Day 10 - Home to Canada!

A funny thing happened on the way home from a 9 day study tour in Belize - we got to add 1 more day!

Tuesday morning, we traveled by water taxi from Caye Caulker to Belize City. Then we caught a taxi to the airport. There was lots of traffic, so our driver took a very scenic route. I thought it was neat when we drove by the Canadian consulate. At the airport, we found out that our 3:15 PM flight had been delayed to 4:15. Then 6:15. Then 8:15. It had something about problems with the landing gear. I was happy to give them all the time they needed to fix the problem. Finally the plane arrived and we boarded. We arrived in Miami about 3 hours after our connecting flight left for Toronto. American Airlines was awesome though - they had our hotel rooms and meal vouchers all arranged. My head hit the pillows at 12:45 AM and I slept soundly.
The next morning, we returned to the airport and caught a 10:25 AM flight to Toronto. As we stood outside the terminal waiting for the hotel shuttle, everyone was under dressed and shivering. Back at the hotel, there were hugs and warm wishes all around. We parted ways with big smiles and warm hearts.

This is the end of the Ridgetown Campus Belize Study Tour blog for 2013. I hope everyone enjoyed reading about our adventures!

I wish everyone a joyous and peaceful holiday season.

Merry Christmas

Chris

Day 9 - The Power of the Ninja!

The day began with a rough start. It had rained most of the night and was raining hard in the morning. Walking to the Amory Café was quite the feat since the random downpours really didn’t help on our journey to have a strong cup of Joe. At the café, Les and Chris gave us the news that we might not be able to go snorkeling until later or maybe not at all.  At first I wasn’t too keen on going either because the sky looked about as wild as a hornets nest. However as the day passed the sky grew slowly clearer. Les and Chris worked their magic and got a guide that would take us out to the reef. Our guides name was Ninja (wickedly awesome name). Ninja was a unique looking fella - his face was similar to that of a sea turtles and his hair was a mixture of braids and dreads.  When Ninja talked he had a raspier voice then my grandparents - the dude sounded old as nails. Needless to say right from the start of the tour you knew that it was going to be great.  First we all got fitted with flippers, goggles and snorkels. Then we got into the boat and drove off into the sea heading for the reef.  The water was great.  The salt was a pain, getting a mouthful of salt water was revolting. It didn’t help when Tony would trick us into looking down further, which resulted in us having a snorkel filled with water. Good old Tony.  The best part of the snorkel tour was the sharks and stingrays. The nurse sharks are harmless, so we swam with them. We were in with the sharks and Stingrays for about 30 minutes when a storm started brewing at the edge of the reef. Before we could all get out of the water the downpour started again. The trip back to the pier was a constant flow of harsh rain. Back at the resort it was still raining but we had one big problem. We gave Les our keys while we were out in the water. So five of us (Jan, Mikey, Holly, Tony and I) went out on the hunt for Les. Running through streets was quite amusing. The locals cheered us on and had a good laugh.  It turns we had no idea where he was so we returned back to the resort. After everyone got settled we headed out for a small lunch at a local place. The rest of the day consisted mainly of relaxing - we had no set plans except supper so everyone did their own thing at a mellow pace.

By Ben Kuhstoss

Day 8 - On the road to Caye Caulker!

Belize Day 8

This morning we woke up and went for breakfast at 7. We had breakfast with the host families. After breakfast, we packed up and got ready to leave for Belize City. We left San Miguel at 8.  It took several hours with a few stops before we came to Belize City. We dropped off the van and went to catch a water taxi and arrived there at 1. We got on the water taxi at 1:30. The water taxi is basically a boat for 60+ passengers. It makes stops at islands kind of like a normal taxi would.  It took us about an hour to get to Caye Caulker. The weather was nice when we arrived but after we got settled in it begin to rain. Caye Caulker Island is a small peaceful place. There are shops where you can rent golf carts and bicycles. For lunch we stopped at the Happy Lobster. After some delicious food, we relaxed and enjoyed the benefits of Caye Calker. It felt good to have comforts such as a nice bed and a shower. We had dinner at the Rainbow Café around 8. As we walked down the street to go to dinner an effort had to be made to avoid the large puddles of water that were scattered all over the road.  Despite what you think about a tropical island the weather wasn’t to kind towards us.  Other than that the day was pretty nice.  Everyone just hung out and relaxed until they went to bed.

By Jan Weys

Day 7 - Living with the Mayans

We woke up this morning in our thatched guest house in our mosquito netting. Breakfast for myself and Mikey was at Domingo’s house; a nice breakfast of eggs, beans and of course fresh tortillas, very yummy and filling. Next was our farm walk where we visited the local farms. 30 acres of land is rented from the government and worked by each farmer.

