Belize 2000

Itinerary

This is a short list of what we did each day while on the trip. Some of the entries have "Journal" links which have more information about what we did that day.

Over Spring Break I had the opportunity to take part in a two week trip to Belize. We visited Mayan ruins examined the rainforest, and spent a week immersed in the barrier reef ecology. Eighteen of us students went on the trip, and we had three adult leaders from school. Most of the students were a part of one of Preston Larimer's Marine Biology classes. Preston, along with Mr. and Mrs. Martin were the adults from the school, and Kim and Niki were our tour guides for the two weeks.

At the individual locations we picked up local tour guides to show us the site. Antonio drove up the New River to the Lamanai site, William was our guide while we were in the Jaguar Preserve through Hopkins, Hulio helped us through the Maya village, and Ricardo, Tuti, and Ellie shared their lobster camp home with us for the second week of our trip.

Day 1: Belize City

We arrived at Belize International Airport and transfered to vans for the ride into Belize City, the primary port of Belize. We toured the waterfront, with its mix of homes, restraunts, piers and their associated fleets of small fishing boats, and one odiforous fish processing plant. We then went back to our guest house for dinner and an introduction to our Belizean field study.

Day 2: Lamanai Mayan Ruins

We began by taking a two hour bus ride north to the Orange Walk District were we toured Lamanai, Mayan for "the submerged crocodile". Once we got off the bus, we had a 90 minute boat ride up the New River the the Mayan ruins. The river was lined with a variety of species of wetland birds, most of them were new species for everybody. Lamanai has a rich history beginning in 1500 B.C. or earlier to 1650 A.D., making it the longes occupation of any Myan site to date. We got a guided tour of the ruins from a local Mayan before we headed back to Belize City for the night. See Journal for more about the Lamanai excursion.

Day 3: Jaguar Sanctuary

After breakfast, we packed everything up and got back on our bus, for the ride south to the Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Santcuary, primary habitat for the highly endagered jaguar. We spent the night in dormitory style housing usually occupied by wildlife biologists. That afternoonwe went for a hike out into the surrounding jungle so we could observe the rain forest ecology.

Day 4: Jaguar Sanctuary

An optional early morning expedition was offered this morning to observe the forest while floating down a section of Stann Creek, or while hiking one of the numerous trails. We spent most of the day in the forest today, hiking up to one of the lower peaks in the basin. Once we got to the top, we were treated to our own private waterfall, we spent several hours there swimming, eating lunch and reflecting in our journals. After dinner back at the camp, we went out for a night hike to observe the 'night shift' a whole new set of animals unikely adapted to living in the nocturnal world. See Journal for more about the Jaguar Sanctuary.

This morning we packed everything back onto the vans, and were givent the opportunity to hike the six miles down to the Mayan village at the entrance to the Jaguar Sanctuary. About half the group to the opportunity to hike to the village. By noon we were all assembled in the village for lunch. After lunch we got to observe a few of the classes at the vallage elementary school. After school the children invited us to play soccer and baseball with them. In the soccer game the few varsity players we had with us on the trip were shamed by a bunch of barefoot six year olds. We were split into groups of twos for family stays.The familys provided us with dinner (which was chicken and rice in most cases, the staple for the trip and the nation), and hammocks to sleep in.

Day 6: Hopkins

After thanking our family, we packed up for a short bus ride out to Hopkins village, located right on the beach. Hopkins is home to the Garifuna, an ethnic group in Belize. Their culture is an intriguing blend of West African traditions and those of the Carib Indians who migrated into the Caribean from the Orinoco Basin of Venuzuela. Our hosts while we were in Hopkins were the members of Sandy Beach Women's Coopereative who established a small resort fashioned after their own style of thatch roof huts along the seashore.

Day 7-11: Ricardo's Beach Huts

After breakfast at hopkins we got back on the bus and went a little further north to the port of Dandriga. Here we met Ricard Castillo, our host for the rest of our stay in Belize. Ricardo took us by boat out to his home, a small fishing and lobster camp perched on a small mangrove island in the Bluefield Range Islands. For the remaining days we snorkled for several hours a day, went on a night snorkel, were given a tour through the mangrove forest that made up the rest of the island. While we were living at Ricardo's, we were well fed by the resident cook, Tuti, who went out of his way to prepare excellent food for us. See Journal for more about the mangrove hike.

Day 12: Home

Unfortunately our adventure had to come to an end, but we had been stacking up experiences in our whirlwind trip, and we had not had much time to unwind during the trip. Ricardo drove us back to Belize City, so that we could catch our flight back to St. Louis. By the time we got back to St. Louis, we were all exhausted after our absolutely amazing two week trip through Belize.

Comments or questions please e-mail me at ksp0704@hotmail.com © 2000 Kevin Pratt