Friday, we all got up at 6 to eat and leave for Dangriga, which is South of San Ignacio. It was at least a 3 and a half hour bus ride to our destination with several stops on the way on an old imported school bus from the U.S. It’s weird being back on a regular school bus like in high school every day. One of the Belizeans, Leon, sat next to me and was basically my own personal tour guide for the ride, since he knew the area. On the way, we passed patches of a sea of green, beautiful landscapes, and even saw a waterfall on top of one of the mountains from afar.
View from the bus of GREEN
Our first stop was the Garifuna Gulisi Museum. There, we had a guided tour through the museum, while taking notes. The only bad part about this weekend was that we had to take notes on all the presentations and write a paper at the end of the trip. The museum itself was pretty cool and we learned a lot about the Garifuna culture and their struggle for their existence. There were a bunch of kids running around outside, so a bunch of us decided to play with them and chase them around. They loved playing with us and it made me so happy to be able to make them happy.
Next, we headed to the Pelican Bay Beach Resort, which was amazing. The food itself was alright, but the view of the beach, palm trees, hammocks, and the ocean was breathtaking. I was told that this area isn’t even the nice area, so I can’t even imagine what the “real” beach looks like. A group of about 6 of us, the ones that didn’t go to the beach with everyone the other weekend, decided to eat really quickly, change on the bus, and jump in the ocean before we had to leave. The water wasn’t even freezing and the taste of salt water was so nice. We found several sand dollars, but let them be and just continued to swim around for about 45 minutes while everyone else was just lying on the dock.
After lunch, we headed to our last destination for the night, the Cockscomb basin and jaguar reserve, along with the Maya center. When we first pulled into the reserve, all you could see were trees, plants, and shrubs for miles. I was so excited that we were there. We then proceeded to drive another 20 minutes into the forest before we got to the cabins where we would be staying for the night. All the girls stayed in one section, while the guys were all split up into different “rustic cabins”. We had about an hour to do whatever we wanted before dinner and orientation, so Meg, Alex, and I decided to go explore a little and found a hike that led to a waterfall. On the way up, we saw many leaf cutter ants holding leaves on their backs as they made trails through the forest, buttress trees, huge ferns, squirrels, insects, and birds. When we finally got to the waterfall, it was already past time for dinner, so we couldn’t jump in and had to head back, but it was at least a 3mile walk each way and we were sweating beyond belief by the time we met up with everyone else.
Since we got to dinner late, there was practically no food left for us and we just ate cole slaw and some burnt rice for dinner…yum. The entire weekend was basically a big mayo fest. For some reason, Belizeans love mayo on and in everything. After dinner, we had orientation for our night walk through the jungle. They told us to wear long pants and shirts, bring a flashlight if you have one (which I forgot my headlamp and was very disappointed, but had a flashlight), and not to wear bug spray because the animals can smell it and it drives them away. We all received that memo a little too late and were all doused in 100 deet bug spray.
Despite me being covered in bug spray and long pants, socks, sneakers, and two shirts, I still managed to get eaten by some kind of bot fly everywhere. Bot flies are common here, but only one kind of bot is really bothersome. If one of these bot flies land on you, they basically crawl in you somehow, stay dormant for up to two weeks and then poke holes in your skin to breathe. They then have to be removed somehow by squeezing them out or using tweezers, etc. I really hope none of us get one, but many people who we have met here have said they have gotten one before and its not that big of a deal.
The Group at the Jaguar Reserve
Since they were low on tour guides, we all had to go as one giant group of at least 30 people, when in reality, a night walk should only be 2 or 3 people at a time if you expect to see any animals. Being a huge group, we probably sounded like a stampede walking through the rainforest even though we were as silent as we could be. Although no jaguars were seen, we saw a crocodile in the water, heard lots of strange noises, which I think were howler monkeys, and saw a small paw print of some kind of cat in the mud, which meant the animal had passed the tracks some point right before we got there. It was too small to be a jaguar print, but it could have been an oselot or another smaller cat. I’m still completely blown away that I was actually IN the jungle, no boundaries or fences or anything on the reserve. The animals just roam through the forest as they wish…the reserve is 124,000 acres so they have plenty of space to roam about and hide away. There are also so many species of bats here that love to swoop just inches from our heads.
