Thursday, April 24, 2014

Chiquibul Park Visitors' Center

As promised, here are a few pictures of the new Chiquibul Park Visitors' Center, one of the outside, and two of exhibits in the building, including a tapir skeleton.  If you would like to visit let us know, and we will contact a guide for you.






Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Chalillo Dam

We have lived here for 7 years, been to Caracol countless times, and never bothered to take the turn to get a look at the Chalillo Dam.  

Today, we went to the opening of the Chiquibul Park Visitors' Center, and took the 15 minute detour to drive to a parking area overlooking the dam.  It was smaller than we expected.



Pictures to follow of the new Chiquibul Park Visitors' Center, which is a great addition to the area.  It's on the road to Caracol and Las Cuevas, and provides a great meeting and information point to make the Chiquibul Park more accessible.


Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Please be patient...

A few times in the past month or so, we have answered inquiries from potential guests, and have exchanged emails to the point where the potential guests want to become future guests, and request an invoice with payment instructions to secure their reservations.  We make sure we get all the information correct, send out the invoice...and never hear from them again.

A few times over the past five-plus years of being in business, we have had guests contact us after we have sent out the reservation invoice to tell us that their plans have changed and they won't be able to stay with us after all.  We completely understand that...something comes up at work, you realize that plane tickets are three times what you expected, a family member gets sick, or whatever.  But lately, the potential/future guests just disappear, and I find it hard to believe that we are suddenly encountering flocks of rude people; instead, I suspect that our emails are not getting through for some reason - probably spam filters - and the potential guests think that we have neglected to respond.

So, if you are trying to book a room with us and this happens to you, please send us another email.  As anybody who has stayed with us can tell you, we always respond within 24 hours, and usually in much less time than that.  We do want to share the Moonracer Farm experience with you and help you plan your vacation in Belize!

While I am on the topic of reservations, please allow me to explain why we have our reservation policy, since we have had a number of people lately decide not to stay with us because they don't understand why we require a reservation deposit.  We are a two-room lodge in the jungle, off grid, 45 minutes from town.  This means that we can't store large quantities of a variety of foods, waiting for people to show up, simply because we don't have the refrigeration capacity.  Plus, a lot of what our guests like about us is that we correspond prior to your visit to find out what you want to do, and get everything set up for you in advance.  We will accept drive-ups if we have the room and enough suitable food, but we can't guarantee it, and we certainly can't guarantee that we will be able to set up tours at the last minute.  And, we require the room charge as a reservation deposit (but not food, tours, or transfers) because we only have two rooms, so if people say they are going to come and then change their minds at the last minute, chances are we have turned away other guests and have just lost a significant amount of income, and we still have to pay the staff and have still purchased food.  And, if we have arranged any tours, we have already paid for the tours out of our pockets in advance.  We have a lot to lose if somebody has us reserve a room for them and then doesn't show, where future guests have nothing to lose if they intend to stay with us anyway since presumably they plan to pay us.  If you would like to discuss this, please feel free to contact us, although we cannot afford to waive this reservation policy.