All Good Things Must Come To An End

I'm sad to say that it's our last morning in Belize.  A few of us woke up early to watch the sun rise, but it was too cloudy to see anything.  We found out last Monday that Thursday, May 1st, is labor day in Belize.  We were very excited to find out that this meant a bonus beach day for us!  It was perfect to have a day to relax right before the chaos of our last day at high school and packing up to leave.
It was sad leaving the high school yesterday.  The teachers all welcomed us and we had a lot of fun spending time with them during our break periods.  They gave us tips for great restaurants, brought us random Belizean foods and fruits, and taught us so much about Belizean culture.  The students made me laugh constantly and I will miss their crazy comments and stories.  I've never been laughed at so much for the way I speak, but I think it's a good thing to know what it feels like to be the outsider.  Our last group dinner was last night at a Mayan Buffet.  It was absolutely delicious!  A perfect way to close out the trip!
I'm off to grab breakfast and finish some last minute packing before it's time to start the journey back to North Carolina.  Hasta luego!

Painting, puppies, yoga, and ACES

Our service hours started on Thursday. We got to SAGA, the local humane society, around 9 am with gallons of white and green paint (their colors). We broke up into two groups. One group of us painted kennels at "Fort Dog", where the dogs are kept, and the other group painted the fence around the office/vet. I was part of the fence-painting group and it didn't take as long as we thought it would. The only good thing about how hot it was while we were painting was that the paint that ended up on our arms and legs ended up getting washed off pretty quickly from our sweat. We finished the first coast of the fence around the same time that the other group finished the first coat on the kennels, which happened to be at the same time that SAGA closed for lunch. Talk about perfect timing. We went and got lunch and took a quick dip in the pool to wash of our sweat and a little remaining paint and then we went back to do a second coat. It was hard to tell what we had already given a second coat so it went a lot faster than the first. Once we finished the fence, we went over to Fort Dog to help the others and to play with the puppies, who were covered in green paint from walking into wet kennels. We helped them finish up and then called it a successful day of painting. We still have a little bit more to do because we're painting their logo on the side of the "pagoda" (it's a shed), but we'll finish that one day after school this week.

On Friday we went back to Fort Dog in the morning to see what we could do to help. We cleaned out a few of the kennels, played with the dogs, and picked up their poop. The guy who works there, Ernie, told us there wasn't anything else to so unless we wanted to give the dogs baths. Challenge accepted. He walked to the vet and came back with shampoo, a brush, ear cleaner, and nail clippers.  The dogs are broken up into three kennels - big dogs, small dogs, and an isolation kennel. We decided to tackle the big dogs first. Some of the dogs liked the water and some of them absolutely did not. I think Ernie had a good time watching us try to keep the dogs still while we washed them and even more so when we tried to clean their ears.  We made him cut their nails because we all knew it wouldn't end well if we tried to do it.  It took us about an hour to wash the dogs and we were sufficiently wet and dirty by the end of the process, but it was another successful day of service. We just hung out for the rest of the day on Friday!

Yesterday a few of us decided to go take yoga. There's a yoga retreat place called Ak'bol that's on the northern part of the island and it takes about 20-30 minutes on bike to get there. We left around 8:15 to head there. The ride took us past the high school, over the bridge (which was a struggle on a bike without gears), and on a windy path on the beach until we got there. The place where you actually do yoga is a platform on the water. It was beautiful and there was a perfect breeze!

We decided to do yoga and then to eat breakfast at the restaurant that's owned by the same family. Little did we know that the yoga class would end up being 2 hours!! At one point the instructor said that we should be focusing on our breathing and not what we would be eating for lunch, but that was easier said than done!! Once yoga was done, we made our way down the dock back to the restaurant to finally get the food we were day dreaming about. I got multigrain banana pancakes and they were delicious! Definitely worth the two hours of yoga to have yummy food at the end!  After we ate, we headed back on our bikes so we could start our next service adventure!

