Blogs from Belize, Central America Caribbean - page 92

Friday and Saturday we endured orientation to the place that we shall be calling home for the next several months. Friday was a dull 8 hours of hearing about what could be summed up into one, succinct point, "Use common sense." It was however, nice to get some information and spend some time on the campus. If you're curious about the campus, I shall tell you about it. Galen is directly off the Western Highway outside San Ignacio. It is a small community of about 200? students. There is one main building, the library, and a new student center. We have 4 classrooms, and already, after 2 classes, I'm fairly certain I know nearly everyones name in the courses. Saturday we started off bright and early to the local market, which is teeming with more fruits ... read more

Saturday we finished some general orientation, and headed to the Belize Botanical Gardens for the afternoon. We were greeted by a lunch buffet of barbeque chicken along with vegetable rice. The table was in the open, and some of the workers had laid pieces of fruit out to attract the birds. The birds that showed up were incredible in terms of their size and color.... although I didn't get any sort of identification. The next stop at the trip took us out on a tour of the gardens. Many of the species found in the extensive gardens were not necessarily native to Belize, but provided a magnificent natural area to be in. The attraction that most people show up to see is the orchid exhibit, which boasts of over 100 native orchids at any given time. ... read more

Arrived in San Igacio on the 3rd. Not really sure if I had any upfront expectations before embarking on this adventure, mostly just to get to know a new country and culture. Our plane got in, and we recognized a few familiar faces before all cramming into a van to the other side of the country. Fortunately, the western border is only about 2hrs away. Our accomodations are fantastic. Most of the UVM crew resides in an inn. We have filled it to capacity and then some, however, if I have to live in a triple for 3 months life I can't complain about where we are living. In some ways, I think a home stay would be more beneficial to integrating ourselves into the community. We are still getting to know one another and get ... read more

Good afternoon all After a restful time on the island of Caye Caulker, it was time to see some locations in the rest of Belize. My next stop was Belmopan, the country's capital. Belmopan owes its existence to a hurricane. One feature of this coastline is that it has been constantly ravaged over the years by hurricanes with seemingly harmless names like Wilma, Iris, Stan, Mitch and my favourite, Hattie. (Back in Mexico, when someone asked me if I had heard what Wilma had done out in Cancun, I thought I'd missed out on a particurlarly exotic episode of The Flintstones. Then I realised he was talking about the hurriance.) It was shortly after Belize City narrowly avoided being flattened by a hurricane that the government decided it would be better to have the capital somewhere ... read more

BELIZE! Hula Girl spent 2 days here, day one: crazy caves + mahogany rain forest. and day 2: swimming with the dolphins. Hula Girl hiked through a beautifull mahogany rain forest, a not so suttle murmer howler monkeys accompanied the sound of the river next to her. As she reached the edge of the river, several facts were spat out about the coming up caves. this was where the mayans used to sacrifice kids! ahh! very spooky. she floated down the river into a somewhat peaceful cave with bats flying everywhere above. On a (barbie size) inner tube she rafted through the caves at a slow pace, eyeing giant dark shadows in the cave wondering what exactly could be lurking here where the exit seemed too far away. then the flashlights were all turned off so ... read more