Want a day trip that’s close to Placencia? Mayflower Bocawina National Park is the perfect place.
The Mayflower Bocawina National Park (MBNP) was first established in the year 2001, initially with a focus on the Mayflower Archaeological Site. Its interest from the protection and management of the archaeological site was expanded to encompass its natural resources including its ecosystem, biodiversity, flora and fauna and its scenic physical attributes. While this national park was not comprised of entirely new protected area when its designation was enacted, most of it was formed from the remains of the Commerce Bight and Silk Grass Forest Reserves. A section was included from the Sittee River Forest Reserve so that it includes two important falls: Three Sisters and Bocawina Falls. To learn more about this national park, click here.
The park is approximately 7,000 acres, and my ladies group and I were interested in hiking to the Bocawina Falls and enjoying a refreshing swim in the cool waters in an attempt to get away from the baking heat that comes with the month of May.
The park is about an hour’s drive from Placencia and we arrived at the Visitor Centre at around 9:30 or so.
The parking spaces were marked by different names of wildlife and birds.
After paying our BZ$10 entrance fee, were were shown a map of the various hikes we could do and then directed a little way down the road where the trails begin.
The park has several waterfalls known as the The Sisters Waterfalls. On the hike up the Bocawina Hill Trail, visitors will discover the lower and upper Bocawina. Falls. A hike to to the upper falls can be rewarded with a cool pool at the base of a 50-foot waterfall. For the more adventurous traveler, a rigorous hike to Antelope Falls reveals a 100-foot waterfall with an incredible view from the bluff all the way to the sea.
We chose to hike the Bird Trail and the lower Bocawina Falls only, as we were on a bit of a time restriction. The Bird trail is a 1.4 mile hiking loop near the Visitor Centre and contains unexcavated ruins of a temple as well as a single stela and the site of a granite quarry. It was an easy trail with lots of beautiful, lush vegetation
ant nests, fungus etc.
and every few feet, these leafcutter ants working furiously to get the leaves back to their nest.
I found this pretty fascinating as I’d never seen them close up before.
The trail was marked by brightly coloured tape tied to trees at various intervals – thank goodness!
About halfway around, we came across this bench which served as a nice little rest stop for anyone who wanted it.
We didn’t see or hear many birds, but seeing as May is the hottest month in Belize (did I mention that already?), we figured it was too late in the day. It was approximately 38 deg. C with about 80% humidity and it was pretty steamy, I tell ya. We were very grateful for the shade of the trees and vegetation which made it a very nice, cool walk.
The other side of the loop opened up into a field with very tall trees
and a couple of unexcavated Mayan Ruins.
Afterwards, we drove down a little narrow road to the start of the trail that lead to the waterfalls. This hike was a little more challenging as we were hiking up a slight incline, but it was very pleasant all the same and we soon found ourselves at the lower waterfall.
We were pretty hot by then and a dip in the pool at the bottom of the falls was very welcome and refreshing.
We lingered in the water longer than we intended to before hiking back to the car and then driving to the Bocawina Resort restaurant for a delicious lunch and a glass of wine
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