Sittee River wildlife boat tour

Green and orange iguanas sprawl in the branches, a crocodile may be resting at the water's edge, and parrots, toucans, motmots, herons and egrets call from the banks. The Sittee River comes down out of the Maya Mountains and meets the sea just south of Hopkins. Trips start near the Creole village of Sittee River and drift slowly downstream, some by canoe, through dense jungle that gives way to big mangrove forest near the coast. Stingrays and manatees sometimes come a long way upriver.

Those mangroves at the river mouth are the tallest recorded anywhere in the Caribbean, fed by the river's fresh water and silt and by the tide. Trips last about two hours, early morning or mid-afternoon, and binoculars earn their place. Back in the village, the ruins of the 19th-century Serpon Sugar Mill are kept as a park.