We drove around the whole of south west Belize in one afternoon searching for Pusilha Maya ruins. Despite the assistance of the residents of every village, we couldn't find it but narrowed it down to one road. The landies were eventually foiled by the Moho river which was flowing fast and deep. It was crossable but the close proximity of a small waterfall downstream made the attempt too risky. Returning to Punta Gorda for Friday night partying, we came across two guys clearing the grass on the verge who'd just found a big fer de lance snake which is one of the most venemous in Central America. We tried to get a photo but it slithered off into the undergrowth before the digi camera could work out what was happening.

Cockscombe Reserve

The blue one's far better than the white one

Beach camp at Dangriga

Fridays entertainment was provided by a live band and fortunately not by a few optimistic and overweight prostitutes. The band played a special style of music called punta which is a bit like speeded up reggae and quite wicked. We set off early the next day to Cockscombe jaguar reserve in the hope of seeing something else more exotic. We hiked throught the jungle, seeing only tree turkeys but were compensated by the spectacular view of Victoria Peak and the jungle below. Saturday night we went to Dangriga, centre of the creol part of Belize. This week is AIDS week in Belize and 7,000 of the 250,000 population are HIV positive. A solemn march through the town didn't exactly bode well for a banging Saturday night so we went to the beach and had an early night instead.

5 Blue Lakes jungle reserve

One of the blue lakes

Infested with jumping travellers

Heading north, we stopped at 5 Blue Lakes national park for more jungle hikes. We spotted a baby fer de lance and a small wildcat thing during our walk. Disappointed with the amount of animals and birds we didn't see, we headed off to one of the lakes where there is a 5 metre diving platform which was the best part of the day.