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Published: July 28th 2009
Ive been in San Ignacio for one week now. Ive had a great time. the last time i was here was 10years ago and from what ive heard, it has changed dramatically since then....more gangs, less live music, more fake rastas, still good travelers come through though. ive been learning tons since ive been here!
cooking over a fire is normal now and i like it more, i learned how to make pizza in a dutch oven, tortillas from scratch, noodles from scratch also, which we stuffed with mushrroms and steamed! yummy! its hard sometimes making fire in the rainforest since wood and cardboard gets wet easily and dries slowly with the humidity.
there is a monopoly on the beer in belize, just one company belikin, who goes to extremes to keep other beer makers from getting big here. i met some folks who want to start making beer in a cave since thats where the temp stays more or less the same, but then they are only allowed to sell their beer where they make it, they cant sell it to other stores. belikin has 2 beers...beer and stout, same bottles but just different colored caps, and all the bottles are returnable and reused.
i met a guy who makes his own liquors and preserves too. he cans mame, pineapple, pickles, and more, makes coconut liquor, coffee, bay-leze(baileys). mic has a cave and waterfall on his property. we went to the cave one night and it had amzing stalagmights and tights, and an old pottery bowl, probably thosands of years old that had been molded and stuck into the natural rock of the cave for so many years. tons of mayan stuff goin on around here. also on his properrty he has an old (possibly) mayan jail. the jail is blocked by a old rock wall and goes extremely deep down, walls made naturally by 100foot tall cliffs. the back of the jail is also blocked off by a more natural rock wall. we imagine a mayan standing on top of the walls with a bow and arrow guarding 100 or so crammed prisoners at the bottom. there would have been no escape for them especially with a guard at top.
there is tons of belize relestate fraud going on here. some friends i met bought land about a year ago to move here from the states, but the land they bought had already been sold 10years before, so they were the second buyers and everything gets confusing after that. belizeans and also international con artists sometimes try to rip off foreigners for land, and jsut hope that they give up trying to get it back and leave without getting their money back. this couple is having a hard time fighting for their land since they dont have much money and there are other people now beginging to live on their land. i met a guy last night though who is a senior justice for the peace that may be able to help them sort out some of the conflict, but we wil see.
me and daniel went to some waterfalls in the pine ridge reserve the other day. that was beautiful and relaxing. i felt so reenergized from the force of the water! it was amzingly powerful! i climbed up to the top of the waterful to look down and jumped off of a rock about 20feet up. it was a nice jump into the superdeep water the falls had created.
i went yesterday with some friends who are working here in belize. charles is studying the scarlet makaws(big red parrots), trying the find their nests in order to protect them. christie is working on a field school program that brings students from newmexico to belize to study for their spring break and learn about marine bio, archeaology, ecology, etc. we went to a nice butterfly farm, so charles could talk with yon(the most famous scientist in belize). the butterflys were amazing, flying all around, sucking flowers, and landing on my legs. yon and his wife are both old scientist from sweden i think. they both have discovered a few new species while living here in belize. charles was trying to get to the ranger station of a natural park so he could continue his research but we couldnt make it there because the river had flooded the bridge. hopefully he will be able to make it in today, so that he can keep kayaking around looking for the nests. christie his girlfriend is going to drive to the coast today so im getting a ride with her there. i think i am going to head to gales point where there is a drumming school and hopefully i will learn how to make a djembe drum!
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Tom O'Herron
non-member comment
What a Great Experience!
Dana, I'm envious! What a wonderful experience you are having! Congratulations on your curiosity, courage, and endurance. One day, I hope, I'll visit Belize. I'm not a scuba diver, but I am very interested in the natural wonders of the Belize coast and its interionr. And, of course, it would be great to meet people as interesting as those whom you've encountered! ba