We're Going to the ZOO, ZOO, ZOO We want you to come TOO!

Stephen feeds a howler monkey

Manny, our personal, all time favourite taxi tour guide man, picked us up from the Belize Municipal airport after our 15 minute plane ride from San Pedro, Ambergris Caye.  Even though it was cloudy and rainy the 4 of us decided to do 2 tours.  The first tour was the Baboon Sanctuary which is really the Howler Monkeys Sanctuary.Shane, our guide, is the young man who, after 7 years of meditating, was led to value and care for the land of Belize.  Family members and like minded people also are part of the vision of self sufficiency with a light footprint. Manny is helping his friend's private enterprise by bringing tours. Two things stand out in our minds about our tour.  First, the cut leaf ants who are basically blind and follow paths by smell and the soldier ants who guard the nest.  They are much larger and were used by the Mayan as sutures.  Shane beat on an entrance to the nest to frighten out a soldier ant.  He held the soldier and took a folded leaf up to the ant's jaws.  Sure enough the jaws cut the leaf as if it were a pair of scissors.  Then since there were no volunteers, Shane put a fold in his shirt and held the soldier up to it.  The soldier clamped onto the shirt, making a hole in it and Share broke off the rest of the body from the head.  Voila, suture in place and fortunately not on our skin.  The howler monkeys are in the wild of the jungle but Shane has taken his time to win the trust of one or two monkeys at a time.  A young, monkey, swinging with his long spindly arms and legs came down a tree to Shane and each of us took turns feeding the monkey ripe, mashed banana out of our hands.  The monkeys look cute and cuddly but if you were to hear them only, you would be frightened to death.  It is the sound that was used for Tyranasauraus Rex in the movie, Jurassic Park.Next it was on to the Belize City Zoo, after stopping to see and photograph a tree full of iguanas.

We LOVED the Belize Zoo.  If you ever get a chance to go, jump at it.  Since it was an overcast day with light showers off and on, Manny told us it was an excellent day to be there.  The jungle cats were active and out to our delight.  The thick, velvet-like coat of the jaguars, both black and spotted were magnificent to see at times only 5 feet away.  They were strutting and playful and we felt that we were getting a private showing.  We saw 5 different jungle cats, including an occelot and a puma.  Apparently there is a night viewing at the zoo where you can stay in cabanas, which is inexpensive and comes highly recommended.  We hope to do this.

The national animal of Belize is the Tapir.  Looks like an over-grown hog or a pigmy hippo with a snout like a pig only droopy and longer similar to an anteater.  Watch out if it turns its back on you and begins to paw the ground.  It shoots out its urine horizontally for up to 30 feet!  Stephen and Gloria braved getting their picture taken with the "cutie pie" Tapir. One memory which lingers is the wild boars which destroy any property they are on and their stench which defies description.  Everyone who walked by had the same loud reaction. If you are into eagles, you can see the most amazing, hugh and different types.  One had no feathers on its neck; another had almost too many feathers on its head.

Toucan at Belize Zoo

 Colours, Colours and more colours......the Toucan with its long multi-coloured beak is so true to pictures we have seen and seeing it in real life with lime green in contrast to the orange, red and white is almost surrealist.  Stephen was blown away by the colours of the red macaw - brilliant reds, blues, purples and yellow.  Wish you were here!

Thursday January 17, 2013 (from a different vantage point)

Up early today and the girls decided to walk into town along the 'yellow brick road' as Gloria affectionately calls it.  It's  a dirt road until we get to the edge of town where the bricks begin. We cut through a resort with colorful barracks-looking cabanas to get to the beach along the Carribean Sea to continue our walk. All land 60 feet from the edge of the sea is public property so anyone, including us, can walk in the sand.  Wonderful feeling letting ones toes smush through the sand knowing there's  snow back home in Calgary - rather exhilerating and humbling.  The next property we walked by/through is called Victoria House Resort. If we win the lottery, we would stay there!  magnificently beautiful with manicured grounds, buildings of various sizes with thatched roofs and white jacketed personnel running around.  The white jackets reflected brilliance in the morning sun. The resort is only 30 years old but has a very colonial feel to it.

