If you are a fan of horseback riding, you can definitely enjoy the feel of wind as it blows past your hair and the breeze blowing freedom as beautiful landscapes roll past as you ride on a horse. Thousands of people who love equine all over the world enjoy this feeling and this has led to the burgeoning of horseback riding vacations in many parts of the world including Belize and Guatemala.

Horseback riding Vacations

You can find many package tour deals that offer many types of horseback riding getaways. For example, you can find inn rides, which allow you to combine riding with overnight stopovers in various places. The other packages available are safaris that enable you to enjoy beautiful wildlife from the back of a horse, tours for the entire family and horseback fishing trips. One of the best ways to get away from the stress that is caused by the demands of contemporary living is to take on the adventure of horseback riding vacations.

Two very distinctive traits, the highlands and the lowlands define Guatemala. Each area has it’s own unique look and it’s own unique inhabitants. The thick jungles of the highlands to the filled with natural wonders and spectacles lowlands, there are monuments here that can’t be seen anywhere else on the planet. For now, let’s concentrate on the amazing wildlife and geography of the Guatemala highlands.

One of the defining characteristics for the survival of all wildlife in the Guatemala Highlands is the mountain chain known called the Sierra Madre. It stretches from the Mexican border down to the mid highlands reaching El Salvador. The most intriguing part of this mountain chain is that it’s defined by volcanic cones, including a volcano that is over 13,000 feet tall called Tajumulco.  

Try and imagine the feeling of the wind blowing past your face as you race against it, or the fresh breeze in the sweeping landscapes rolling past you, astride a beautiful bay mare.
These are the reasons why horseback riding is so popular to millions of equine lovers around the world. These are also the reasons why millions more burgeon for the best horses in the market.

Horseback Riding

If you have a thing for horses, then horseback riding might be the perfect recreational activity for you. There's a number of ways on how you can enjoy horseback riding. First of which is to organize trips to horse ranches. There's a variety of equestrian activities that you can do, other than riding. You can learn grooming, saddling, training, and cutting trails for horses. You can try exploring. You will never run out of things to do in the country.
If you don't know where to start, why not look up horseback riding destinations on the Internet. There are many websites out there that talk endlessly about horseback riding. Read up articles, like you're doing now, about equestrianism.

Yucatan is one of the few places in the world with well-preserved and richly diverse ecosystems. Blanketed by a semi-tropical rain forest, the Yucatan Peninsula is home to thousands of tropical wildlife, including tropical bird species, reptilians and amphibians.

The rich jungles in many islands in the peninsula have countless spectacular things to offer. The flora and the fauna of the place is probably one of the best you'll ever see. All of these make Yucatan an ideal travel destination.

Mexico has huge differences in climate and landscape, which results in a wide variety of flora and fauna. From mountains and jungles to crystal clear ocean waters and coral reefs, there is a lot for the traveler to see.

Mexico has more bird species than the USA including Hawaii and it has double the amount of bird species found in Canada. The Yucatan Peninsula is one of the best Bird Watching spots in Mexico. It has 548 different species including 11 endemic varieties; in the wintertime one finds even more species as migratory birds visit the warm region. The Yucatan offers great Bird Watching year round due to its subtropical position. Renowned birding sites near the Riviera Maya are:

•    Sian Kaan Reserve
•    Cozumel Island
•    Rio Lagartos Biosphere Reserve
•    Botanical Garden Dr. Alfredo Barrera Marin
•    Coba Ruins
•    Punta Laguna

All these bird watching sites can be visited on one day tours from the Riviera Maya. The Riviera Maya is an excellent birder destination as it allows the visitor to enjoy its tourist infrastructure and comfortable hotels while going out on day trips to specialized birding sites. One can also choose to stay in rural areas with less comfort but many more birds!

This is a short introduction to these 6 Bird Watching Destinations that can be visited from the Mayan Riviera: 

Ecologists emphasize that the Laguna del Tigre National Park, in the Petén department of Guatemala, contains 70 to 80 percent of forest, a great biodiversity and important freshwater reservoirs, which makes it a strategic area to be preserved. Conservationist feel the need to emphasize the ecological importance of the National Park as institutions interested to exploit the area for petroleum have led to believe there is nothing to protect.

Slash and burn consists of cutting and burning of forests to create fields for agriculture or pasture for livestock. Today the term is mainly associated with tropical rain forests where the technique is said to be doing mayor damage as it exhausts the soil rapidly. It is important however to clarify that slash and burn can be a sustainable method when practiced well and at a much smaller scale. In former days, nomad tribes using this method would slash and burn only small patches within large parts of jungle. This is a fantastic method when population is low, nature is in ecologic balance and the people move about, like nomads do.

The area around Placencia and Hopkins is where to go in Belize if you would like to look for these enormous, friendly sharks. The Gladden Split area became famous through a National Geographic documentary on Whale Sharks. During the spring months of March, April, May and June over 20 species of Caribbean fish come to the area to spawn. The whale sharks, who are plankton eaters, feed on their eggs. The sharks are usually found about 26 miles off the coast of Placencia. This area is known to host large concentrations of whale sharks during April and May when Mutton and Dog Snappers are spawning.

Conserving the rainforest of Guatemala.

The following piece of writting is based on my personal experience and opinions:

• The questions treated here are:  

          - Why is the rainforest of Northern Guatemala disappearing?

          - What can be done to protect this rainforest?