In the early 1980’s, a conservationist named Alan Rabinowitz came to Belize to study the jaguar (one of the prettiest big cats) and its habits. He spent two years tracking jaguars in the area that was to become the Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary (CBWS). He wrote a book called “Jaguar” after completion of the study. The book and study resulted in an effort by the Belize Audubon Society (BAS) to establish CBWS. It was established in 1986 on 128,000 acres of rainforest at the base of the Maya mountains to protect the habitat of the jaguar. The sanctuary is run by BAS. Having been members of BAS for almost 20 years, we were very interested in seeing the sanctuary. It took us about 2 hours to get there by van from Placencia. According to the ranger at CBWS, there are about 60 jaguars living in 13 different areas in the sanctuary (determined by radio tracking collars) along with many other animals, including tapir, parrots, parakeets, and the Fer-de-lance viper. The jaguar is very elusive, travels mostly at night, and stays away from humans. The ranger, who had worked for BAS at the CBWS for 4 years, had never seen a jaguar. Only a very small portion of CBWS is open to the public. About 10 trails are available for hiking through the surrounding rainforest. We spent the morning hiking several trails, and then in the afternoon, we hiked to a waterfall and swam in a pool below the waterfall. There also was a natural rock slide in the river at the waterfall. The jungle was very dense along the trails and allowed almost no sunlight to reach the jungle floor. Many of the trees were 80 to 100 feet tall, with howler monkeys in the treetops. Also, it rained lightly most of the time we were there. The jungle was so dense we were expecting to see a T-Rex come lumbering out of jungle at any moment. At the end of the day, we had some excitement. The guy we hired to take us in his van to CBWS lost his keys in the river. This meant our backpacks were locked in his van and we did not have a way to get back to Placencia. To get our backpacks, we were able to find a stiff piece of wire and open the front door through the window by pulling up on the lock. Fortunately, it was an old van with old style locks with a flat head (many of the cars in Belize are used cars from Texas that still have the old Texas inspection sticker on the window). After we got the van open, the BAS ranger found a local taxi to cart us to the highway (there is only one paved major road in southern Belize). We then caught the local bus (affectionately known as the “chicken bus”) to the town of Independence. From there, we walked about a mile and caught the water taxi to Placencia.
Cayuse 