I had asked Miriam, the intern for ACES (American Crocodile Education Sanctuary) who's staying at our hotel if her bosses had anything we could do for service hours. I was out by the pool when Miriam called her boss, Vince, to ask and by her end of the conversation I could tell that whatever we would be doing would be interesting. As soon as we got back from yoga we put on sneakers and headed to Vince's house. We parked our bikes in his yard and them jumped on his boat to get to San Mateo, a part San Pedro where ACES has a little land to house their bigger crocs (the smaller ones just stay at Vince's house). When we got there Vince started telling us a little bit about the history of ACES. The idea behind it was to create a pale where locals and tourists could come see crocodiles and learn about them and learn to respect them. Unfortunately the locals were not interested. There is currently one croc at the sanctuary. His name is Jaws. He was attacked with a machete before they found him and his upper and lower jaws are no longer lined up because of the damage the machete did. This means that Jaws can't catch food on his own and will never be able to be released back into the wild. There are three houses surrounding the croc sanctuary and they all have high balconies that look over the fence of ACES and the people are very aware that there is a croc there. The people throw all of their trash (we're talking food, bottles, dirty diapers, etc.) into Jaws' cage so that they can see him. Unfortunately it doesn't stop there. The people throw large poles and huge pieces of wood to try to harm him. Jaws is so terrified of humans that Vince said as soon as Jaws hears someone coming through the gate, he runs into the water and won't come out.  Also, people break into ACES all the time to try to see the croc or to steal the wood that makes up the cages. Because of this, Jaws is getting moved to the mainland someplace that people will not be near him so that hopefully he can live a somewhat normal life in captivity without fearing all humans. Also, Vince and his wife, who run ACES, will be moving to Florida and dealing with the animals there because he can't deal with the lack of respect that the Belizean society has towards the animals. He told us a story about how he had a house and a croc sanctuary on the mainland. He and his wife were in San Pedro getting another croc when 2 boys on the mainland went missing. The local people went to a shaman who told them that the gringos kidnapped the boys to feed them to the crocs. So the locals looted Vince's house, killed the crocs that were there, and burnt everything to the ground. It turns out the 2 boys were in Guatemala with their father. The local police is pretty much nonexistent so nothing ended up happening. Needless to say, Vince has some rightful anger stored up. 

The first thing we noticed when we finally entered the sanctuary was the smell. Jaws gets fed dead chickens and the one that was in his cage was particularly ripe and nasty. It took a little time getting used to it, but none of us wanted to complain. The kennel next to Jaws' was separated into three smaller ones. Our job was to take down the middle dividers. There's an 11 foot croc that needs capturing and they are hopefully doing it this week. The croc is too big to stay at Vince's house so it'll end up going to the sanctuary for the time being until they get move it to the mainland.  Some we went to work with hammers and wire cutters and spent about two hours demolishing the dividers of the croc cage (something I never thought I would spend a Saturday doing). We burnt all the wood and garbage which luckily got rid of the nasty chicken smell!  Once we finished, we headed back to Vince's and got to see all the crocs that he had at his house that are about to released or are waiting until Vince has time to take them to the mainland. It was cool to hold the crocs again and to see the different species that Vince had. As we were getting out bikes ready to leave, he asked us when we were leaving the island and told us that if he goes to capture the 11 footer before we leave, then we were more than welcome to join them in the boat for the adventure! Cross your fingers that happens because that would definitely be an awesome way to end the trip!!!

I'm off to go spend the rest of my Sunday on the beach! We go back to school tomorrow through Friday and then it's back to the U.S. and back to reality on a Saturday.

Turtles, sharks, and stingrays

When Kelsey and I went inland to the track meet two weeks ago, the rest of our group went snorkeling and sailing to Caye Caulker, an island right near San Pedro. Today it was our turn! The boat left at 9 and we were there in plenty of time to claim two bean bag chairs on the front of the boat!  Once everyone was on board, we set off for Hol Chan. In Mayan, Hol Chan means a little whole in the channel. That's exactly was this spot is in the ocean. You can tell that you're there because the water is even bluer than normal. 