 On our way to the fields the gentlemen with us demonstrated how they split a palm leaf for thatch. Starting from the top it seemed to split effortlessly. The best way to place a palm leaf on a roof for thatching is with each of the leaf blades in a V shape. That way it will be water tight. The rain will be funneled down the centre of the leaf to the bottom. The other way around and the roof will leak. The leaf they use is from the Cahun palm, which also has nuts that are high in oil and heart of palm, a food source, can be harvested from this tree. So many plants were pointed out with medicinal properties or unique abilities like being able to regrow from a small part. We were able to sample sugar cane, and saw the Annato plant which is used to turn things red. We were told they interplant fields with Makuna beans to fertilize the soil. Different things are grown by each farmer but we visited corn fields that were planted and managed by hand. 

A long trek into the jungle brought us to a cave that had been used by ancient Maya as a layover spot. There was still a piece of ancient pottery in the cave. Our next stop was a Cacao farm. The gentleman mentioned he has 7 different types of cacao plants. There are about 300 female plants on his farm and 6 male trees to cross pollinate with. A new cacao seedling will take about 5 years to start producing fruit, but a sucker from an established root system will start producing after one year. The cacao tree grows best in shade so there were other larger trees around the farm to provide the shade. The cacao pods are harvested by hand over about 7 months, as they ripen. The farmer mentioned he has been keeping records and gets about 100 pounds of cacao from each of his trees. We returned to the village from the fields for lunch. Holly and I had lunch at Deloris’ house, a very tasty chicken and cabbage soup, with a bit of spice to it, and lots of freshly made tortillas for us to use to sop up the juices. Our afternoon was filled with crafts. The local ladies demonstrated how to make knotted bracelets, basket weaving and carving of one of the local nuts Calabash. They also displayed the craft items they had completed and we did a bit of shopping. Tony, Holly and I had dinner at Maria's house, chicken and Jippy Japa heart. Another wonderful meal. All that's left to do is drift of to sleep in our mosquito nets.

by Michelle Stevens

Day 6 - Bananas Bananas Everywhere!!

Day 6

Today we had breakfast at the Mayan centre at 7 AM and then headed out to see a banana plantation.  The bananas are planted and grow at a fast pace. Within 6 weeks, the trees grow to 2-3 feet in height. Banana trees are made up of 90% water which means they require a lot of irrigation during the dry season. When bananas are first planted they need water and fertilizer every day.

After that they are sprayed once a week which makes banana production a very expensive operation. Once the trees are big enough they begin to produce fruit. When the banana first start to develop the workers put elastic bands around the bunches, to keep them growing tight together. The fruit is then wrapped in a plastic bag for two months while they grow to a mature size. When the bananas are bagged they are tagged with a coloured plastic ribbon. There are 13 different colours of ribbons; the colours indicated when the bananas were wrapped. This allows the workers to know which ones are ready to be harvested. Once the bananas are ready they are hung on a zip line and brought into the plantation where the workers cut the bunches off the branches and put them into water that contains 10% chlorine. The bananas are then placed there for 25-35 minutes before being bagged. 

The workers ensure there is just over 1kg per bag because as they travel they lose weight. Each boxes weights 15kg - the boxes in the good season (January-June) are sold for $20 a box and the boxes in the other 6 months are sold for $16 a box. There are 390 acres of banana trees with 65 field workers in total who work together doing a series of different jobs such as pruning, bagging, and bringing in the bananas in from the field. The workers work 9 hours a day. After the bananas plantation we stopped at a citrus field and talked about the greening disease that has become a huge problem in the citrus industry. The disease first arrived in Belize in 2006 but was not fully recognised until 2008. This disease clogs the xylem of a tree with bacteria which causes the tops of the branches to die. Leaves and fruit are smaller and not fully developed. The tree loses 60% of its good fruit and the tree will die within 3-5 years. 

