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Because we were in a wildilfe sanctuary neither of us fessed up to trying to kill the first scorpion we found in our room minutes before we found the second (which we also would have tried to kill had we had more success with the first) and went (with our shoes on) to find the ranger to come and do something about them. He was a sweet young man and immediately and purposefully went back to his room and emerged with a mystery item. I (full of admiration) asked what he had..... a mallet, spray, scorpion control device? "A newspaper" he said.
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We were dropped off by the local bus on the highway at a place called Maya Centre (where the Maya people displaced (ironically) by the sanctuary set up house) where we expected to shop for our jungle provisions. How well your expectations are satisfied I guess depends on what you're expecting. We found two old carrots, two old tomatoes, a capsicum, tin of mackeral (in a spicey tomatoe sauce), crackers, four eggs and six packets of 2 minute noodles. And some odd milk biscuits (breakfast x 3). We were pretty satisfied. A chat with the local women got us a "taxi" up to the sanctuary and a few days of jungle adventure.
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We went to Cockscomb Basin Wildilfe Sanctuary in search of jaguar (and the other 5 big cats of Belize), tapir, howler monkeys or any other mammal (or bird). Maybe even a reptile. What we found were one huge red bottomed tarantula and our 2 (equally huge) scorpians (but didn't photograph any) and some fairly impressive tapir footprints (they're big too). We did manage to do some walking through the many kilometers of really good tracks and cool off tubing down the river and swimming in crystal clear pools beneath waterfalls.
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While we had lots of nice walks together in the daytime it's pretty dark in the jungle at night and one shouldn't venture alone onto new tracks at dusk without a torch or any idea. And if one did, one ought to have told someone exactly where one was going. Mind you, on the up side, if one did it would provide a great opportunity to work up an impressive sweat running through the jungle tracks (like a freightened gazelle) leaping over roots and streams and all the while mumbling "God, I don't want to see a jaguar now".
