Floating down the Mopan River

Big old birds
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Today we went tubing down the Mopan River from the village of Bullet Tree Falls to Branch Mouth. Bullet Tree Falls is approx five miles outside of San Ignacio. A predominately Spanish speaking village it is widely spread out alongside the banks of the River Mopan. The Mopan River originates from many tributary creeks high in the Maya Mountains in Guatemala; the river enters Belize at the village of Arenal and then follows a 25km stretch to its confluence with the Macal River at Branch Mouth.

Green Iguanas
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The bush out here is beautiful and the ride towards Bullet Tree Falls is pretty, with the view of the mountains in the distance and the forest all around. A taxi will generally charge $2.50bzd per person to get to Bullet Tree. We were dropped off, complete with our rubber tubes hired from David’s Adventures, at the store where we bought some sweetbread for breakfast.

Once afloat the current just moved us gently down the river and gave us plenty of time to look at the wildlife

More beautiful birds
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We then strolled through the village and down to the banks of the river. After stripping into our swimming gear and tying our belongings into a black plastic bag we got into the water, not as easy as it sounds, swimming in the river is very different from the sea, the banks are full of vines, leaves, stones and probably lots of different insects I don’t want to think about!! It is harder to get in the water for sure, and once you have your feet in they slowly sink into the silt at the bottom, it is SO slimy between your toes! Anyway a combination of these factors meant that as soon as we were in the water we wanted to get in the tubes as soon as possible, this meant anchoring ourselves to a tree overhanging the water and hanging on for dear life as the current tried to sweep us away.

Once afloat the current just moved us gently down the river and gave us plenty of time to look at the wildlife. We saw beautiful birds, so many Iguanas, Butterflies and Dragonflies, luckily no crocodiles. The journey downstream took about 3 hours, but combination of wildlife, rapids and scenery made it pass in a flash!