We got our snorkel and fins on and jumped into the water to see all sorts of fish! We saw a turtle, tons of fish, eels, eagle rays, stingrays, nurse sharks (they don't have teeth), and jelly fish. They said we ended up seeing more fish than normal and it was very cool to watch them swim below us while we snorkeled along. 

After we all got back on the boat, we headed to shark and ray alley. This is exactly what it sounds.. A place with a lot of sharks and a lot of stingrays. In order for us to be able to see all the sharks, one of the guys on the boat starting throwing raw fish into the water. It didn't take long before there were swarms of fish fighting each other for food. Some people got off the boat to watch them eat from underwater, but I stayed in the boat so I could watch it up close. Underneath the sharks were all sorts of rays and blue tangs (what Dory is in Finding Nemo). Once the sharks stop getting food they are no longer interested so they swim away. Everyone got back on the boat and we continued sailing for about an hour to Caye Caulker!

Caye Caulker isn't as developed as San Pedro. They say it's like what San Pedro was like 10-15 years ago. Everything is even slower and it feels a lot less touristy. There's a part of the island called the split  that was created during a hurricane. Kelsey and I walked there first to take a few pictures and then we stumbled upon a middle eastern restaurant to eat at for lunch. 

We had two hours to kill on Caye Caulker, but we decided to just go back to the boat to nap. We hung out in the sun for awhile until everyone else returned and then we started the sail back to San Pedro!

The sail back to San Pedro took about an hour and a half and was great! We got to lounge in the sun and just relax and enjoy the ride. Another successful day in paradise in the books!

Easter in Guatemala!

Because yesterday was Easter and Belizeans are predominantly Catholic, almost everything was closed except for the tourist attractions.  It was also our last day in San Ignacio, which is very close to the Guatemalan border, so we decided to spend the day there.  We woke up in the morning and took a bus to the border.  Guatemala doesn’t use the same currency in Belize so we had to exchange our money and then wait in line for a while to pay a fee to leave the country.  Once we paid the fee, we had to go through immigration and get our passports stamped.  This whole process took a lot longer than anticipated because it was Easter.  Once we got our passports stamped, our tour guide, Hugo, took all of our passports and did the final step (whatever that may have been) so we could enter into Guatemala!  Hugo loaded us into a big van and we were off!

We drove for about an hour and a half until we reached the place where we were going zip-lining.  The native language in Guatemala is Spanish and many of the people don’t speak English so it was fun to be able to use Spanish/play charades with everyone.  The guy who put my harness on me was pretty pleased when he found out I could speak Spanish so he made sure that I was in his zip-lining group so I could translate if necessary.  Once we all had our harnesses on, we climbed ladders to get to the top of the course.  They explained how to zip line and took cameras from us so they could take pictures as we were coming into each platform.  Then it was time to get to it!  There were eight lines in total, some were longer than others and some just went through trees and others went over the road.  After I did the first line, the guy who was there to catch me (a.k.a. make sure I didn’t slam into the tree) asked if I was going to “superwoman”.  It took me a few seconds to understand what he was talking about, and then I said no, and then he eventually convinced me.  Normally when you zip line you are upright in a seated position, but when you “superman”, you take off your harness and put it on backwards so you are clipping to the line from your back and you go hands first… just like how superman flies.  The first time I did it, he was attached to the line as well to break for me and to make sure I didn’t hit the tree at the end.  It ended up being way more fun than the normal seated position and eventually everyone in our group did it.  On the second to last line, we got to “superman” by ourselves.  To stop on the zipline, you just pull down on the line so the guys running it were able to stop us by pulling down on the line over the platform.  On the last line, they told me there was a “sorpresita” (a little surprise) and then they laughed.  This made me nervous.  I got about half way down the line when the guy at the end started yanking on the line to make me go up and down while I was going forward.  My initial reaction was to start yelling that this was not fun, but it was so close to the platform that it wasn’t too bad.  If I had been bounced up and down for longer it may or may not have ended in vomit.  Zip lining was a lot of fun and I ended up with some good pictures/videos that the guides took!