When we came back from the night walk, a bunch of us decided to make a small fire and just sit around for a while. We told ghost stories and learned about Belize myths, etc. from the Belizeans. The stars were also amazing that night and were so clear at the basin. In San Ignacio, you can barely see any stars, so it was great being able to just stare up at the sky for a while and admire them.
Since we had to get up early the next morning, we all went to bed at a decent hour and then woke up at 6 again for breakfast. After breakfast, we all went for a hike up Ben’s Bluff, an extremely “rigorous” hike that goes about 6.5 miles into the forest. It was pretty much straight uphill at times, but getting to the top of the mountain and looking over all the trees and entire forest was such a wonderful feeling. We even got rewarded on the way down by being able to stop at the waterfall I had passed the day before and jump in for a swim before we left the reserve.
View from Ben's Bluff
Waterfall
After we left the reserve, we stopped at the Maya center, which was on the way out of the reserve. The Maya center is a Mopan Mayan Community that was established in 1976 when Belize decided to create the jaguar reserve and move all the indigenous people off their land to do so. Everybody in the indigenous perspectives class, including myself, was to break off in groups of 3 and meet with a Mayan family and have them cook a traditional Mayan lunch for us. I was extremely nervous about this activity at first because I really do not know that much about the Maya yet and didn’t know how they would act, if they could talk English, or if I would even be able to relate to them.
I got to my Mayan family and was instantly greeted by 2 extremely friendly dogs and the father of the family. The mother was out back with her 3 children, ages 5,8, and 11…the oldest a son and the two others girls…cooking corn tortillas for us and preparing other food on a fire hearth. While the mother cooked, we continued to talk to the father about his jobs, schooling, and how the community has changed over the years. It’s pretty amazing that they all pretty much do subsistence agriculture and grow their own food and follow all the old ways, but at the same time they now have adopted cell phones, tv’s, and listen to American music on a daily basis. The father had built his house by himself over 30 years ago and not only farms/grows his own food, but also works at the jaguar reserve fixing and setting up cameras to watch the animals through the forest 24/7, and takes people on hikes up to Victoria’s peak…about a 3 day hike to get to the top and very rigorous as well. When the food was finally ready, the mother just placed everything on the table and the father ate with us, while the mother sat in the corner and ate alone. I knew from our orientation before meeting with the families that the Maya women were shy, but I did not know to what extent. I wish I could have gotten the chance to talk to the mother more.
While we were all eating lunch with our Mayan families, they people not in the indigenous perspectives class got to visit the women’s arts and crafts center. Since we all wanted to go there as well, we ended up coming back to Dangriga on Sunday to look around for a bit and I bought a bracelet of beads shaped like a gecko…I love it : )
After we officially left the Maya center, we made our way to Punta Gorda. When we first got there, we had a presentation on the land dispute between the Maya and the government. Basically, the government has been taking land away from the Maya, but technically the Maya were here first and have a right to their land and shouldn’t be kicked off of it. It was a really interesting presentation and I think it was my favorite one. We were served dinner right after the presentation and then had about 45 minutes to go check in at the hotel and get settled in before we came back to the same place to watch some Garifuna drumming!
A glimpse at Punta Gorda
The Group
The drumming was really amazing and we all got up at the end and were trying to “punta” to the drumming. The punta is the national dance of Belize and kind of looks like Hula dancing, but more intense and really hard to do. I tried and failed to do it right. However, later that night, almost all of us, including our teachers, went to a bar and started dancing the entire night. The Belizean who I had sat next to on the bus, Leon, taught me how to salsa and do a couple other dances…although I honestly had no idea what I was doing and probably could not repeat the moves again without someone leading me.
Garifuna Drumming
The next morning, we woke up yet again around 6 and started the morning off with a presentation by an environmental ed. officer from the marine reserve. After breakfast and the presentation, we headed to the Ya ‘ axche’ conservation trust-field center. This is a private protected area of about 15,000 acres whose mission focuses on sustainable development. We were given a power point presentation and then shown around the nursery of plants and given lunch.
Flower in the forest
Our last stop before heading back to San Ignacio was another Mayan community. Here, we walked around the community and was given a talk on the way their system runs as compared to the Maya center of families. We then boarded the bus and headed home…another successful weekend to put in the books.
The perfect sunset to a perfect weekend
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