San Ignacio Resort Hotel

Centrally located in the heart of the Cayo District, the award-winning San Ignacio Resort Hotel offers guests convenient access to the region’s best sights and activities. San Ignacio Resort Hotel features 24 rooms and has the distinction of being named “Hotel of the Year” in 2012 by the Belize Tourism Board. Room options include a honeymoon suite, regal rooms, deluxe balcony and garden rooms and one spa suite. The on-site restaurant features a number of tantalizing dishes and some of the best traditional food I’ve had in Belize. Check out the on-site Green Iguana Project and learn about San Ignacio Resort Hotel’s conservation efforts in Belize. Be sure to start at least one morning off by bird-watching over breakfast.

When traveling through the Cayo District, make time to stop by the San Ignacio Resort and check out their Green Iguana Project. The conversation project kicked off in 1996 as a way to work on the declining population of the local green iguana due to overhunting. In collaboration with a number of entities, San Ignacio Resort has developed a beautiful habitat for the iguana where individuals can come to learn more about these reptiles. The project is self-sustaining and relies on contributions and donations from visitors and local businesses. The guides are very knowledgeable and explain the project’s process of rearing the iguanas to a certain age with the ultimate goal of releasing them into the wild. Visitors have an opportunity to interact with several of the “residents” and, if you are brave, you can volunteer to let a number of the baby iguanas climb on your head and shoulders. It is one of the strangest feelings you will ever feel as they climb over your head and down your neck, but what a photo opportunity!

If you are staying at San Ignacio Resort, you don’t need to go any further than down to breakfast in order to partake in some bird watching. Set your alarm, get up early, pick a good table and get your camera ready. During morning breakfast, our group was treated to a number of different species of birds, but my favorite was two sightings of Belize’s national bird – the keel-billed toucan! Serious birders can also coordinate a number of tours with San Ignacio Resort for half-day and full-day birding tours. There is also an early morning bird watching hike along the Macal River for those that have other plans for later in the day.