by Judith Wynn/Special to the Herald
Thursday, December 26, 2002

``Wild toucan!'' Breakfasting guests at Banana Bank Lodge in western Belize run out to the front porch just in time to see Central America's iconic, glossy black, yellow-breasted bird - the toucan - fly into an overhanging tree to dig for bugs with its long, multicolored beak. A pair of orange, 3-foot-long iguanas are sunning themselves in a cedar grove on the other side of the Belize River.

You'll find tropical wildlife galore at Banana Bank Lodge (501-820-2020; www.bananabank.com), our home for two nights on our Island Expeditions tour. Sound sleepers who miss the early bird display can still see a toucan - plus turkey-like Belizean curassows, green parrots and a snowy cockatoo - at the tiny lodge zoo, where a black-and-yellow dappled jaguar and a tethered monkey also reside.

For more wildlife, take the short drive overland to Banana Bank's jungle lagoon. Crocodiles, the rare jabiru stork and more than 200 other bird species have been sighted from the observation tower here.

The property started out as a lumber station, then a cattle ranch. Belize's most elite race track operated here in the 1920s. Former Montana rodeo rider John Carr and his wife, Carolyn, took over Banana Bank's 4,000 acres in the mid-1970s and opened their inn in 1986, about the same time the Harrison Ford movie ``The Mosquito Coast'' was filmed in the neighborhood.

A half-dozen rustic guest cabanas sit in a banana grove behind the main lodge. Each cabana has a full bath, ceiling fans and beautiful panelwork of carved local mahogany. Late at night, the stars outside are mimicked inside the cabanas by fireflies softly glowing in the palm-thatched ceilings.

A short walk from the main lodge, 90 horses reside in an attractive new stable block. Guided trail rides geared for both beginners and pros take riders through shady jungle terrain, sunny pastures and a carefully groomed teakwood forest.

A canoeing trek takes visitors on the Belize River in search of belted kingfishers. Visitors are startled by a Jesus Christ lizzard scurrying across the water surface on its spindly hind legs like a miniature tyrannosaurus rex. The eerie wails of howler monkeys fill the jungle canopy.

If you stay as part of an Island Expeditions tour, a highlight is a guided visit to the Mayan pottery caves on a nearby citrus plantation owned by the Downards, an Ohio family. Winding tunnels lead into ancient limestone caverns. Eight hundred years ago, Mayan Indians considered this place hell's fun house, inhabited by mischievious gods who had to be soothed with heaping food bowls and the occasional human sacrifice. Archaeologists have removed the skeletons, but some of the bowls still wait in their original spots for a tourist flashlight to bring their ghostly colors back to life.

Banana Bank Lodge rates for independent travelers are $105 per night for two, breakfast included.