Day one in Belize!

Looks like I’ll be posting these the day after they occur. Blogging in this manner allows me to fully capture a day’s adventures from waking up until the time I go to sleep. Here’s what I wrote from yesterday, DAY ONE:

You know it has been a good day when you just got done shuttling a tiny, quarter-sized frog out of your shower into the outdoors. I now sit on my bed, recollecting the day’s events.  

           

I woke up surprisingly calm (for me). My calmness may have been due to the fact that I was exhausted from Christmas and had a very early drive to the airport. However, I mostly felt numb. The three flights went well, just a few airport agitations (but those are to be expected), and I didn’t truly get excited until I was awoken by the pilot’s voice over the speaker in my final flight.

As I heard that call of “15 minutes to go,” I decided it was time to open up the plane window. Lo and behold, it was the most beautiful site I ever did see! The crystal blue waters spanned beneath me, and they were so translucent that I could actually see the drop off of the continental shelf.  A variety of islands were interspersed in the waters, covered in lush green trees. As we passed from ocean to land, I noticed an incredible amount of something you don’t always see flying over America—and that was exactly it—LAND. There was such a glorious green about the place. The houses were few and miles apart, dirt roads connected what dwellings did exist, and the whole of the earth seemed to be just as it should be, alive! How my heart blossomed at the sight of so much untouched nature! I could only imagine the jaguars hunting those forests by night, toucans flying by day, and I was ready to be down in Belize!

After passing through customs and meeting up with a wonderful group of students who are taking various courses with this program, we rode in a bus with our luggage for 2 hours on the way to our lodgings. The ride was positively marvelous. We were on the major and only true ‘highway’ in the country. Essentially, it is just a general strip of pavement with no lines that serves as a highway because of its length and the fact that is actually is paved.

Turns out there are no traffic lights here, just speed bumps every once in a while when you get to a busy area. However, traffic here is minimal, so it was nothing to be concerned about. One thing I automatically noticed about Belize is that it doesn’t seem to be too crowded. The airport in the major city was one random airstrip in the middle of the forest. I couldn’t believe the plane was descending into the trees, I thought we might be crashing, when all of a sudden, we hit the ground and slowed. As it would turn out, Belize is not very populated at all—320,000 people in the whole country! Interestingly enough, most of these people who live here are below the age of 35, because Belize, as a country, is only 31 years old, and many of the older generations left as it changed from British Honduras to Belize.

Along the way, we passed interesting sights and learned interesting things. Belize as a country is highly diverse in its people groups. It is unique in that it is in Central America, but also on the Caribbean. There are a mix of people descended from pirates, Mayan, creole, British, Spanish, etc etc. types of people. Markets for groceries are called ‘China stores,’ because it is often the Chinese who run them. The Spaniards tried to colonize Belize when the ancient Mayans were living here, and though they made attempts at converting them to Roman Catholicism, but the Mayans would always burn the churches as soon as the Spanish left the area.

We passed by a few cemeteries, which in Latin America look very different to those we are used to.

Many of the houses were painted bright colors, and I found out that it is a Belizean tradition to paint your house on Christmas with a fresh (and often new colored) coat of paint if you can afford it.

There is only one prison in the whole country. We passed it on the way to San Ignacio, and it turns out they have their own little ‘gift shop.’ Interesting.

The country is alive and beautiful, and the drive through it left me in wonder and happiness.

We arrived at our resort in the afternoon, and we got our roommate assignments and keys. The quaint, colorful lodges are nestled along a thin, stone path blooming with palm trees and bushes of bright pinks. I heard so many unfamiliar bird calls, and eagerly kept looking for their sources. As my roommate and I explored around the cabanas, we saw a small corn field and a great flock of birds flying from it to the trees and back to the corn again. Upon closer inspection, we saw that they were green parrots. I saw hundreds of green parrots all flying around together in their natural home, and it was incredible. We’ve got a comfortable place to sleep, a breakfast provided, and a pool to swim in. I had a delicious dinner, and I loved getting to know everyone on the trip. I saw a few lizards, heard some gecko calls, saved a tiny frog, and eagerly await the 4am rooster calls (which means these guys are the same kind as those pesky ones in Honduras I heard at 4am a few years back!)

I’ll finish with some pictures of where we are staying, and that will be it for day 1!

My own little cottage :)