Zip Lining

Jean does the "superman".

So Far Behind

I am so far behind in my blog postings.  I am going to post three in a row to try and capture the last three weeks.

After Easter we headed inland to Belize City on Monday morning, April 7.  We all caught the 7 a.m. ferry out of San Pedro, arriving in Belize City around 9 a.m.  We had a seat on the top deck and several of us were in the direct sun--burns for later!

We caught a bus to Belmopan in Belize City.  What a difference between Belize City and San Pedro.  San Pedro is a picture postcard of palm trees and brilliant blue ocean.  Belize City is very urbanized.  We were all surprised by the the difference.  We had a crazy taxi ride to the bus station from the ferry terminal.  We talked to the bus driver to make sure we could get off at the Belize Zoo.  The bus was not air conditioned and it was not an express.  We stopped often and people got on and off with various amounts of carry bags.  We also had all of our clothing for the next week in one backpack.

The Belize Zoo is very interesting.  We spent a few hours there and saw all the animals native to Belize.  It is a sanctuary for animals that were either hurt or in danger of being killed.  For example, there is a jaguar (leopard)-Buddy Junior that was caught and brought to the zoo because it was killing domestic animals near a village.  We saw tapir, jaguars, storks-one got really angry at Keri and flew at the cage, causing her to scream.  We also saw a toucan and macaws.  We passed the macaw cage just as one laid two eggs.  The male was standing guard and the female began digging a hole to drop the eggs.  When we passed by later, she was sitting on the nest.

Back on the bus to San Ignacio.  We arrived that afternoon and we stayed in a very nice resort.  It was a nice break from the hostel.  We left for Tikal, Guatemala the next morning very early.  We toured the Mayan ruins there--it was incredible.  We climbed to the top of a very tall ruin and the view was incredible.  We also saw the royal palace where many of the kings and their wives were buried.  All the artifacts have been removed to the museum in Guatemala City.  On our way out of Tikal several of us stopped to zip line.  It was the first time for the students, the second time for me.  I reassured them it would be fine until we climbed up on the first tree.  I looked around and realized there were no guardrails and we were connected to a very tall tree, standing on a platform, with only a small D ring snapped on a cable.  I told them when we finished that the safety level made me pause.  They said they were glad I did not share that until after the experience.  Several rode "superman style"-facing forward, flying through the trees.  Ummm..don't want to think about how safe that was.  Finally, our guides got a kick out of bouncing the last zip line up and down so as we zipped on it we flew up in the air--my back was not amused.  We were all exhilarated by the experience and I was glad all turned out okay.

The next day we went on the ATM Cave tour--amazing.  Artifacts from the Mayans everywhere.  It was physically challenging to climb the cave walls and swim through the streams.  We saw human remains.  The guides talked about the cultural practices of the Mayans--human scarifices, cutting to use their blood in rituals, holes in the pots to allow the bad spirits to escape.  They don't know what happened to the people whose remains are in the cave.  Their bones have calcified onto the cave floor.  We did see evidence of the practice of flattening the head-both forehead and back of the skull, on the remains.  That night, we were all exhausted.  The resort was great and we all enjoyed the pool.

Thursday, Dennis and I visited with Galen University representatives about expanding our work together.  Some of the representatives were on their way to Wilmington the next week.

Friday we left San Ignacio for Cave's Branch.  Our accomodations changed drastically and we were camping in the jungle.  Bugs everywhere.  Great food, however.  Everyone signed up for different tours.  I went on a cave tubing trip.  After ATM I was not up for the Waterfall Tour-climbing cave walls and jumping off of waterfalls or the Black Hole-a sink hole that you repell into.  The cave tubing was great-leisurely float on the river, then exploring the cave.  More Mayan artifacts that we got to hold this time.  We ate lunch in the cave and then floated back to where we left the bus.  We all jumped off a cliff into the river.  It was scary but fun.

We went back to San Pedro on Sunday morning.  We took a van to Belmopan, a bus to Belize City, and a ferry to San Pedro.  We have been on all the transportation options.  Back to schools the next day.

April 3, 2010

The Easter activities at the library came to an end with an easter egg hunt on Wednesday afternoon.  The children really enjoyed it and our students were able to use the hours toward their service project.

On Wednesday, Dr. Paul, our consultate from Wilmington to Belize, invited us to his home north on the island.  He has a condo here and spends holidays and summers here.  We ate cheeseburgers, french fries, and ice cream sundaes.  All were a welcome treat after several weeks of Belizian food-many plates of stewed chicken, beans and rice.  Although that is good, it was nice to eat something different. Everyone had a good time at his house, dancing and singing.  We took a water taxi to and from the dock in San Pedro.

I went to Caye Calker on Thursday.  Caye Calker is a small town on another island and looks like San Pedro did many years ago.  There are no paved streets and few golf carts.  The pace is slow and the water is beautiful.  There were many street vendors with beautiful jewelry to sell.

This week came to an end with a water shortage.  A new housing development on the island is dredging and causing the water filters to need replacing sooner than expected.  This weekend is the busiest tourist time of the year.  It is very crowded in downtown San Pedro this weekend.  Most businesses were closed yesterday for Good Friday and will be closed for Easter Monday as well.  Many of us plan to attend the Easter service at the Catholic Church downtown tomorrow morning.  It is on the beach.

A Mangrove Tree growing near the shore of Caye Calker

On our way to visit with Dr. Paul

Success at the Easter Egg Hunt