Surf and turf

The jaguar is the jewel in Belize’s conservation efforts, but they’re notoriously elusive, discovers Nigel Tisdall, on a journey to find them from rainforest to reef

- Nigel Tisdall

SOME keel-billed toucans have kindly joined my wife and I for breakfast. Sporting a smart uniform of black coat and bright-yellow chest, the national bird of Belize comes equipped with a 5in-long, vividly-coloured beak that is clearly ideal for scrumping in the kitchen garden of our hillside hotel, Blancaneaux Lodge.

When we start our day with huevos rancheros and Maya omelette, loaded with spinach-like chaya, our new friends sit in the trees devouring custard apples with gusto. Such sights are typical of the astonishing harmony with Nature that survives in this tranquil, English-speaking country wedged between Mexico and Guatemala. Slightly larger than Wales, what was once British Honduras is home to only 400,000 people and more than 60% remains wild or undeveloped. There are 500-plus bird species, as well as a host of intriguing creatures such as the margay (a tiny spotted wildcat), tayra (tree otter) and raccoonlike coati. Meanwhile, down by the blissfully warm Caribbean Sea, the World Heritagelisted Belize Barrier Reef stretches for 185 miles in a rich tapestry of cayes, atolls and coral reefs teeming with marine life.

Our week-long reef-and-rainforest tour begins inland at the Mountain Pine Ridge Reserve where, 31 years ago, legendary filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola opened this small hotel with thatched cabanas overlooking the Privasson River. Originally a writing retreat, it offers what he calls ‘barefoot elegance with a luxurious wink’, a place for wild swimming and forest horse rides backed up with a onehut spa, Italian cuisine, terrific wines from the Coppola vineyards and, goodness me, a choice of seven different packed lunches.