Sunday, June 8, 2014

Blue Hole National Park

  I am linking up with Mosaic Monday and Our World Tuesday 

For this week's post I am sharing one of the tours at the Blue Hole National Park in Belize..This park is located just off the Hummingbird Highway in the Cayo District of Belize not far from Belmopan.  The park is over 500 acres and contains two cave systems called St Hermans and Crystal Caves. The park has various nature trails and the cool natural blue hole or pool.  Not to be confused..Belize is also known for the diving site called the Blue Hole.




Hubby and I arranged to have a guided tour with Neko of the  Belize Inland Tours of the St Hermans Cave and a guided birding tour on the trail of the Blue Hole National Park. Above is one of my lifers from the day's outing the Smoky-brown Woodpecker, the St. Hermans Cave, lizard and a Clay-colored Robin


 Since we have done the cave-tubing in Belize we opted for a guided walking tour into the St Hermans Cave with Neko.



Sorry for the fuzzy photo, but I was excited to see this lifer the Violaceous Trogon.. Special thanks to Neko for helping me to see my lifers at the Blue Hole National Park.


These are some of the scenes from our guided birding tour with Neko at the Blue Hole National Park. Above you can see the natural pool (part of the Cave Branch Creek) called the Blue Hole, another lifer a Royal Flycatcher and its nest. The lifer  Rufous-tailed Jacamar and some more scenery around the Blue Hole.



The Blue Hole was formed from the collapse (sinkhole) of an underground river channel. The exposed section of the Cave Branch creek tributary can be view for about 150 feet before it disappears beneath the ground and into the cave system.

If you are ever in Belize I was highly recommend arranging a tour with Neko and the Belize Inland Tours.  I hope you enjoyed this photo tour of Belize's Blue Hole National Park.


Thanks for stopping by and for the comments.

Join in on the fun and for more wonderful photos please visit  Mosaic Monday and more
 from  Our World Tuesday

 Thanks to our host: Mary our host of Mosaic Monday and to the hosting group of Our World Tuesday: Arija, Gattina, Lady Fi, Sylvia, Sandy and Jennifer.  I wish everyone a happy week ahead!

61 comments:

  1. Congrats on another lifer! Beautiful colors. I enjoy caves but am always worried for an earthquake when inside. The Blue Hole has pretty water.

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  2. Most of these birds I've never heard of. Love the Jacamar! The Hummingbird Highway? There must be a reason for that name. :-)

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  3. Such a wonderful place and gorgeous photos !

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  4. Extraordinary photos.

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  5. Your photos are beautiful. I really like the color of the Blue Hole. I'm very glad you had such a good experience in Belize and that you are sharing it with us.

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  6. gorgeous exotic birds! the caves would be neat, too!

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  7. Gorgeous beautiful place this must be . . . I am happy you enjoyed this trip . . .

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  8. Fotos mágicas! lindo lugar! beijos,ótima semana,chica

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  9. Hello Eileen!!
    What a beautiful place!The Blue Hole looks amazing!Wonderful photos and very preety birds!!Thank you for sharing!Have a happy week!
    Dimi...

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  10. Wow! Another amazing place you got great pix of, Eileen!...:)JP

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  11. Oh very good, Belize must be terrific. And another lifer, congrats Eileen.

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  12. The photo tour was awesome! Thank you!

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  13. Looks like a beautiful place to visit.

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  14. much enjoyed

    my fav...those stalactites

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  15. Wonderful for you to get those rare sightings, and the cave!!! Sorry, but I would have waited outside. The hole, almost glacier blue water down there. Cheers.Jean

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  16. Eileen, I am so impressed by your Belize holiday. Such fabulous places you experienced and so many great lifers too.

    I hope you held on tight to that rope!

    Have a great week ahead.

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  17. Your photos truly are showing a whole different beautiful side of Beliz that I think so many overlook -- I never thought I wanted to visit there, until you started showing me why I should!

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  18. What a fabulous place to visit and you've certainly captured some amazing photos.
    Thanks for sharing ;D
    I wish you a great week ahead

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  19. I have heard that Belize is a great place to visit. Your photos are lovely.

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  20. I would really enjoy the cave, we explored some many years ago in Pa.

    Lots of pretty birds, very nice mosaics!!

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  21. Looks SO interesting... I'd love to see that ---and I would explore that cave (with a guide).....

