Baboon Sanctuary

[ELECIA]

Hello,

 

I am traveling to Belize (so excited!!) in April on Carnival's Valor. I am interested in going to the Baboon Sanctuary. I have such a love for seeing furry mammals and it would be so nice to see them in their natural habitat and not feel guilty. My daughter who will be 3.5 i very enthralled in Rain Forests right now and the preservation of them, so I thought this could be a perfect time for her to see one up close. I know when I visited my 1st rain forest when I was 10 in Puerto Rico I was a little disapointed. I envisioned tree frogs, colorful parrots, jaguars and monkeys swinging from the trees... Well, at least she would see the monkeys here! :) Anyway, had anybody been here? How long/ how much for a taxi? Do you need a tour guide etc? Also how is the terrain? I am pregnant (very late 2nd trimester) and while a nice walk is fine... nothing too trecherous for me right now. Thanks for any input! :)

[driftwood]

. . . I would suggest you consider a visit to the Belize Zoo: 1.) much to see in one location; 2. no uncertain footing for you or others to trip in; 3.) you are not going to be in Belize for very long :(, and it is a fact that Howler Monkeys at their most engaging will stay well over your head and may prove something of a disappointment to the young. At their least engaging they will throw things at you, and some of them have pretty good aim after much practice. The Belize Zoo is I think not what one would expect. It is true that most of the more hazardous animals are not in a position to attack you for various reasons, but if they are in fact "confined" they have not become aware of it yet. Inland far (29 miles) from Belize City, the zoo exists in an edge of rainforest specifically reserved for the animals to enjoy; visitors were a sort of afterthought, in order to bring in needed revenue to provide for the care of the animals, and to educate the public about the local animals and their needs. So sometimes it is hard to see the animals--they are mostly quite well camouflaged, and they are residing in spaces filled with their own natural habitat: and here in a fairly comfortably walkable area you MAY see a tapir, a Jabiru Stork, an ocelot, a black ocelot; a margay eluded me; high in the trees you MAY see the jaguar, or it may leap down and come right up to the fence to look at you. It did both while we were there. You will if you look carefully high in the trees--or listen--see Howler Monkeys (the Belizean "baboons" of the other place). You will see pretty fair specimens of the two Belizean crocodiles, the large American Crocodile as you might rarely see these days in Florida, and the smaller Morelet's Crocodile (both popularly called "alligators" in Belize, as the Alligator mississippiensis does not occur there). There are rare and gorgeous birds to see (and in my case, to be pecked by). ALL of the animals at the zoo are indigenous to Belize, and all of them are there for some reason--which is another reason it is good for people to visit: the animals need the care they are getting, and the caregivers need the money!

 

If you go to the Radisson Taxi Drivers' Association bench and ask a taxi driver/tour guide to take you there, he will not only give you a good price for the trip with admission included, but he will take your whole family--not charging per person as the tour operators will. Our guide accompanied us throughout the zoo, and he was an invaluable spotter of animals! It can be quite a contest to see them sometimes!

[marter99]

We did this excursion through Carnival several years ago. The 'rain forest' we walked through was located right on the edge of a field/farm, and was basically trees and mosquitos. Definitely not what any of us expected as far as rain forests go. One monkey did come down and attack my niece's leg, of course we all got a kick out of that and still talk about it to this day. She wasn't hurt, so it was ok to laugh :) . We did see a few monkeys and they did howl. Before we went through the forest, we were taken into a large building while we had to watch children do magic tricks, or anything else so we would give them tips. That wasn't anyone's idea of a good time. My daughter has a huge love of monkeys, which was why we chose to do this, she enjoyed seeing the monkeys, but the rest of it was really a waste of time.

[ELECIA]

Thank you both for taking the time to write your responses to me. I appreciate it. I think we are definitley reconsidering our trip to see the Black Howler Monkeys. If my group is up for the drive that day maybe we will visit the zoo. Is it expensive to get into? Little bummed about the rainforest thing, but what can you do? :)

[driftwood]

. . . ours did; but it is not expensive. As with any zoo or museum I have ever visited anywhere, they welcome any contribution you might care to make in addition to the admission fee. You will find that Belize is not a greedy place; but it is rather dramatically poor, and anything you can give is very sincerely appreciated . . . and goes a long, long way!

 

But no one will hound you or follow you around at the zoo (or so far as I could see, farther away than three or four blocks around the Swing Bridge and the Caye Caulker Water Taxi Terminal). Everyone is so honest and friendly that you sort of want to do something to help.

[DoeCO]

We just returned from a cruise and took a tour with regtour.com to the baboon sanctuary. It was great. The guide took us to an area of the jungle where there were several howler monkeys. We watched them for a while and then the guide started calling out to them so we could listen to their howl (which is not to believed--its very loud and very not-monkey-like!) We learned a lot about the monkeys and then we learned about cashews (lots of interesting facts about cashews (no wonder they are so outlandishly expensive!) I loved using regtour.com--they provided fantastic personalized attention (there were only 6 in our group and we stopped whenever we wanted and did pretty much whatever we wanted) and after the Baboon sanctuary they took us to a little Belizian restaurant that served great food (no other cruise passengers were seen -- just nice Belizian people!)

 

A great day and one of my favorite excursions EVER.

 

~Deb

[Bfson]

Deb-I went to the web site you listed but there is no mention of a tour to the baboon sanctuary. Was it the zoo tour or was it something you set up special?

[DoeCO]

I just wrote them an email and asked about the possibility of setting up a tour to the Baboon sanctuary--they were very fast responding. When we asked about finding a restaurant, they were also very open to it. Like I said, it was a wonderful excursion and exponentially better than any cruise tour I've taken!

[Bfson]

Thanks. Could I ask what they charged you per person for this trip?

[DoeCO]

They charged us $45 which was a little less than the ship excursion (about $10, I think) but the personal attention we received was extremely appreciated and the excursion was easily worth double that amount! They seem like very upstanding people and I have no qualms about their integrity. I knew they would be there when I got off the ship--just make sure you follow their directions on where to meet them if you take the tour (print off the directions before leaving home, which I forgot to do and it was a little challenging to find them which was only a short walk away from the pier.)