Machaca Hill Rainforest Canopy Lodge is an outpost in what is still considered 'wild Belize'. While we had read about the place and seen photos but none do justice to it. We have arrived at the end of the rainbow!
What words describe it? Pristine, untouched, tranquil, this is a true rainforest experience. And yet it is also the most luxurious rainforest lodge I have seen.
For those who want the over the water bungalow, how about the over the rainforest room? Each of the twelve rooms is suspended or perched along a hill of tall ferns and trees including cecropia, ceiba, gumbo limbo, and more species than I could ever name. The spacious rooms bring the outdoors in, as much of the room is enclosed but the porch or balcony, instead of being outside a door, is a screened-in part of the room. Thus even with all doors and windows closed the screened porch is part of the room.
All night long one hears the peaceful hoot of a Black and White or the Mottled Owl. Several times in the night troops of Howler Monkeys call. If you have not heard their sound, it is an amazing low guttural, hooting that can at first startle but later one considers how fortunate they are to be in a jungle location so remote that such wild creatures still exist. The sound could be used for haunted houses anytime. (click here for a link to Belize Zoo sounds http://www.belizezoo.org/zoo/zoo/mammals/how/how5.html)
