Not far from the Copal Tree Lodge, the Rio Grande winds its way through dense lowland rainforest.
The island Long Coco Cay, fringed with casuarinas, cradles a shallow lagoon of jade and turquoise.
A keel-billed toucan pauses on a bare branch.
Boom Boom, drum teacher in Hopkins, raises the machete he uses to split coconuts every day.
A green iguana rests motionless on the branch - the canopy holds the midday heat – the animal waits, still as bark, while warmth moves through its body.
A Vermilion Flycatcher.
A Black-cowled Oriole stretches its neck to get a better look as I approach.
Anita Cal's hands press the grinding stone across roasted cacao beans – beneath the palm-thatched roof of the Living Maya Experience in Toledo.
Not far from the nest, this Rufous-tailed hummingbird watches over her young.
Two tiny Rufous-tailed hummingbird chicks in a nest made of plant fibres and lichen – barely bigger than a child’s fist.
Slate-blue and ochre scales, dewlap taut – a green iguana pauses.
A Great Kiskadee caught mid-launch.
With a tap on a fern leaf, guide Robert Panting gave himself a natural tattoo.
A young howler monkey grips a branch near the Baboon Sanctuary.
A howler monkey curiously pauses mid-bite, leaves still pressed between its lips.
Not far from the Copal Tree Lodge, the Rio Grande winds its way through dense lowland rainforest.
Stingless bees swarm around the waxy entrance tube of their tiny nest on a rotten tree trunk.
A Brown Basilisk on weathered wood, Lumbantun, Belize.
Guides Andres and Annette walk along the step pyramids of Lubaantún – stones held together by nothing but gravity since the 8th century.
An Eastern gray squirrel poised on a decaying log in Lumbantun.
Seen from above, the Copal Tree Lodge stands like a lofty watchtower above the sea of leaves in southern Belize.
Jeremy’s fingers work the drumhead with a precision that belies his age of just 8 years. What a talent!
Jenard Sanchez, ten years old, holds two shakers up in the afternoon air of Hopkins.
A Brown pelican soaring above the Caribbean off Hopkins.
A coati near the Tiger Fern Waterfall Trail. With its snout lowered to the ground, it rummages through the damp leaves in search of food.
Annette is enjoying a bath in a sea of tiger ferns.
A Ringed Kingfisher holds its perch among drooping palm inflorescences, scanning.
A vividly patterned stink bug on a wooden railing — the midday light casts a sharp shadow.
The call of the red-lored Amazon cuts through the thicket of palm trees. With her green plumage, she is almost invisible amongst the foliage.
Hidden amongst the foliage and branches, a Bare-throated Tiger-Heron is keeping an eye out for me.
On the way back from the cave, just before the entrance, daylight falls on the walls.
On the flight to Blize City: Turquoise shallows meet a mosaic of mangroves and lagoons.