    Seeing the Blue Hole reminded me of a place we saw once in FL I think.. There was a huge sinkhole filled with water --which fed into some kind of underground river. Amazing.

    Hugs
    Betsy

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  22. Wow, that's a really cool cave, and the blue pool is so blue! I'd love to visit Belize sometime.

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  23. Beautiful place to visit, Eileen.
    The collages are really great.
    Greetings Irma

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  24. Goodness-those are some neat looking birds.
    I think I couldn't go to another country birding--I'm having enough troubles identifying ours!

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  25. Hi friend.. You've captured such interesting and beautiful shots of this place.. Regards..

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  26. It sounds like a great holiday with different things to do and all those birds as well.

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  27. Wow, happy for you to have this wonderful trip to Blue Hole National Park♬♬♬ Great opportunity for you finding lifers, thank you very much for the tour with your magnificent pictures(^_^)v

    Sending Lots of Love and Hugs from Japan, xoxo Miyako*

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  28. awesome!! ( :

    what a cool trip. i love a great learning experience such as this one. too neat!! thanks, for sharing. i wonder if i will never get to this great area. if not i will always remember your trip. i appreciate it so. i think that i one of the reasons why i blog like i do. to share with others who might never ever get to see what i get the chance to enjoy & take pics of.

    have a great week, Eileen.

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  29. I love to visit places like this! So beautiful!! Have a great new week!

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  30. We drove by the Blue Hole on both of our Belize trips. But we had a car full of luggage and didn't think it was safe to leave it unattended. Someday we'll have to stop there. I love Belize.

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  31. Hi Eileen - Don't know how I missed this post. Guess I'm behind! Beautiful birds and scenery. The birds are so colorful!

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  32. Great set of photos. Would have loved to take the tour through the caves.

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  33. Hi Eileen... What a great trip you had there, and it sounds like you had a good tour guide!!
    Amazing place with plenty explore and see especially when there are lifers involved !! : }

    Grace

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  34. Gorgeous spot...like a dream! How I would love to go there someday! Your Trogon reminded me...we hoped to get to see an Elegant Trogon on our recent trip to Madera Canyon AZ but weren't so fortunate. I had also hoped to see a Western Tanager, but no luck there either. Still, we managed to see a lot!

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  35. Eileen, what an amazing place you visited. A road called Hummingbird Highway? Sign me up! lol

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  36. What a beautiful place! Great photos!

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  37. What a trip and great time for photography ~ Beautiful shots for OWT ~ xoxo

    artmusedog and carol (A Creative Harbor)

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  38. A very interesting place to visit and wonderful to have all those "lifers" and to be able to get photos of them. Thanks for sharing.

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  39. Intriguing caves and beautiful birds!

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  40. What a wonderful, beautiful place to spend some time, Eileen, and your photos are the next best thing to being there!! Thank you so much for sharing the fun and beauty!

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  41. What a great place for photography. You captured some great shots.

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  42. Wonderful collages.
    Never seen Blue Hole before.
    Great pics.

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  43. Wonderful place with so much to see.

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  44. What lovely shots of this wonderful place.

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  45. Lovely scenery and birds. The cave walking tour sounds like fun.

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  46. Outstanding photos Eileen. Thanks for the tour

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  47. looks like another place to add to my list!

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  48. That seems like a nice place to visit!

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  49. What a very different place for a tour. You seemed to have captured lots of great shots.

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  50. Gorgeous landscape!!! I am smiling about your Violaceous Trogon find. I had the same experience...steamy, hot and oh....let's fog up the camera a bit just to frustrate:) I went back the same time the following day and located two......and if it didn't start to rain:) Either way, I love their call, I love rain, and the experience was beautiful.

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  51. so much wonder to enjoy. Love the cave. Long time since I visited one.

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  52. You cannot apologize for fuzzy photos, Eileen! They are such a gift!

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  53. I don't know much about birds, but I am learning. One thing I learned is that we have very few colorful birds around here.
    Beautiful photos!

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  54. This seemed like a very nice park Eileen. Beautiful nature, cave and the blue water of the langune is great to see too :-)

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  55. Thanks you - am always up for a tour in an area I've never been too. Such exotic birds - the trip must have been too short:)

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  56. Loved the tour and the wonderful birds. Sadly, I was not yet a birder way back when we visited this beautiful country. Wish we could go back!

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  57. What a wonderful place - lovely shots too.

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