The Belize Zoo

We went on a field trip with the school where the volunteers work to the Belize Zoo. The zoo only houses animals that are native to Belize. The animals are rescued, removed from homes that aren't licensed to have exotic pets, and donated by other zoos. We loved the excitement of the elementary school students as they ran around the zoo. These boys didn't want to leave the bush dog exhibit.

The zoo has 14 jaguars and a black jaguar that they rescued from a resort in Mexico. When they first got him, he was only 100 pounds and was close to starvation. To earn money for his food, they taught him to high five tourists. The money earned by his trick goes towards more food and improvements to his habitat.

Several times at the zoo we found ourselves saying, "this would never be allowed in the United States." The tapir exhibit was one such instance. The animals come right up to the fence so you can pet and feed them. They are very friendly, but they do have large teeth.

Another favorite: an albino coatimundi or gato feo as they are called in Panama.

Scorpion Battles and Service Projects

The volunteers have already been here a week. When they arrived, they received a proper welcome--a scorpion infestation. While we were trying to kill the scorpions, one had babies all over everything, including inside Adam's backpack. It was a very surreal nightmare. I generally am not afraid of bugs, but this was terrifying. We ended up having to stay at a hotel for the night and to hire someone to kill the rest of the scorpions. In total we had 5 grown scorpions and about 40 babies.

All our volunteers are girls this year so we have Adam out numbered. The picture below is of our team (minus Adam since he is taking the picture) and our cook Mama Kay. She is a great cook and really looks out for us. At dinner each night, we ask her questions for hours. She has great advice about projects, tourism, and everyday life in Belize.

We have been very busy the last few days. We have been teaching in an elementary school, painting a school, mentoring and doing conflict resolution with high school students, shadowing a school counselor, and working to update the countries refugee records. My favorite project so far has been working in a retirement home. Both my grandpas have passed away in the last two months. My Grandpa Hammond passed away last week and my Grandpa Breedlove passed away in February. I really enjoyed talking with the elderly and spending time with them since I can't spend more time with my grandpas.

5 Things About Belize

1) If you live too close to Mayan ruins you can't get internet reception. I guess we live too close to Cahal Pech to get reception normally so we spent the day buffing, welding, and painting a 30 foot pole with our friend Richard. Hopefully, tomorrow we can attach the pole to our house and get internet.

2) If you wear a Panama Mola shirt or a lion shirt you are advertising that you want to party. Adam has been asked if he wants to buy drugs 5 times while wearing his Mola shirt. If he wears the lion shirt, they have yelled out "hey big guy" and a approached him a few times. It's funny because they have never asked me and only ask him when he is wearing one of those two shirts. Here is a picture of the famed lion shirt.

3)  If you look for American fast food chains, you won't find them. They do not have a McDonald's, Pizza Hut, or Kentucky Fried Chicken in all of Belize. I guess they have had some impostors show up from time to time, but they have since been shut down. In Belize City, they had a fake Taco Bell and Subway operating for a while.

4) If you thought Belize is part of Central America, you thought wrong. We have been told several times that Belize is part of the Caribbean. In fact, people here often quote demographics or statistics about Belize and compare them to other Caribbean countries, not other Central American countries. The culture is more similar to Caribbean culture than Latin culture even here on the border of Guatemala.

5) If you want a cheaper way to visit Belize, fly into Cancun. While our two and half day bus trip was an adventure, they also have a luxury bus that goes straight to Cancun. If only we had known about that we wouldn't have gone from Cancun to Chetumal, Chetumal to Corozal, Corozal to Belize City, and lastly Belize City to San Ignacio.

Xunantunich

Xunantunich means "stone women" in Mayan and is located about ten minutes from San Ignacio. We were out visiting a school that HELP International has worked with in the past and decided to go see Xunantunich because it was just down the road. We had heard the ruins were worth seeing, but we were shocked by how big and impressive it was. Like last time when we went to Cahal Pech, the grounds were deserted.Belize continues to surprise us with how beautiful, yet unexplored its treasures seem to be.

This is the side view of the castle. The relief is extraordinary. The structure is tall enough to be viewed from Guatemala as well.

The view from the top of the castle. You can see some of the other structures. Belize really is hermosa.

 The downside of the being the only sides at the site is that yet again we don't have pictures of us together. We will work on that for future posts.

You better Belize it

We are in the same place again! It only took Adam flying across the Atlantic to meet me in Cancun. We took several buses across Mexico and Belize and arrived in San Ignacio yesterday. San Ignacio has everything you could want street tacos, a scenic river, ancient ruins, a strong sense of community, and a hint of Caribbean culture. When I have moved before, I have had to convince myself that it was a good choice and it took me a while to realize things I loved about living there. Belize is quite the opposite--our list of what we love continues to grow.

Here's Adam's view from the house we was staying at outside of London. He called it the "real-life Downtown Abbey." Like a typical guy, he did not take any pictures of himself.

Here's the proof that we are in the same place. This was our second bus, the one from Chetumal, Mexico to Belize City, Belize. We fit right in right? haha

The restaurant we ate at was really excited that we chose them--excited enough to put us on their reader board with a welcome sign. They were surprised to hear that we were American. Like most people, they assumed we were European because we spoke Spanish.

This view is just a 5 minute taxi away. How many cities have a view like this within the city limits?

The beautiful river that runs along San Ignacio. It looks so appealing in the afternoon. One of these days we need to take a swim.