Just before Avery was born, we had been traveling more with recent trips to the Bahamas and Africa. She went on her first international trip (to Canada) the day after the 2016 Presidential election, when she was about 2 months old. She visited three more countries before all travel stopped in 2020. This year we decided it was time to restart the tradition with a trip to Belize.

Our first non-travel day was at the Mayan Center Village on the edge of Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary. The two big attractions for us were the wild cats and chocolate so we started the day touring a farm that grows cacao and, it turns out, so many other fruits. The cacao fruit was so good, I was a little surprised it isn’t imported in that form for people to eat. Next we tried cinnamon, star fruit, sugar cane, and a handful of other fruits and spices. The plants were each grown in their own area but not exclusively and not in neat rows. If we were hiking through without a guide, I doubt I would have realized it was a farm and the birds certainly didn’t realize this bounty wasn’t meant for them. We saw hummingbirds and hawks, lots of songbirds, evidence of many woodpeckers, but the highlight was the toucan that decided to natter at us for a few minutes.

Now that we’d seen how cacao was grown, it was time to visit the Mayan chocolate factory to see how it’s processed. Here, the tour starts with… a trip to another local cacao farm to see how it’s grown. I guess we could have researched that a little better but by the end of our second farm tour, we were very familiar with how cacao is grown. Back at the processing center, we heard about fermenting the seeds to improve flavor and got to taste one seed at this stage. I liked it but it was bitter and didn’t really taste of chocolate yet. Next, the seeds were roasted to creates cocoa nibs. These definitely taste like chocolate but felt nothing like it. Then they pulled out the grinding stone and Avery got to work. I thought I’d read somewhere that it takes hours of grinding to get it smooth enough for chocolate bars. We had it ready in about 5 minutes. Then we added a little sugar that was locally grown and some more cocoa butter before scooping it into molds and setting it in the fridge. Five minutes later, we had some amazing mini chocolate bars. It was such an easy process, we’re going to try it again at home. Maybe we’ll start Drowned Chipmunk Chocolates.

For lunch, we found a roadside cafe that catered to locals. Our beers arrived just in for kickoff of the Man City vs Real Madrid game. The owner found out we had lived in England and informed us that we were clearly cheering for Man City… while he was cheering for Madrid. About a dozen of us watched. Four cheered when Man City scored an early goal. The other eight or so cheered more when Madrid scored two in the next 15 minutes. Avery got bored so we decided to leave at half time. We found out later the game ended in a 3-3 draw.

Across from the Mayan chocolate center is a butterfly garden. For a few dollars, you can go inside a large net enclosure with hundreds of butterflies. The owner has been raising butterflies for over 20 years and appears to have 10+ species. Occasionally, when we stopped moving for long enough, one would land on us. Avery loved the idea of a butterfly landing on her… until one was about to, then it instantly turned into a scary bug and she jumped back. No matter how much we reassured her, she kept jumping.

It had been a busy morning so we went back to our room to rest for a bit before the night walk in Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary to look for the wild cats. As dusk fell, we rode into the park, seeing fireflies along the way. These were different from the East Coast fireflies we saw last summer that blinked. These just stayed on for several seconds or more. We also saw a Fer de Lance, one of the most dangerous snakes in Belize. Luckily, we were still in the truck. As we started the walk the darkness of night enveloped the jungle. Avery had gone back and forward many times on whether she thought a night jungle walk would be amazing or terrifying. Leaving the parking lot, we were tentatively on the amazing side of the divide. Within the first 200m, we crossed over into terrifying. We paused for a minute to see if anything could persuade her back across the invisible line to no avail. I headed back to the parking lot with her on my shoulders watching the fireflies and occasional bat along the way. While we waited at the ranger station with courage builders in hand (this time in the form of Sprite and Oreos), Dom continued on with the guide. They saw kinkajou climbing through the trees before spotting a puma in the bushes beside the trail. Only the head was sticking out with eyes focused on the creatures with the bright lights in the middle of the dark jungle. They watch each other with varying degrees of curiosity on each side.

The next morning it was time to leave the jungle for the islands so we got a ride to Dangriga where a boat would meet us. We arrived early, dropped our bags, and went to explore the town. Avery was in charge of where we went and her first stop was a beach bar with fruit smoothies. She could have stayed there for days.

Nearly 90 minutes later, she finally finished her drink and we were off again. We stopped in grocery stores and clothing shops. We even found an art gallery/winery. It wasn’t entirely clear what the wine was made from. Grapes were unlikely. We had heard some wine is made from the juice runoff during the cacao fermentation process so maybe it was that. Either way, he want ~$20 per person to sample it so we kept walking. Avery eventually pointed us towards a bandstand by the shore. We watched the birds and the waves for several minutes before she asked if she could go stand by the water… then put just her toes in… then up to her ankles… then…

She was soaked and giggling by the time we had to go catch our boat. I think she’s going to love being on the island.