Yesterday we started our way back up from Guatemala to Belize. We booked a transfer with a tour company for the four and a half hour journey, as it was much quicker and comfier than the local buses. Well, it should have been, but I was dying for a wee when we got on the bus at 7.30am, but there wasn't a toilet until after we had got through Belizean customs at 11am, so it was a pretty uncomfortable first half of the journey for me! We were headed to Orange Walk:...

Today we took the public bus to Belize Zoo, as we were advised that it was the best way to get there by a friendly taxi driver. That's how nice people are in Belize: even though he was a taxi driver he told us about the bus! It only cost £4 each for the return two hour journey on a Blue Bird bus. The conductor showed us where to get off on the main highway, which was right opposite the zoo's entrance. Belize Zoo was started in 1983, after filming of a nature do...

Having overcome my claustrophobia yesterday, today we spent even more time in caves. We headed to Nohoch Che'en (Caves Branch) Archaeological reserve to spend the day cave tubing: floating along the river through various caves in an industrial sized rubber ring/inner tube. We booked with Vitalino Reyes, a local guide, whose company the books recommend as the most knowledgable about the cave branch. We met our guide, Vitalino Jr, son of the owner, and got into the...

This afternoon we visited the Iguana Conservation Programme at the San Ignacio Resort Hotel. £5 buys you a guided tour of the sanctuary, where you can feed and hold some of the iguanas. We met our guide, Eddie, and again it was just me and Matt on the tour! On entering the enclosure, we were amazed by how many iguanas they were and how massive they grew - up to 6 feet long! The largest they had was the mascot of the sanctuary, 'Gomez', who was bright orange as ...

Getting up bright and early, we went to meet our tour group to head out to Barton Creek Nature Reserve for a morning of cave canoeing. Well, I say 'group', but it turns out it was just me and Matt on our own private tour! We met our driver and our guide, Dora (the explorer) and clambered into the back of a battered old 4x4. It had more crack than windscreen: they obviously don't have Autoglass here in Belize. We drove through Santa Elena and out to the track for ...