We then drove to the San Migal village where we will stay for two nights and learn the Mayan ways. Once we arrived we went swimming in a tropical river just down the street. As interesting as the banana plantation was cooling off in the beautifully clear tropical river was by far my favourite part of the day. After we swam we were split up into groups of two or three and joined the local families for dinner. We cooked traditional food with the ladies and learned how to make corn tortillas which is also very traditional. After dinner we showered in the river and went to sleep in bunk beds that each had a mosquito net. There are four beds per room in a thatched, hand build, Mayan hut.

by DariannTelford

Day 5 - Moving Day

Belize Day 5

Moving Day

Just as we were starting to get used to our first hotel it was time to move on. Yesterday’s rain carried on throughout the night and into today.  As it was Diann’s birthday yesterday we sang Happy Birthday, ate a good supper and stayed up till about 10:30 pm enjoying ourselves. Most of us woke up at around 7 am got ready for the day and packed all of our things.  We ate breakfast and congregated in the dining area as usual. At 8:40 am all were accounted for and in the van except Jan, who came shortly after. We set on our way to Marie Sharps hot sauce factory. The roads were very bumpy because the large amounts of rain had washed them out. In the midst of our journey we switched vans because of yesterday’s electrical incident. We moved our luggage and belongings into a new van. In this van all the air conditioning vents were intact so there was no more freezing. We set out on our way again observing the mountains and the increasing jungle density. After a short time we stopped again for some cinnamon rolls, coffee and a bathroom break. This was Les’s treat for us.

After our pit stop we listened to Les explain to us why some citrus plantations had been abandoned and saw a citrus processing facility from the van. Finally we reached Marie Sharps hot sauce factory. Here each of us bought plenty of sauces, jams and spreads as gifts and souvenirs. I thought the products were very inexpensive, which was good thing. We would have liked to see the production process but the workers had just left for their lunch. After loading up our van, off we went. The next place is where we were spending the rest of the day and the night. It was called the Maya Center village and we were staying at Nu’uk Che’il Cottages. After dropping off our things and getting a feel for our rooms we had a simple but very good Mayan meal. When we were satisfied we visited a local elementary school. We brought lots of school supplies and one soccer ball. The school children were very excited to see us. We gave them rides on our backs and shoulders. This was very tiring; some of us became quite sweaty. We forced them off of us and went back for showers. Les brought a sewing machine which he then gave to a local Mayan sewing group.

Once we were clean again some of us went down the road and visited a small chocolate shop. Here the owner explained how he made the chocolate and what it took to make it taste good. He had just perfected it six months ago. We bought some chocolate from him and thanked him for his time. Next door from the chocolate guy was a souvenir shop. Some of us bought things we liked. We then walked back to our rooms. Finally we played and learned euchre. Another Mayan meal was prepared for us for supper. After finishing supper, slowly the group became smaller. With a busy day ahead of us going to bed early was a beneficial decision. 

 by Tony Bijman

Day 4 - 40 days and 40 nights!

Belize – Day 4        (The day it started to rain)

Overcast, birds chirping, dogs barking in the distance, I’m sitting by the pool in a cast iron chair, gazing off into the horizon, its 7:00am. The pool is shaped like hump, or a bump, one side straight, the other with a curve. On the bottom of the pool in a mosaic it reads ‘Cahal Pech’. There is a wooden fence surrounding the pool area, more like a guard rail, the hill on which we are on is steep. The trees are lush and green, with several palms supporting various nuts. There are two ways around the pool; the most adventurous is through a cast of a cave, in which the janitor keeps his gear, a maintance room wouldn’t want to linger too long in the cave, seems dangerous. The clouds turned darker over the valley, I only noticed cause the man sweeping the area beside me pointed it out, I’m not exactly sure how the weather works around here, apparently they have a wet season, and a dry season, we are just past the wet one… apparently. All the rain from Guatemala comes into Belize, causes a lot of problems I imagine.

Time for breakfast, the most important meal of the day - I walked over, put my note pad down to save my spot at the table with Chris, Tony and Dart. I come back and my Jan moved my book to a different table, no comment. This way I can continue writing, French toast and refried beans with eggs, watermelon and pineapple. I over hear the other table talking about Cuban food, and how terrible it was. I had to agree, the food is pretty awful at some locations. The first cloud bursts and it started to rain, you could hear it on the roof, slow at first, but now constant, getting louder. Ben arrives at the breakfast table, “I think I might buy a shirt today, or start washing the ones I got” proclaimed Ben.  Not a bad idea, smart man, learn to avoid laundry, the lady in the group Michelle brought laundry detergent, might borrow some and take a lesson in hygiene. She had earned the title of Godmother, like from the Godfather movies, she convinces me to buy a note book for $8 U.S and I should take her word for it.

We board the van and go into the village, we are told that ‘things are going to get more rural after this,’ this will be our last night in the hotel, today we are going to see some farms at Spanish Lookout. Pastures of Brahma cattle (look like Holsteins) are now more visible. We pass a Holstein calf on the side of the road. Les points out a farm on the left, Cayo Deaf Education and Farm Institute, He says the Mayans and Mennonites have trouble with hearing and have a higher chance of being born deaf, so the Mennonites set up an institute to help them, and raise some cattle too. This is not a government funded operation.