After we went zip-lining, we got back in the van and drove just over an hour to the island of Flores.  There is now a bridge connecting Flores to the mainland, but the Guatemalans still consider it to be an island because it didn’t have a bridge for many years.  Flores is very small and quaint.  The buildings are all painted bright colors and it mostly has shops and restaurants.  It is definitely a go-to spot for tourists.  We spent a few hours there and then loaded back in the van to head back to Belize.

We got back to Belize later than anticipated.  Also, not only was it Easter, but it was also Molly (another girl on the trip)’s birthday!  We had made reservations the night before at a restaurant so we got off the bus and took Molly to the restaurant without her realizing that it was for her birthday.  After we yelled surprise, she caught on pretty quickly.  Dinner was delicious and it was a very successful Easter!

This morning we woke up early to catch the first bus out of San Ignacio back to Belize City so we could catch the ferry to San Pedro.  The bus ride wasn’t as terrible as it had been previously and we ended up getting back to San Pedro around 10ish.  We got back to our hotel and were given the same room that we were in previously.  Interestingly enough, I walked into my room and where my mattress had once been was now only a few pieces of wood. 

Kelsey and I spent the majority of the beach and I am happy to report that when we got back to our room, I had a mattress!  It’s nice to be back here and to be able to have everything unpacked until we leave in just under two weeks.  We’re spending the rest of this week doing community service around the island and then we head back to North Carolina for graduation a week from Saturday.  It’s crazy how fast the time has passed!  

Caracol, Rio Frio Cave, Big Rock Falls, and Scary Ferris Wheels!

Yesterday was our second day of cultural explorations out of San Ignacio. We left our hotel in the morning with our guide, Mario, who happened to be the brother of the guide we had the day before at ATM. On Holy Saturday of every year in Belize there is the Cross Country Cycling Classic. The race is about 140 miles and the cyclists start in Belize City, ride to San Ignacio, and then go back to Belize City. We had to leave our hotel early enough that we didn't get stuck in race traffic, but Mario listened to the race on the radio and stopped the bus so we could watch part of the race. We stayed for about 30 minutes waiting for the cyclists and then cheering on the ones that passed. It was really cool to see especially since they don't shut down the roads so police officers had to make sure that cars didn't try to get in the way of the race.

Once we saw the cyclists go by, we hopped in the car and headed to Caracol! The ride there took about two hours and the majority of the time it was on unpaved roads. Mario drove like a champ! He was swerving around ditches and passing other cars left and right... It was definitely not his first rodeo!  You have to get to Caracol at a certain time so that the military can escort you in. In the past, Guatemalans have robbed people while they were entering/exiting Caracol because it is so close to the Guatemalan border. The high military presence has made it not be an issue, but it's important to ride in with them and to not be left there!

Mario loves trees and birds so while we were walking we learned a lot about various birds and trees that grow in the area. We learned about the fruit called "dog vomit" (which is named for how it looks), which has extreme numbing power so the Mayans probably used to use it as a sort of anesthesia.  We also stumbled across wild cilantro and a berry referred to as "butt stopper".  As Mario explained it, it's sweet so people like it, but if you eat a little bit of it it will act as a laxative and if you eat a lot it will act as a "butt stopper".

