The Belize Zoo and Mount Pine Ridge

Welcome to the Belize Zoo!
The zoo was started by an American woman who had helped with the filming of some documentary on local wildlife. Throughout the filming the animals had become tame and would not be able to survive in the wild. So, the zoo was started. The zoo is the last resort for animals. They are often animals that have been used, taken in as pets or hurt. All the animals are local and the zoo emphasizes the protection of the animals and their natural habitat.

We arrived at the zoo very early (we were the first visitors of the day). The animals all seemed to be very quiet. However, as the day went on the zoo got pretty noisey. While we were visiting with the jaguar (see picture) we started hearing some crazy sounds. Was it the tapirs? (National animal) It sounded like dinosaurs - really. We felt like we were in Jurassic Park! We decided to follow the sound and it turned out to be the howler monkeys! They're so loud!! We filmed it, so we have a sound clip to bring home with us. Anyways, here are a few pictures from our excursion.

They had four macaw parrots . They were just amazing. Their colours are incredible bright - especially when they fly!

And the toucan: the national bird. This toucan was fantastic. Perfectly kept and groomed. The toucan was probably the top pick for everyone who went.Mount Pine Ridge is a day trip with a local tour company. It costs $30 US and it was well worth it. The soil on the mountain has a higher pH, so trees like pines grow there but not the usual palm trees that you see every where else in Belize. We made four stops on the trip, after a 2 hour long drive in through the super bumpy, muddy road.
The first stop is at Rio Frio Cave. It is a huge cave nestled in the forest. This is a picture of what it looks like from just inside the mouth of the cave.

Here's Lee on his way into the cave. There was a stair case in, some climbing on various rocks and you can get down to this natural sandbar on the floor of the cave. A small stream/river flows through.
Here's Nancy also near the entrance to the cave. You can see the water leaving the cave behind her.
The next stop was at an area that had several levels of water. There were some pools, some areas with semi-strong currents and then other areas where you had to be careful. The tour provided us with lunch (fresh pineapple, banana, watermelon, some plantain chips, sandwhich, water..) so Lee and I climbed to a rock right by the small falls to eat. Then Lee ventured into the falls - I didn't have the guts, plus I had the camera :-) So here he is!

The third stop is at Big Rock. It has a high waterfall, then a great pool area to swim in. In this picture you can see some rocks in the bottom left corner. We swam to them and climbed them so that we were in the pool directly under the water fall. Lee swam across that pool (Nancy stayed behind again) and climbed up on the rocks on the other side (where you can see some water hitting the rocks on the mid-right. He did a quick jump and the current just about slammed him back into the rocks that Nancy was sitting on.
It turned out to be a great trip. Lots of swimming, waterfalls and so on. Relaxing. We ended at a resort that overlooked 5 Sisters Falls, but you had to pay extra to go down there so we all stayed back on the veranda and relaxed. Here's a shot of the group. This is all the current volunteers (although, someone is arriving tomorrow) and the guide.Lee, Nancy, Ellie, Jackie, Bev (all from the Ottawa area, some on the QC side, but all have lived in and around the school), Sarah from Bristol England and Stephanie from Miami, Florida.

We hope everything is well back home,

Great Crazy News!

Travel time baby!

We just got word that schools get two weeks off at Easter, which leads into our last day. The 4th week ending on our departure date. Since all or most of our work is in schools we too have that Easter holiday. Aka we get a whole month off!!! Look out C.A., here we come!

COMMENT if anyone has tips on places to go in between Southern Mexico and Costa Rica!

Woo Hoo!

Volunteering at Conerstone

Hello Everyone!

So there have been a few questions about what volunteer work we've been doing here in Belize. I guess thats a fair question since it is the reason why we're here! For people that don't know Nancy is in the HIV/AIDS program along with youth and Lee is in the Literacy program along with Environment.

Until this afternoon our schedules have not been full. Just today we visited a near by village called Succotz(which borders Guatemala). In Succotz we set up a 2 hour session, 3 days a week that will involve tutoring and offer life skills training to a family of seven children who have learning disablilties (so we're told) and are behind in school. Nancy will tutor four of the children while Lee will tutor three.

