Orchid Garden Eco-Village Belize Butterfly Corridor
Tropical Eco-Sustainability Experience

Tropical Eco-Learning at your Door-Step

Relaxation with Eco-Learning Search 

25-04-2009

Facilities & Service

Green Building

THE ECO MUSEUM BELIZE

& Museum of Tropical Treasures

This is a living museum of Belize tropical treasures. Here, we can show you how we utilized and recycled our natural resources in the construction and decoration of the museum.
The Eco-Museum is dedicated to show our Visitors the beauty of nature in harmony with our Belizean culture.

The Orchid Garden Eco-Village Restaurant is a large, tranquil space with low walls constructed out of river stones, topped with lengths of thick bamboo harvested from the banks of the Sibun River.  More

This allows natural light to stream into the space, through the fine mesh netting which keeps the insects out.  The weight of the roof is taken by trunks of logwood and other hardwoods, and the roof is insulated with cohune palm leaves. 

In the centre of the space is an open area planted with typical rainforest plants.  Taking pride of place in this central area is a massive Ziricote root, draped with white and purple orchids.  The opening in the roof above this space increases the natural light, and allows any rain to flow in curtains directly off the steeply sloping roof, providing the restaurant with its own waterfall whenever it rains!

The tables are made from thick slices of 50 + year old mahogany, cut from what was left by the loggers when they harvested the main trunks.  The restaurant space is bordered on one side by a butterfly corridor.  There is an adjoining “Stone Room” exhibiting the different kinds of igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rock found in Belize.

The Orchid Garden showcases more than 100 of the 300+ native orchids and bromeliads found in Belize, and a number of these can be seen in the restaurant.

The overall effect is a sense of being in a “green” building promoting a feeling of inner peace and an appreciation of the beauty of the home-grown materials, harvested for this purpose in an eco-sustainable way.  Birds, butterflies, basilisk lizards and geckos can normally be seen and / or heard whenever you are in this space, which helps put you in touch with your tropical surroundings.

The Exhibitions

Maya Life Tree

Cohune

Cohune Ceiling

When Maya farmer clear the forest for milpa purpose, they spare one kind of tree due to its many uses, that is the Cohune Palm

Cohune palm is abundant in Belize rainforest, we use it's leaves for the ceiling, people use it for roofing, use the trunk as siding, it's heart of palm for food and it's nuts for oil and charcoal, it is a symbolic tree in most of Maya ruins

The Wood Changed

History of Belize

Dyelood

When the Spanish controlled  Central America and Mexico, the valuable logwood, or the dyewood or tinto (the local name), attracted the British baymen, they came to cut the logwood and ship it to Britain. At that time, 50 Tons of logwood almost equal  the value of shipping freights for one year. 

This wood make Belize  the only English speaking country in central America, This hard wood grows in the swamp areas, it is as hard as iron, no insect can eat it, it is an ideal material for making posts.

National Wood

Mahogany Wood Table

In this restaurant, all the tables are natural mahogany

trunks, after loggers harvest the mahogany, they left the stump of the tree. We go and cut two more layers, and use them as our tables. Even our tables are reclaimed.

The majestic mahogany can grow up to 130 feet in the

rainforest, and take 50 years to mature, due to its beautiful color and long-lasting, it is one of the most sort after material for furniture. If you go to the top of the rainforest canopy, it is very easy to find mahogany; they are average 30 feet higher than the other trees

Bamboo

Bamboo is a treasure but most of unknown to many Belizean, there are a lot of treasure in Belize waiting for people to explore.

