Traveling Pregnant: Hiking and Tubing the Jaguar Reserve

“Ok Christine, here is where you get out.”

Our Belizean tour guide, David, who had informed me earlier that he had done a lot of things in the Cockscomb Jaguar Reserve, but didn’t want to add “delivered a baby” onto the list, was now floating ahead of the group and pointing to the embankment. We had just hiked the jungle and were 30 minutes into our river tubing tour. The icy water felt so good.

I became officially six months pregnant the day before, and while my stomach had expanded into a noticeable baby bump, not much else had changed. I was still waiting to feel pregnant. Every weekend we went hiking around our new home in Oregon and now, while my feet were a little swollen, I couldn’t imagine sitting out the rest of the day, just on a technicality.

I shook my head and announced that I would keep going. I imagined the stories the guide would be telling later about the crazy pregnant gringa, who insisted on staying with the group. Next we would hike up to the waterfall, a steep climb, something he was convinced I should definitely not do.

I couldn’t imagine missing it. The Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary is the first jaguar sanctuary in the world. Eariler, David had explained the amount of research that was done before the park was established, as they figured out the amount of space each Jaguar needed and eventually expanded the protected area to an impressive 150 square miles. That day we didn’t see any Jaguars. They hunt at night. And they mostly eat armadillos, not slightly swollen pregnant foreigners, lucky for me.

If you do the hike, it’s worth having a tour guide. While the rain forest is beautiful, it’s the details about the vegetation, history and notable trivia that made it interesting to me. David was great, telling us about the origins of the word Jungle (originally Hindustani word jangal meaning desert but troops traveling to Persia adopted the word to mean where they hunted, applying it to the thick jungles elsewhere in the world… thus the Lion became King of the Jungle (Jangal), when he really lives on the plains–and Disney later reinforced this incorrect notion.)

When we finally exited the water, there was a rope strung across the river. I asked David what happens if I kept going, and he said, “We’ll see you in a couple of hours”. Sounds perfect to me.

We walked up the embankment, and I got a little out of breath. The one thing I knew about myself was that it wasn’t my shortness of breath that was a concern, it was my heart rate. I had read pregnancy advice that said to never get winded. Well, if that was the case, I’d never make it up a flight of stairs. For me, shortness of breath is a symptom of pregnancy, but not necessarily exertion. David asked if I was okay. “I’m good. I’ll just go slow and stop if I need to.” He didn’t push it. I appreciated that even though he thought it was a bad idea, he wasn’t about to stop me from trying.

Gennaro (one of the other bloggers on this trip) joked, “Great. Now none of us can complain, if a pregnant women is doing it too!”

Luckily there wasn’t much to complain about. You’re hiking through a rain forest. It was steep, but manageable. I took breaks and made it about in five minutes behind the main group.

The waterfall was the same cool water, and beneath the pounding falls, was a small cave, naturally carved out over time. The water was deep, and we swam around for a bit, before David finally drew the line.

“Ok you will hike back, and we’ll go this way.”

I didn’t mind. The last leg of the hike involved crawling, sliding and jumping across river rocks, and it broke my one rule of traveling while pregnant: no sharp physical impacts. I hiked 10 minutes back and waited for the rest of the group, who emerged rung out and exhausted. After Kara (another blogger) mentioned being encouraged (read: flung bodily) by David into the water below, I felt relieved. I’m a crazy gringa, but not that crazy.

Recreate this trip:

The Jaguar Reserve is about a two hour drive from Placencia or 20 minutes south of Dangria on the Southern Highway (you can also book transfers from the Belize City airport). There are lots of tour companies but we used Toadal Tours and the owner David was our guide (you don’t have to have a guide to hike the reserve). We stayed at Robert’s Grove Inn in Placencia, which runs about $155/night in the low season to $295/night in the high season for a standard room. However, if you want to stay at the reserve, this is an affordable option with camping at $10 a night, a small cabin at $20 a night. The park charges a $5 entrance fee. Bring bug spray. Don’t lick the toads. There are tubes available at the visitor’s center.  For a trail map go here.  Next time I go, I’ll definitely camp, as I hear that 3 PM and later is the best time to spot a jaguar.

Read the book:

Jaguar: One Man’s Struggle To Establish The World’s First Jaguar Preserve

(Note: I wasn’t able to get pics of this portion of the trip because of the water element.  Also this post is about a trip that was paid for by the Belize Tourism Board.  They flew me and four other bloggers as part of a fam trip.)

pic: Michael Schamis