Belize River Tour

The Belize River Tour

Hello! Here we are again and this time we are going take a little tour of the Belize River

Joining us on tour today is Mr. Rene Villanueva who is the CEO of Belize Travel Radio and Mr. Thompson our tour guide and owner of the Black Orchid Resort, that sits on the Bank of the Belize River in Burrell Boom village.

Did you know that the Belize River is 180 winding miles starting from the Maya mountains and empties into the Caribbean Sea? And was once used to transport log-wood and mahogany for export.

Let me give you a pinch of history here, Mr. Thompson pointed out that the communities along the river got their names from the activity of the log-wood and mahogany industry, names like Flowers Bank, Grace Bank, Bermudian Landing and Burrell Boom, here’s how:

The woodcutter would go upstream and when they found a highland they would settle and that would become a landing, then they would go into the forest find a mahogany tree that they would cut, now remember everything was done manually, then they would find the closest point to the river where they would haul the logs and that would be called a bank. A village would spring up around that bank. The logs would then be caught up on a chain that would be suspended across the river, and that would create a boom.  The logs would then be sorted out and tied into rafts and sent to Belize City where they would be shipped off to England. Along the river bank you can still see log-wood, mahogany and a variety of hardwood trees and other tree shrubs that make the rain-forest what it is.

Did you also know that the log-wood was known as dye-wood and was capable of producing all shades of black and gray, purple, red, blue and green before synthetic dyes came on the market?  When that happened the switch from harvesting log-wood to mahogany occurred.

            As we traveled upstream the  fresh, sweet aroma of the luscious rain-forest and the crisp clean air that is commonplace near  the river was absolutely amazing.  At this particular time of year, between the months of October to February is the mating season of the iguanas. Beautiful, bright orange colored male iguanas basked in the sun in the rain-forest canopy   as our boat carved its way through the winding river. We were actually able to view in the distance a  crocodile near the river bank sunning itself. Although we didn’t get to see the wildlife of the nearby forest, it is home to jaguars, snakes, deer, armadillo, and peccary just to name a few.  We did see  2 troops of howler monkeys perched high in trees. The Belize River is also home to a variety of fish,  river lobster and shrimp and different species of turtles and birds.

            So when coming to Belize take a tour of the Belize River and learn about the cycle of the eco-system and bring your fishing gear if you love fishing.