Victoria Peak Hike (click for photos)

Victoria Peak is the the tallest peak in Belize! (Actually, there is a
taller peak but only by a few feet and it doesn't have an accessible trail,
so we won't count that) It was about 33 miles round trip and it's about
4,000 feet.


It was such an adventure. We hiked about 7 hours a day crossing streams,
climbing up riverbeds, hiking up  hills, hacking down bush with machetes (Ok
that was our guide, Marcelo with the machete), drinking water out of
streams, checking out nature and wildlife and just tromping around in the
jungle in general.

I saw tons of wildlife...toucans, coatis, paca, (small rodent-y type
animals, about as big as a dog) a white hawk, a tarantula, we smelled a pack of peccary (like boar) and
came across  jaguar tracks, jaguar poop, and even jaguar vomit. Apparently
after jaguars eat animals they vomit up the fur. Twice we saw the fur of
some unlucky paca on the trail. We heard countless different kinds of birds
and at night I saw the most amazing stars!

The first day we began our trek from Cockscomb Wildlife Basin, a protected
area and the world's only Jaguar Preserve. It's a wonderful park with great
trails and managed by the Belize Audubon Society. One of the guys on my
trip, Scott is a Peace Corps Volunteer assigned to Audubon. So, along the
hike he took pictures and GPS coordinates for the Audubon. Not a bad
assignment in my opinion! Our first day we started from Cockscomb and hiked
to the 19K camp, reached there in the afternoon. There is a palapa and
benches at the camp, so it makes it really great in case of rain...you have
a place to stay dry and make a fire. Lucky for us there was no rain! At the
camp there is a small waterfall too, which was our outdoor shower! We made
up our tent and cooked dinner and then went to sleep about 8.... I know I
was feeling a little anxious about the next day, but as soon as I laid down
I was out!

I woke up the next day feeling a little stiff from carrying the pack all
that way yet very excited and hopeful to reach the summit. The second day
 we hiked from the
19K camp to the summit at 27K and back. The first part until 25K was
challenging but still cool, you are still in the jungle and on the trail.
However once you reach the base of the peak, you are mainly hiking up rocks,
and the foliage clears out, so you can really see how high up you are! You
can also see how far of a drop it was! This was the most exhilarating part of
the hike and what made it Victoria Peak. Climbing with all fours over rocks and
up ropes with break taking (and lifetaking if a single slippage occurred) was
something I've dreamed of for years. 
  On the summit the landscape was amazing!
It looks like a different planet, thick clouds, moss everywhere. The red orchid
in the picture is a flower that only blooms on Victoria Peak and one other
of the trails in Cockscomb. When we reached the top it was pretty cloudy,
 and we were in them,  so not too much of a view but I still was very happy!
 When you reach the
summit, there is a little time capsule made out of pvc pipe with a notebook
in it, and you sign your name in it! In the book there was quite a lot of
people who had reached the summit, I would say over 200.  Funny, a lot of
people wrote "Thank God I made it to the top, never going to do it again! "
We hung out for about half an hour, then began the trek down again. We got
back to camp about 3. That night we all had a little brandy toast and
congratulated each other around the fire while our guide told Belizean style
ghost stories of la Llorona and Tataduende. Tataduende is a small man who
has no thumbs, and he comes in the night to shake your hammock and play
trick on you!

Next day we began the trek back to Cockscomb. We left about 7 and got there
around 2, pretty good time. It was sad to go back and my feel were also
wrecked... soggy shoes for three days doesn't feel so good. The entire trip
was awesome and went by way too fast. But now I am happy to check another
box on my list of Belize adventures and say I did Victoria Peak!