3 Best Sights in The Cayo District, Belize

Named after the famed Guatemala-born herbal healer who died in 1996 at the age of 106, Elijio Panti National Park (Noj K'a'ax Meen Elijio Panti National Park) is part of Belize's extensive national parks system. It spans about 13,000 to 16,000 acres (the exact area is undetermined) around the villages of San Antonio, Cristo Rey, and El Progresso and along the Macal River. In the park are Sakt'aj waterfalls and two dry caves known as Offering and Cormorant. The hope is that with no hunting in this park, more birds and wildlife will return to western Belize. Development of the park has been slowed by differing perspectives among those in San Antonio Village, including Maria Garcia (a relative of Elijio Panti) of the Itzamna Society, various departments of the government of Belize, and other parties. Even today, there is no one official website for the park. For information on the park and how to visit it, check with your hotel or tour guides in San Ignacio or San Antonio.

Five Blues Lake is a cenote, a collapsed cave in the limestone, named for the different shades of azure in the water, and there is plenty to see for the intrepid adventurer. Hawks and other birds abound, and plenty of wildlife like howler monkeys, tapirs, and armadillos. From the east side of the lake, you can wade across to Orchid Island, home to multitudes of wild orchids and other native flora. The park entrance is about 3½ miles (6 km) from the Hummingbird Highway, via a narrow and very rough dirt road. Bikes can be rented in St. Margaret's village, from which village volunteers manage the park. The lake does have a strange history. On July 20, 2006, a giant whirlpool formed in the lake, and most of the water was sucked into the ground; researchers are still unsure of how this happened. The lake has since refilled with water.

Worth a quick visit on the way in or out of Belmopan is Belize's smallest national park, Guanacaste National Park, named for the huge guanacaste trees that grow here. Also called monkey's ear trees because of their oddly shaped seedpods, the trees tower more than 100 feet. (Unfortunately, the park's tallest guanacaste tree had to be cut down due to safety concerns that it might fall.) The 50-acre park is a secondary forest, at one time clear-cut for farmland, now managed by the Belize Audubon Society. There is a rich population of tropical birds, including smoky brown woodpeckers, black-headed trogons, red-lored parrots, and white-breasted wood wrens. After bird-watching or a hike, cool off with a refreshing plunge in the Belize River; there's also a small picnic area.