Terranova Expedition: Monkey Bay

Pulling away from the border, we made the short hop towards the coast. We stayed the night in Orange Walk, then rode through a section of Belize City. Belize City is not large, about 70,000 people, but it has a not so positive reputation, so we turned inland and made our way towards the centre.

We hadn't gone far, when we saw a sign for the Monkey Bay Sanctuary, so we pulled in and have been here for a couple days.

The Sanctuary consists of 1,070 acres of tropical forest, riverine and savanna habitats. It is bordered by the Sibun River that flows from the Maya Mountains through the coastal savanna on its path to the Caribbean Sea. The Sanctuary is situated adjacent to Monkey Bay National Park (2250 acres), which together form a biological corridor link spanning the Sibun watershed.

They were hit hard in October here by Hurricane Richard, which passed right over the area, so there are a lot of downed trees and displaced people. At the Sanctuary, there are a few of the workers who have not been home in months, and are staying here, because their homes have been destroyed.

We visited the Belize Zoo, which also we hit hard by the hurricane. They didn't lose any of the land animals, but did lose some birds. A lot of the enclosures were also damaged by falling trees.

We spent a couple days with Vinko (Aussie) and Colette (South Africa), a wonderful married couple who are bicycling from Mexico to Panama, in about the same time we are riding from Canada to Argentina.

They have family in Calgary (and have both lived their), so hopefully when we are all finished, we can meet up with them again and share some more stories.

Their website is www.roundthebendproject.com