Back at the condo, after breakfast Gloria is so tired that she slept for almost 2 hours.  The old body needs to adjust, as they say.  Activity after the rest is going to be 'swimming' in the sea by Gloria while Stephen watches to make sure she doesn't drown so soon into the trip. No problem!  There's no where to swim off the shore...... too much sea grass which hasn't been cleared away.  Not to fear, there seems to be a clear area near the end of our dock.  We saunter down the dock and stop to talk to Demitrios a fruit tree farmer from Corozal who is vacationing with his family.  They have just caught fish for lunch. He wouldn't swim in this area since we see 2 sting rays actively swimming about.  Gloria takes his advice and goes back to the condo pool to swim and nap and read in the sun.  Too good to believe! 

As evening approaches, wind is increasing and dark clouds are moving in.   A rain storm for the night makes us glad to have our own fish tacos in the safety of our condo and Judy and Jerry's sheltered veranda - quite romantic really.

Thursday January 17, 2013

The last couple of days have been very relaxing and both Stephen and Glora have taken time for reading. Gloria is reading an Agatha Christie novel called "And then There Were None" (also known as "Ten Little Indians"). Stephen is reading a CBC Massey Lectures book called "The Universe Within". It describes the scientific advances in physics in the 20th century from the perspective of intellectual feats. In that sense the great theories come from and are appreciated within the minds of scentists. This time of relaxation has been a real gift to us.

We are also doing much more walking than we do at home. Do you think it might have something to do with not having a car available to us down here? It's an hour into the centre of San Pedro when we are walking leisurely. The condo makes some bikes available to us.

We have had bad weather come in. I know that I can count on your sympathy while we tough it out in low 70s F weather.

Wednesday January 16, 2013

Today was a lazy day with coffee, sun bathing, swimming and walks on the beach figuring prominently in our regime. It fels good to have a day like this one because we are hoping that our time in Belmopan will be busy and challenging.

Speaking of challenges, the Wi-Fi access to the internet has been very eratic. Today we think we have located where the wireless hotspot is. And so far today if we go sit outside near that spot we have consistently been rewarded with a useable signal.

Both of us have started to think our volunteering time that starts with us taking up residence in Belmopan either Friday January 25 or Saturday the 26. Of course we would greatly appreciate your prayers for great health, great relationships, brains that work and are open and the power and presence of God in every breath we take.

Monday January 14, 2013

Monday January 14, 2013
We were up early because we had booked J & J's driver to take us to a river tour. We met 2 other couples in D'Nest; There was a young couple (it seems like all couples are young compared to us!) from Seattle. They were adventurers. Their itinerary was comprised of thrilling experiences. The other couple was from Vancouver. They were also fairly young and had adventure on their mind. Breakfast was wonderful with fresh local fruit, omlette, etc., although a bit rushed because we all had drivers coming for us.
Our driver was named Manny. He was very cheery and determined to please us. You could tell how much he loved his country and that he was very pleased to pass on his knowledge of everything. We drove about 1 hour mostly north of Belize City. Belize shows signs of being a developing country. Poverty is clearly visible and I think that there are not nearly enough jobs for young people.
The boat ride up the river took more than an hour. We saw alligators, lots of birds and a big Mennonite settlement. The Mennonites have been in Belize for 60 years. These Menonites are like the Amish of the eastern U.S. in that they are very strict and don't socialize with others. The Belizeans are very proud of the racial and cultural diversity of their country and are proud that the Mennonites make significant economic contributions to Belize. Back to the river trip. Our destination was an extensive archeological excavation of a Mayan city called Lamanai meaning submerged alligator. It was quite a long walk through the ruins. The Mayan kings built their temples on top of the temples of preceding kings or alongside previous temples. This resulted in a huge complex of temples. The jungles in Belize could not support the temple building activity so the whole process of clear cutting the jungle was not sustainable and in fact contributed to the demise of the civilization. We saw and heard some "howling monkeys". They have a wierd and slightly intimidating howl. Apparently the makers of the movie "Juassic Park" used the howls of the howling monkeys for the dinosaur sound. At one point we climbed one of the larger temples. We decided not to climb the last 13 steps to the very top to see across into Guatemala as J & J did and were happy with that decision - boy were we high up! Stephen did the climb but made one little tactical error - he forgot he was wearing a heavy backpack and has sore legs several days later - ouch. Gloria did the climb with a much smaller backpack and her lungs didn't expire, yeah!