We are also working Monday and Wednesday mornings (Lee also works there in the afternoon on Monday) in a local primary school library. Lee is looking after the upkeep of the library and helping kids sign out and return books while Nancy will be teaching kids on how to use and how to act in a library (since most of the kids have never stepped foot in a library).

We are both teaching a creative writing class at another local primary school (different from the library one) an hour a day, three days a week. We are teaching two groups of eight kids who are in standard five (or grade seven).

Also we are both tutoring/reading with kids. Lee tutors/reads with a boy and Nancy tutors/reads with two others.

Nancy is also doing research for an HIV/AIDS newsletter run by another volunteer at the foundation. She is in the process of setting up a presentation for HIV/AIDS/STIs at the prison here in Belize...we'll keep you updated!

By now you might all be wondering, why is Nancy not doing very much HIV/AIDS stuff and doing more youth/literacy stuff? Well she has found, along with other volunteers, that there has been a lot of HIV/AIDS awareness going on here in Belize. That is very good and everything but there is a sense that people are getting sick of listening to it. At the same time there is a lot of need for help in education.

If there's any questions just COMMENT!

Later

Hopkins Weekend

Welcome to Hopkins!
In the wee morning hours of Friday we headed to Belmopan (the capital of Belize), with a few other volunteers to get our Visas extended. All went smoothly and we headed back to the bus station in hopes of getting closer to Hopkins or Placencia.
As we sat in the bus station waiting for a bus to come, a man approached us and asked us where we were headed. We said Dagringa, so, his bus went to Dagringa. We were a little sketched out by this at first, but it ended up all well and good! From Dagringa we went to Hopkins, which is a small town of about 1000 on the ocean.
After walking through the entire town and out the other side we were feeling tired and sick of trying to find a place to stay. On our last straw, we walked down the driveway of Jeanie's Jungle by the Sea Resort. A truck pulled over and the people (Jeanie and John) offered us their only room left - a fancy one - at half the normal cost, since we were obviously budget travellers. Since we now know that North American accommodations cater best to our needs, we took it.
The first night our cabin was set back a little from the water, but still had a view, had two double beds and hot water! Big treat! It also had a big, great balcony. Which we promptly relaxed on with a book. (That's right - Lee has started to read!)

The second night there (since we were too lazy to continue on to Placencia) we stayed in this cute little cabin, still within Jeanie's Jungle Resort. It was way cheaper ($20US), pretty small, but still had hot water. It also had a way better ocean view. Saturday we took out a kayak and played around. We saw jellyfish-like things - they were rounder -, a school of blue & yellow fish jumped up all around the kayak and we saw some huge, hungry birds. Oh also, we saw a couple pretty big, orange starfish.
Apparently, you can also find manatees and dolphins in the area. We'll have to go back for that. Actually, our plan is to go back and do a day trip in the kayak. You can go down to Sittee River and there's crocs there - yikes!
Here's a shot of Nancy reading by the ocean shortly before sunset. We were the only people on the beach - very peaceful!


This is a shot of the view from the reading chairs.
We also went to a drumming thing. About 5 or 6 guys played various drums and sang Garifuna music. The boy standing is playing tortoise shells - they had a great sound! Lee practiced the beat for hours after this and wants to get some shells for himself.


We also noticed how much garbage was by the shore. There was the usual, washed in by the ocean stuff - tons of shoes and bottles - but then there's the oh-so pretty dump. This is behind one person's shop.. it just didn't seem like something you would find easily back home. The shore was not taken care of, except for private beaches like in front of hotels.
And small side note - this is Gabby, our gecko. She hangs out at our place all the time... pretty noisy little thing. :-)
Hope all is well with everyone,

Our First Full Belizian Weekend!!

Well Friends - we had an excellent weekend. Saturday we went to the market where we got all sorts of fresh fruits and veggies for like $2.50. Sweet! (Although.. we have yet to eat them - tonight for sure!) Then we just chilled out with the other volunteers and had a low-key day. But on Sunday....


We went to some ruins! Weee! Here's a shot of the most impressive structure on site:

On the side of it you can see some incredible frieze, or as we refer to it, stuffy-stuff. Stuffy-stuff is neat. :-)


This is Lee on the way up to the top. He's all smiles now... but wait.....