The main attraction of Caracol was the ruins. It was fascinating because only 10% of the area had been excavated and it seemed like a ton. We got to climb on the majority of the ruins and race our way up to the top Rocky style. The views were great from the top and it's crazy to think how the Mayan people built such large and symmetrical structures without modern day mahinery. The descent down the steps were a lot slower and far more frightening. Tumbling down the steps would not end well. Although the Mayan people were very short, the steps were huge. There are discrepancies about why the steps were so big when the people were so little, but most people think it's because it acted as a defense mechanism because the royal people were at the top of the temples. (It reminded me of the tree house my dad built in our back yard that had huge gaps between the rungs so that it would be a challenge to get to the top.)  We spent awhile exploring Caracol and the various temples and neighborhoods that had been excavated.  Mario said that anytime we saw man made mounds, there were Mayan ruins underneath, but there currently isn't enough money to excavate them all and they're safer when they're protected from wind/rain/etc. 

We had to pack up quickly at Caracol to beat the military convoy out and then we made our way to Rio Frio Cave. Rio Frio means cold river so I didn't even try touching the water to see if it lived up to it's name. The cave was different than ATM in that there weren't Mayan ruins still in it, it was a lot smaller, and a lot taller. The cave was about 80 feet high and was beautiful. It's home to a lot of bats, but we didn't see any while we were traipsing around on the rocks.

From Rio Frio, we moved on to Big Rock Falls, a waterfall in the same state park. We left out stuff into the ran and walked down some rickety stairs (which were apparently new) to a gorgeous waterfall. There was a lot rock to jump off of into he river that Mario said even the chickens like himself could do. We all jumped I to the water and then most of us made our way to a bigger rock. The issue was getting up there. The easiest way, which was quite difficult and painful because of the sharp rocks, was just attempting to crawl and just shoving your feet and hands into any nook available. It was a struggle to get up, but the jump down into the water was about 20 feet and a lot of fun! There was one other higher point that you could jump off but none of us could figure out how to get there so we just hung out in the water instead. After that it was another bumpy ride back to San Ignacio!

The Easter fair was going on in San Ignacio so we figured it would be a fun cultural experience. It was pretty much just like a fair in the U.S. with a lot of food, games, and some rides. We ate dinner there, got roped into dancing with some kids who were putting on a show, and explored a little. We thought it would be fun to ride the Ferris Wheel so we bought tickets and were pretty excited while we were waiting in line. And then we started noticing that the motor for the ride was producing A LOT of smoke. We got on regardless and ended up riding what has to be the scariest and fastest Ferris wheel in the world. Ferris wheels definitely aren't designed to go that fast and the seats definitely should not have been swinging that much. It didn't take us long before we were all screaming for it to stop. Not only was it fast, but the ride lasted forever. We were all pretty happy to be on solid ground afterward and that was the end of my ride career at the fair!!!  Here's a view from the Ferris wheel before it started moving! 

Today we spent Easter in Guatemala ziplining and exploring the island of Flores! We head back to San Pedro tomorrow bright and early so I'll blog about that once I'm back... I even have some zip lining videos I may be able to post!

Spelunking Actun Tunichil Muknal!

Caves were the most sacred places for the Mayan people. Today we got a chance to go spelunking through ATM outside of San Ignacio and it was great!!  We left the hotel around 7:30 and drove for about an hour to a parking lot that looks like it would lead to any other hiking trail. I'm the parking lot we head to attach our head lamps to our hard hats and make sure everything was adjusted right so we would be all set in the cave. Because the cave is a sacred place and the water that runs through it is drinking water for people, we were told to not put on sunscreen or bug spray so that we didn't contaminate their water or hurt the cave. Also, we couldn't bring cameras (or phones) into the cave because the flash is damaging to the cave and they're trying to preserve it. So we left everything in the van and started the hike with our hard hats in tow!

The hike to the cave was probably around a mile and a half. We reached a stream pretty quickly that was had to walk through so staying dry was no longer an option. We crossed two more streams that we trekked through and eventually reached a small area with picnic tables. Our guide told us that while archeologists were examining the cave, the picnic area is where they set up their lab to so further research and to show their findings to other people in the area. Now it is just used as a place for the tour groups to put their water bottles and put on their hard hats. We stayed there for a little bit and or guide talked to us and then it was time to enter the cave!!

