SOME keel-billed toucans have kindly joined my wife and I for breakfast. Sporting a smart uniform of black coat and bright-yellow chest, the national bird of Belize comes equipped with a 5in-long, vividly-coloured beak that is clearly ideal for scrumping in the kitchen garden of our hillside hotel, Blancaneaux Lodge.
When we start our day with and Maya omelette, loaded with spinach-like chaya, our new friends sit in the trees devouring custard apples with gusto. Such sights are typical of the astonishing harmony with Nature that survives in this tranquil, English-speaking country wedged between Mexico and Guatemala. Slightly larger than Wales, what was once British Honduras is home to only 400,000 people and more than 60% remains wild or undeveloped. There are 500-plus bird species, as well as a