This is Nancy chillin' over the edge looking out - incredible view. Where's Lee you might ask?! Well, turns out Lee is a little (by little I mean a fair amount) afraid of heights. He wasn't so keen on checking out the view or having a seat. He also, was not too keen on having Nancy sit that close to the edge.


So Lee decided to go back down. On his way, about a half way down he came underneath us and took a photo. That's Nancy, Nurse Kate, Sarah and Kirsty. All smiles!

Now this picture is a little unclear.. but we were so pumped that we decided to share it anyways! It's a ... MONKEY! Actually it's two adults and two babies! The one baby crawled on the branch and it was super cute and amazing! What do you have in Canada? Seagulls? Haha! We have monkeys!


q: So tell me, why did the iguana cross the road?
a: Who cares!? It was freakin' awesome!

This is actually one of the small to medium ones we saw. We saw about 6 or 7, the biggest being umm.. ginormous.

Anyways, hope you like our pictures and incredibly eloquent posting here... talk to you all soon! And comment on our postings - it's more fun that way!

PS.

Mum (MaryB) - Email me more, I'm feeling abandoned!
Uncle Scott - Yes. We have internet access at work - slow, but functional.

Cahal Pech

So, did you know that there are more Mayan ruins in Belize than modern buildings? Craziness!

So yesterday Stephanie (from Miami), Sarah (from UK), Kirsty (Maritimer) (other volunteers) along with us, went up to Cahal Pech. It was about a 15 minute walk up this super muddy slippery hill (what is said to be the oldest road in the Cayo District). There is a small information booth with some pottery pieces, and a dead body and the like... We ended up with a very enthusiastic tour guide who is "addicted to anthropology like others are addicted to drugs or alcohol". On top of all the theories that exist in regards to Cahal Pech, he also taught us a lot about local, natural medicine. He showed us about three trees that they use to cleanse themselves, or be super strong (the cedar tree).
He offered various theories and hypotheses about the site. Cahal Pech in one language (don't ask us which!) means Place of Ticks because it was surrounded by tick infested cattle. However, in another language is refers to something about this place of royalty. He showed us various things that supported each theory.

Anyways, it was really interesting. We're now thinking of all the other things we should do and see! We've got a few other volunteers that will probably be touring around with us - yay!

The oldest Mayan building in Latin America (or something like that). It was built in 1200 BC. You'll also notice a close up on some shapes - this is the representation of the jaguar - the sacred animal of the Mayans. This is the top two floors of the structure, they did not excavate the bottom seven floors.

A scenic shot at the highest point of the ruins. (Our guides theory tells us that this is where the leader would come to address his people)

Here are some more pictures of the ruins:


Talk to you later!

Safe Arrival in Belize

Hello Everyone!

So - we made it to Belize - yay! Our "shuttle" - ie. 1800 era jetta - did not make it to San Ignacio. In fact it made it about 30 minutes, then we chilled out on the side of the road. (see pics). A truck of random guys showed up and they pulled us down the highway with a rope, then went behind us and pushed us. All of this got the car to drive on its own for another half hour. Then his brother showed up and dragged us with a chain.. gave up on that. So, we got in the not-so-sketchy car of the brother who brought us to San Ignacio.

Day 1: Shuttle to San Ignacio

Our 1800s Jetta - on the side of the highway. (The smell in the car was the best part)

On The Side of the road (Still)

Our shuttle driver and his wife with Lee

Nancy in the Shuttle
Lovin' the broken down car

Lee in the Shuttle

Sketchy!

Our humble abode - 19th century tiki hut - is definitely not 5star quality. First thing we did - mosquito net and get a door (by door i mean curtain) to separate the bathroom from the kitchen. Wee! (Lee leaves the curtain open and whistles when he goes to the bathroom.. hehe). It's one of 10 guest huts on the property. You go down a super bumpy and full of puddles road to get there... and it's surrounded by trees so at about 5am we had the loudest wake-up call ever from all the birds.

It was a little bit of a sketchy first day in Belize, but everyone seems nice and safe.
Anyways, check out our pictures and talk to you soon!