The cave had a pretty large opening, but swimming was the only option to get inside. We went one by one trying to avoid rocks and then climbed up into the cave on the other side. Our guide explained that the Mayan people started using the outer edge of the cave and as time went on they moved deeper and deeper within the cave. So the oldest artifacts were found closer toward the entrance. The beginning part of the cave involved a lot of water and climbing through small holes. There were certain walls we couldn't touch - any of the ones  that sparkled. During some parts we would try to step on ledges close to the wall and hold on to the wall for support, but would end up slipping and swimming instead. We had to have on socks and sneakers so it was hard to stay balanced and keep our feet planted on certain rocks. Some of the areas of the cave were more treacherous than others and some parts involved climbing up a ladder or using huge rocks as ladders and hoping you didn't fall. 

Once we got further into the cave, we reached a point where we had to take our sneakers off. In this part of the cave there wasn't any water so there were still artifacts that were preserved from the time when the Mayan people were using the cave. There were certain ridges that we were supposed to walk on because there could have been artifacts mixed in with the less other parts of the cave floor. We saw old ceramic pots and ceramic plates that were used to catch the drippings of peoples' blood from human sacrifices. We went even deeper into the cave and saw human remains including skulls and the full skeleton that is thought to be female. Here's a picture of the skeleton (I found it online from when they used to allow cameras! The magic of google!).

Once we got pretty deep into the cave it was time to start venturing out. By this point we had spent about 5 hours hiking/spelunking and we were hungry!!  The deeper into the cave we got, the cooler it got (not that I would consider it cold) and the colder the water was. The hike out of the cave was funny because there was a lot more slipping and a lot more swimming when we probably could've been walking.

Spelunking was really awesome and I wasn't expecting to see actual artifacts/human skulls so that was definitely an added bonus! I wish I could've taken pictures although I don't think they would've captured what it actually looked like inside the cave or the way a lot of the walls sparkled. Also, the word spelunking is pretty cool and I'll probably be able to use it once in awhile in conversation now that I've actually done it!

The Belize Zoo!

Today we got on the bus at 6am. I'm not sure how they decide which routes get school buses and which get coach buses, but I was happy to see that it was a coach bus!  We had air conditioning and even reclining seats! Life was good!  We took the bus from Punta Gorda to Belmopan. In Belmopan we had just under two hours to kill so we went to a market across the street from the bus station and got a little lunch. We then went back to the bus station and started waiting at the gate for the next part of our journey. Unfortunately, this bus was a school bus and it was packed. We had to push our way on and it was somewhat of a miracle that all 14 of us made it on. We took the bus to the Belize Zoo where we spent about two and a half hours.

All of the animals at the zoo were brought in by people or rescued so they were all native to Belize. There were jaguars, all sorts of colorful birds, spider and howler monkeys, tepirs (the national animal of Belize), crocodiles, and lots of other animals. The zoo was a typical city zoo. The animals were in cages and it wasn't huge. I can't imagine this zoo ever being busy, which is sad because I'm sure they need the finding from tickets, but all in all it was a successful trip to the zoo! 

After we left the zoo, a van brought us to our hotel in San Ignacio. It is by far the weirdest hotel I have ever been in. A lot of the hotels here are considered guest houses and I guess this would be a prime example. Mr. and Mrs. Guerra own it and also live here. To get to our rooms we have to walk through their living room (Mrs. Guerra was passed out on the couch when we came back from dinner) and kitchen and then go up stairs and then down stairs to get to our hall of rooms.  Just another interesting experience in Belize!

Tomorrow we're going to tour ATM (Actun Tunichil Muknal). The ATM is a cave (and also a Mayan archeological site) so from what I understand there's some hiking/swimming/spelunking involved and I'm sure a little bit of struggling since once we're in the cave we have to walk around in socks and that just sounds slippery.