There was a new building being built - a tilapia fish farm. Next time we go down here, we might get to see it finished. They are building the factory before they even know if it’s possible for the fishery to work, if that makes any sense. They are right beside the river, so it has possibilities. We board the hand cranked river ferry. The girls ask one another  “Are we not allowed to take photos of the Mennonites?”  I believe that is the Amish.  The ferry reaches the other side, Les turns the key. The van is dead, won’t start, a faint click, won’t turn over. This is a problem, Les keeps his cool, “it’s early on in the day.” It’s not the battery, maybe a fuse? A crowd swarms the hood of the van, a local inspects it.  “Maybe the starter?” Ben is convinced it is the fuse. The man helping us knows someone in his church community that might be able to help. He speaks a funny Dutch English, every other word. This is possibly the best place for the van to break down, but yet again, we are stuck on the ferry and holding up traffic. Time passes and the traffic builds at the ferry cross. Locals are honking their horns, getting out of their cars, and form a mob. They believe they can push us up the hill. Don’t worry, someone is coming to help us, hold your horses. The crowd grows restless and impatient they are going to move us off the ferry, at that point it seems they just wanted us off. A miracle, the van starts, Les puts the petal to the floor and away we go. The mechanic can’t seem to find anything wrong with it, so we leave the garage with hopes it won’t happen again, “Upwards and onwards.’

This community is well developed, paved roads, with stop signs! This couldn’t  feel more like home. They had it all - tractor dealerships, feed mills and a country store that was much like a Walmart. They can double crop here as well, so keep that in mind too, eh. “If you come to Belize with a lot of money with big ideas, they will turn them into small ideas and you will have not much money left.” The Mennonites are an exception to that, normally that applies to retirees. So, with that in mind, it is the land of opportunity. With heavy rain, we arrive at the school. They have an amazing jungle gym, a nice wooden one. This is a refugee school for people from Guatemala and El Salvador; they are smarter than the average kid back home. The books were donated - all 3000 of them by an American charity. Back home we take them all for granted, the books that we no longer use to the internet. You can rest in peace, my beloved Encyclopedia collection. I chatted with the teacher as she was marking report cards. She lives near Cahal Pech,  which is a long drive. She says ‘I am more tired out by the drive, than by teaching here and working.’ The kids show me what they are learning - the different phases of a frog and the butterfly. The rest of the kids sitting around are talking to Dart. Ben is playing a card game, looks like a version of Uno. The game involves Ben being smacked with a small wooden ruler, I believe he is losing…

               After we drove and stopped for lunch at a giant industrial concrete slab with a steel roof. It was a pavilion, you can tell because it had one tiny picnic table underneath it – a dead giveaway. We didn’t stop there but went to a nice bench area underneath, with signs listing important dates for Spanish Lookout. The next stop was the feed mill. Our guide was Frank Friesen, and ‘he’s not frozen, but Friesen’.  They grow a high grade corn here that is not genetically modified.  It is against the law for them to have GMO’s here. He says he has ‘special chickens’ that can tell the difference between GMO and normal corn. They had a bumper crop this year, about 100-125 bushel an acre. The surplus goes to the Caribbean market as corn grits for food. Mexico buys from the USA and it is generally a low grade. Frank is a vet, and a chiropractor. He is a part of the heritage, since his family was one of the founding fathers of this great foundation of Spanish Lookout. They produce a great amount of products at this mill - molasses, broiler feed, all the way to dog food, the second biggest mill in Belize. Afterwards he gave us calendars, on the wall hung a quote, that best described their way of operating ‘ Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths but only what is helpful for building others,” Ephesians 4:29

               We embark on a tour with Frank. He gives directions, and leads us down the river side road. The road is a dead end with an abandoned taxi cab blocking us from going any further. We have to back up, easier said than done. We go to a chicken and beef farm and we see some Brahma cattle. Farming here is different from ours.  The rain prevents us from talking for long periods of time.
               Rain, rain, heavy rain, now coming down like hammers on a tin roof. There seems to be no end in sight, it just keeps coming. Ben brings me a nice cold refreshing beer. I sit at the table, face down writing, what happened today, well let’s summarize, the school, the ferry breakdown, Mennonite Walmart, the feed mill, the rain, and back again. It’s the last night in the hotel. I guess I should start converting this to the laptop. Well here I am. Just another day in this crazy jungle of Belize, excellence in every drop of rain.

By Mikey Eckert