Big Yellow One: Cotton Tree Lodge

Cotton Tree Lodge is an eco-resort in the Toledo district of southern Belize, next to Punta Gorda on the Moho river. We made the trip from Belize City by car; normally a 4 hour trip that took us nearly 5 hours in the dark, through the fog, on hilly, pockmarked roads.

It's only about 200 miles from the airport to the resort, but there are only three paved highways in Belize. All other roads are dirt and are ravaged, if not washed away, during the rainy season (May to November) and tough to navigate the rest of the year. The last seven miles of our trip to Cotton Tree Lodge, in the dark, in the jungle, were spent carefully trying to keep our Ford Explorer from getting stuck in the mud or worse.

We were met by a friendly, welcoming staff at CTL, who prepared a late dinner for us in the lodge community space. After dinner, we were escorted down the raised wooden path to "Chris's house" where we would stay during our visit. It's the home of the resort founder/director, Chris Crowell. Chris happened to be on vacation away from CTL this week, so we were lucky to be able to stay in his cool jungle retreat.