Bamboo is one of them. Many of the bamboo in this building is nearly 16 years, they are still in good shape, bamboo is a kind of grass, but they are tall and strong, bamboo could be used for furniture, construction, gifts, arts etc.,

The best part of Bamboo is bamboo shoot which is delicious

Butterfly Corridor

Out side of the bamboo

Windows in this Museum, is an experimental butterfly farm, there are more than 700 varieties of butterflies in Belize, which is out numbers all the butterflies in north American

The butterfly have 4 life cycles, the egg cycle is quiet. The teenager life cycle of a butterfly is as a caterpillar. This period of their life, is spent as an eating machine. After they tired of  only eating and being Ugly, They hide Themselves in pupae for remodeling, when they are done, they emerge as beautiful butterflies who are happily flying around. Butterflies are beautiful and have sex only during their last stage of life

Native Orchid
Orchid

Orchids are the largest
family of flowers kingdom.
There are 30,000 varieties of orchids in the world and nearly 300 varieties are found in Belize.
The Cow Horn Orchid (SCHOMBURGKIA Tibicinis) is our Village Flower, it has a huge hollow pseudo bulb that provides space for ants to nest who in return provide protection. The peduncle which can reach up to 10 feet long grows about

20 brightly colored flowers. The Cow Horn Orchid is often seen in the mangrove and in the low Pine Ridge area. It is very capable of enduring hardship, can grow in the burning sun, hanging on the air, soaking in the water, or even in the muddy ground

Bromeliad

Skykight Garden

The Belize rainforest is home
to epiphytes. Epiphytes like
orchids and bromeliads grow
on the tree instead of in the soil.
They hang from trees and get their nutrients from the moisture and dust in the air
Bromeliads, A Plant with Its Own Water Tank; These are plants that collect water in their centers
The water forms pools that can support miniature ecosystems! Many of these pools support bacteria, insects, crustaceans, tadpoles, frogs and even birds. The most well known bromeliad is the pineapple, Pineapple, the miracle fruit from the Americas. The pineapple has served as both a food and a symbol throughout human history in the Americas

Mother of Cacaoš

Madre Caoco

Mother of Cacaoš

This is a very hard wood that is used popularly for fence Posts which will grow again after been posting.

Our traditional used to soothe tired irritated eyes. The leave have been used as a poultice for wounds

In the Philippines, Gliricidia (Madre Cacao) is washed and pounded to extract the juice from the leaves. It is then applied to the area affected by external parasites once to twice a day for one week. In Guatemala, the bark and leaves of Gliricidia are used to treat human skin diseases

Eco-Museum

A simple way to a better world

Belize Airport Hotel  Belize City Hotel

Hotel Room

First Night Belize Airport Hotel Package US$70 pp ( Double Occupancy)

Price Includes;

  • 1 Room Nights

  • 1 Dinner

  • 1 Breakfast

  • One Eco-Village Tour

    • Green Building & Nature Swimming Pool

    • Savannah Nature Trail

    • Nature Artistry Museum

Belize Inland 3 Night Experience US $199

Price Includes;

  • 3 Room Nights

  • 3 Dinner

  • 3 Breakfast

  • One Eco-Village Tour

    • Green Building & Nature Swimming Pool

    • Savannah Nature Trail

    • Nature Artistry Museum

following attractions are easily accessible

  • Zip lining and Cave tubing at Jaguar Paw 40 minutes

  • New River, the starting point for our river cruise and the ancient Mayan city of Lamanai         50 minutes

  • The terminal for the water taxi to Caye Caulker or Ambergris Caye and the snorkeling in Shark/Ray Alley and at the Hol Chan Marine Reserve on the Barrier Reef 25 minutes 

  • The highway junction in the village of Teakettle (starting point for the awesome ATM Tour (Underground Expedition to the Cave of the Crystal Maiden) 45 minutes

  • The Belize Zoo or the Baboon Sanctuary 20 minutes

  • The International Airport 20 minutes

First Night Belize Package

Lady

Belize FAM Tour

Museum of Tropical Treasures

Edible Garden & Birding Courtyard

Living Museum of Tropical Savannah Eco-system

Museum of Nature Artistry

Contact US

 

Museum of Tropical Treasure

Savannah Trail

Living Museum of Tropical Savannah Eco-System

Museum Artistry
Art Museum