Monkey River (Belize)

In Belize, there are many tours to see the animals and birds of the area. We chose to take the Monkey River cruise. This easy trip allowed us to see many different animals and birds.

If you are on an NCL cruise, you’ll likely dock at 8 am. You will also be told you have to be to the small boat dock which is 15 minutes away at 8:15. This timing is problematic when everyone can’t get off the boat in the first minute. However, the process to check-in for the tour took a long time. Between the single line to sign a consent form, and then getting boats ready and filled, the process was quite slow. Anyway, the trip was unlikely to be missed by anyone who reasonably tried to be on time.

The small boats rush across the bay and into the narrow Monkey River. The town of Monkey River encircles the outlet of the river and is just a small cluster of buildings. It used to be a sizable fishing village, but much of the seafood gathering has moved elsewhere. You can still see traps in stacks on the side of the river. And the odd abandoned home.

Our guide Nazario and the others on the boat helped point out various animals and plants. We saw: yellow-crowned heron, little blue heron, iguana, night heron, swallows, sandpipers, howler monkeys in palm trees (which just seemed odd to me for some reason), sensitive plant – mimosa, provision fruit (which has a large flower that looks like red fireworks, and is not edible but is medicine), cattails (which have edible roots), lots of morning glory in multiple colors, bamboo and breadfruit (neither of which are native to the area).

Kohun nut trees are native to the area. Each tree has 200 or so nuts in a bunch. These mini-coconuts can be used to make oil. TheKohunlich Mayan ruins were named for this tree which was abundant at the site.

We also saw a “Jesus Christ Lizard”, aka the striped basilisk. This little guy can move its legs so fast it seems to run on water.

One of the other unusual creatures we saw was the white line bats. They line up on tree branches and fly away when you get close.

Pro Tip – sit on the right side of the boat in the morning for the best light to see the animals. Also, remember to watch the water for the elusive crocodiles and the much more common “crocolog” 🙂 .