw loads of different birds (I have a checklist but can't remember all the names) as well as hundreds of butterflies and a huge iguana which ran up a tree! It felt a bit like a tropical farm as there were horses, chickens and cows around the village in the heat and humidity of a jungle. We walked for about 2 hours trying to get good snaps of the birds. When we arrived back at the lodge we were greeted by several horses at the gate and a couple of dogs which came bounding up to us and followed us to our cabin. They seemed shocked to see tourists as well! We arranged with the guy who works there to do a boat tour tomorrow which takes us to the ruins at Lamanai.

For dinner we thought we would try a different restaurant, we found one which looked more like a bar but they had two options for food - we ended up getting chicken and chips again! We dined with the local lizards as they were scattered all over the mesh behind us. I kept thinking of Mathilda and got paranoid one was going to jump in my food or drink! Although quiet (we still hadn't seen another tourist- we could be the only ones here) we felt safe as all the locals said hello and were happy for us to be there. It was a strange vibe walking past the farmland with the occasional land-rover driving past blaring rap music!