Rachel's Blog

Monsoons, Boats and Burns

As a Maritimer, I’m no stranger to torrential downpours, boats and sunburns. But all in one day? Now that may be a bit much…

Day number 6 started off like most of our days in Belize, EARLY. And for some of us, our day started much earlier than usual with a strong monsoon that sounded like it could blow the top of our Inn off at any second, What a ride!

Soon after a yummy breakfast at Grace’s just up the road, we headed over to the TIDE Office (Our local NGO) and had a mini-session about what we were going to be doing during Service Learning Day 1. Turns out we would be hand-painting signs to help educate locals about the environmental issues in their area and planting Mahogany Tree seeds. But in order to get to the protected area, we first needed to have a boat ride across part of the ocean leading into the Rio Grande River. The trip was uneventful at first, other than watching Erin steer the boat for a few minutes. But soon we learned the power of a monsoon, while in the middle of the ocean, in a small power boat! Of course our driver Roberto never even flinched he just said “Eh, Welcome to Belize!” as the 8 of us sat sputtering and wondering what just hit us. Luckily we arrived at our destination not long after and got to work painting our signs and planting our seeds. Fortunately for us, it became a hot glorious Belizean day, just like the other 5 days so far, which means that all of our bug spray and sunscreen had been washed away along with everything else on the boat that morning. For some it was not a big deal, but for an unfortunate few, sunburns occurred and I believe we’ve all learned a valuable lesson! (Right, Adam?)

Luckily for us, we had an uneventful boat ride back to Punta Gorda (No more monsoons) and spent the afternoon napping, shopping or wandering around the little streets of this not so quiet town. Tomorrow is another day, and I look forward to the next boat ride and adventure coming our way, Machetes Included. Check back soon, I’m sure it’ll be a time!

Rachel Smith
NSCC Tourism Management Student
Pictou Campus