You better Belize it!

I left England at 9:50am on Thursday 18th August and, after a surprisingly enjoyable 10 hour flight, made it to Cancun at 2:15pm local time. I caught a shuttle bus to my hostel, Hostel Moloch, in downtown Cancun which is literally 2 minutes walk from the ADO bus station. I checked in, dumped my bag and went and bought my bus ticket to Chetumal for the next day. I paid for a bed in dorm but it was so quiet in the hostel I ended up having the room to myself.
The following day I was up early to catch the 8am bus to Chetumal, on the Mexico-Belize border.
It took nearly 6 hours to get there but the ADO buses are quite comfortable and air conditioned so it wasn't so bad.
When I got to Chetumal, Nikki from Belize Bird Rescue (BBR) picked me up and drove me to Belmopan, Belize's capital city. Belize Bird Rescue is based on 50 acre Rock Farm just outside the 'city'.
As we drove into town Nikki got a call about a baby parrot so we went and picked it up. Two little girls brought the parrot out to us and said it was really sick. Nikki knew it was a baby White-Front just from it's call. Her wings had been clipped and she had a lump on her throat and a swollen eye. During the journey back to BBR we thought we'd lost her but we got some glucose solution into her as soon as possible and she perked up enough to have some pureed food. We put her in a pet carrier and hoped she'd make it through the night.

The next day she was still alive so we've been feeding her little and often to try and build her strength. She's also been getting antibiotics as the vet said she has a sinus infection which is affecting her throat and eye. After a couple of days, she'd survived long enough to give her a name - I called her Maya.
Every morning we also have to feed all the other birds here at BBR. At 6:30am we (Nikki, Hayley and I) go down to the prep room and chop fruit and vegetables to be put in the aviaries. At the moment there's a baby Toucan called Amy, two baby Aracari's (like Toucan's) called Elmo and Sinatra, five Yellow-Heads, lots of Red Loreds and some White-Fronts. We're normally finished by around 8:30am.
I've made a couple of trips into Belmopan with Nikki and today we went to a place called Spanish Lookout. We had to cross a river on a little ferry which could only hold two cars at a time.

At the moment we've got a team on British volunteers from Trekforce who are building a new aviary for the endangered Yellow-Head. Nikki is hoping to start a breeding programme to help the wild population. They've had a few issues with the construction but they seem to have it under control.
It's rainy season here so I've already experienced a couple of big storms, one was tropical storm Harvey which we thought would turn into a hurricane but it only lasted a couple of hours.

I haven't seen much of Belize yet but Nikki's keen for me to start driving her truck which will mean I can get out and about more. It's so beautiful here, I can't wait to explore!

And so the count down begins....

This trip has been a long time coming. My first experience of Central America was on a university fieldtrip to the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico in 2006. We stayed in the border town of Chetumal, where I was tempted by a glimpse of Belize in the distance - the beautiful Caribbean Barrier Reef and tropical jungles were calling. Sadly I didn't get the chance to visit and have longed to return ever since. My passion is wildlife and Belize has long held the reputation for being a nature fanatics dream. Now I am about to embark on the journey of a life time. My plan is to fly to Cancun, Mexico and make my way south to Belize where I will be volunteering for a bird rescue centre. Then I will travel down though Central America ending up in Costa Rica....hopefully! Viva América Central!