At the end of the day our driver gave us a quick drive around downtown Belize City. It has a heavily armed police presence and several people warned us about going there. There had been 5 people murdered the week before we arrived - gang style executions. we drove by the oldest church in Central America, St. John's Anglican Cathedral, built in 1812.

We ended the day with dinner, fantastic lamb, at Lebanese restaurant in walking distance of D'Nest Inn.

Sunday January 13, 2013

Our visit to Belize began with us working all through the night prior to leaving. Stephen got 1 hour of sleep and Gloria got none. By about 4:45 am we were ready to head to the airport for our 6:45 am departure. Stephen dropped Gloria off with the luggage and went to park the car. That's when he discovered that he didn't have his wallet and passport! After a bit of extreme panic he went into the terminal to tell Gloria that he had to race home for his wallet and passport. However, upon making that announcement he learned that Gloria had seen them near his backpack and put them in! Close call.
Our flight to Houston was long and uneventful. We had 1 hour in Houston before a short and uneventful flight to Belize City. And that is how 2 prairie chickens from Calgary went from -15 C to +30 C in the tropical paradise of Belize.
Our next wee adventure was getting through Belize customs. Gloria made a tactical error by saying that we had items that had come with us from Calgary for us to give to school children and also an old laptop for us to leave behind wherever Stephen volunteers. Combined these items exceeded the free limit by $45 B (the 'B' means Belizean, not billion. The Belizean dollar equals about half a Canadian dollar.). We were assessed $42 US for that overage. Gloria's blood pressure went through the ceiling over this event.
We hopped in a taxi that had Judy, Gloria's sister,and her partner Jerry arriving to greet us personally and take us to our accommodation for the next 2 nights, a B & B named D'Nest Inn. They had arrived 4 hours earlier and their taxi driver had already acclimatized them. The Inn is a beautiful, fairly new house with 4 suites for visitors. We were so tired that night that we slept in spite of the heat and humidity with the ceiling fan turning.

Tuesday January 15, 2013

We had our second taste of Otti's (owner of the B & B we are staying in) breakfast cooking. In a word, it was great. We ate with the same 2 other couples as yesterday and prepared for our early afternoon flight to San Pedro on Ambergris Caye. Jerry, Judy and Gloria went food shopping because we have ben told that everything is more expensive in San Pedro. 

We had a special time when the other 2 couples had left and Otti sat down with us for a cup of coffee. She told us some of the events that brought her to where she is today. She separated from her first husband and gave her part of the battery business to her children so that she would not lose all her equity. Otti, with her new husband, Gabby, built the house which is now D'Nest Inn. Through much hard work building and decorating she has made the B & B business into a sucess. One son died in his late teens and Otti was totally devastated. Her life fell apart. She spiralled down into despair. A voice told her she could pray herself for her son. She had a life changing experience on his birthday when she asked the Holy Spirit for a sign that her son was in a good space. God used a parakeet, which flew into her B & B and landed on her head, to give her a sign.  The bird stayed all day for the birthday party doing weird and wonderful things like jumping around the edge of the birthday cake to make designs with his feet. Her family was as thrilled and amazed as she was.   The parakeet flew out the door at the end of the party. Two months before her son died, he had given away his 22 parakeets, Otti's grandson had reminded her! She began to live enthusiastically. She began working with problem school children, building them up. I haven't remembered everything she shared but it was a very uplifting time.

The flight to Ambergris Caye is only 15 minutes in a 12 seater. It felt that I was sitting in the cock pit. We flew fairly low so we could see the various colours of the crystal clear sea according to its depth. Very exciting as we flew into rain before we landed. They had umbrellas waiting for us as we landed!

We got a taxi to take us our condo. We are quite a way from the town centre.

They call our condo "Pepto Bismol" because it is painted bright pink. It is really quite large. We are in a loft, which is part of my dream house.