Where to Find Wildlife on Ambergris Caye

It is common for people planning their Belize vacations to want to know where to find wildlife on Ambergris Caye. Many people enjoy watching some interesting local animals and getting some great “make your friends jealous” pictures. Like the following pelican in motion and gulls on the water.

In my case, a trip to the dock near home with my repeat temporary roommate Heather, gave us a whole wealth of wildlife. We started with some great birdwatching. They were mostly hanging out in a couple of groups and some were grooming. The one below decided to go his own way and greeted me.

After the birds, we spent a good amount of time watching the water. We got treated to a wide array of interesting marine life.

In Heather’s case for making a friend “jelly”, it was sending a short, cool jellyfish video with Akon playing in the background. The jellyfish danced to ‘You’re So Beautiful’. She got a video back of her friend’s commentary on gloves, shoveling and the quality of snow.

As for the jellyfish, they were truly amazing. When still they looked like a cross between snowflakes or moss on the sea floor. Suddenly I noticed one looking like a venus fly trap as it folded in half. Then we saw them looking different yet again when moving. We could see their tentacles and some had a stylish pattern on top. It also appeared as if they were actually laying upside down when resting. Some had black dots when in that position as you will see below.

We also saw a few tarpons and lots of smaller fish. As you will see in my 1.58 min video. There are two really cool jellyfish shots one just over halfway through and one at the end.

Of course, all that jelly watching made us hungry so we were all in for our friend Madison’s idea of meeting up Iguana Juan’s with a few others for a bite to eat. It was kind of cool too because, at the restaurant, Casey may have identified the jellyfish as Capricorn based on our description. I looked it up and while I could not find a good match to any of the pics or video, there were a few shots on Google that makes me think his guess could be right. Can anyone out there reading this verify our interesting jelly species?

After Juan’s, we hit La Fonda taco stand and three of us got some yummy Al Pastor style pork tacos (minus the option of grilled pineapple). The others headed back to their apartment building beside Sandbar. Heather and I walked over to the basketball court to watch boys play hoops and eat our tacos by the water. Then we finished with dessert sharing a couple of the most sinfully delicious brownies from the Greenhouse.