Chantelle's Blog

May 13th, 2012
The group was split up in two different buildings for accommodations on Saturday night; five of us in the Rustic Cabin, and the rest at The Whitehouse(a few minutes drive down the road) at Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary. Once we did our debriefing for the day and got back to our pitch black rooms, we were all a little freaked out. We decided instead of sleeping in our own rooms we would pull three mattress out to the screened in porch, set up a bug canopy, and all cuddle to sleep where we could see what was going on around us. This turned out to be a great idea, although it was uncomfortably warm, the four of us could hear the sound of pouring rain throughout the night, which was very relaxing. We all awoke to the sunset around 5am, along with the sound of howler monkeys in the distance and countless other sounds from insects, frogs, and birds. Because we weren't meeting for breakfast until after 7am, three of us took a walk down the rubbertree trail to experience a little more of what Cockscomb Basin had to offer. A tree in front of the parking lot was blossomming and just full of bees- the hum of their buzzing was incredible, almost like rain coming from a distance. On our walk we saw several cutter-ant superhighways across the trails, a large bird sprinting back and forth across the path, and a 5ft shedded snake skin, along with several toads and lizards. The rain did end up pouring on us before we made it to the end of the trail, so we were onto our second set of clothes before breakfast.
We also were able to trek into the woods to view a crash site of an airplane that was used to research the area and track jaguars. Much of the plane was still in tact, but had since become the growing grounds for mosses, vines and other plants.
For breakfast we went back to the Mayan Museum where Julio Saqui had prepared a typical Belizean breakfast of refried beans, scrambled eggs, sausage, johnny cakes, cheese, watermelon and fresh orange juice.
Two interesting facts about my experiences here:

1. 1 Oranges are green on the outside! (so cool)
2. 2 All natural honey tastes very floral in comparison to that of Canada

After breakfast we made our way to Indian Creek which is home to the mayan ruins called Nim Li Punit or "Big Hat" Archaeological reserve. This was extremely interesting after already seeing the rebuilt ruins of Xunantunich. Nim Li Punit is currently being excavated; all the stones are tracked, and all the dirt is sifted to discover any artifacts remaining from thousands of years ago. We were able to take a look at elaborate sandstone carvings, royal tombs, and an ancient ball court.
After Nim Li Punit, we stopped at Coleman's Cafe for a buffet style lunch and listened to the establishment's 3 parrots chatter away.
We then made our way to the Charlton's Inn in Punta Gorda, our new home for the next couple of days. We enjoyed a relaxing afternoon where we were able to unpack, explore the village and catch up on some sleep.
Dinner was at Marion's Bayside restaurant, where we had a beautiful view of the Caribbean sea and Guatamala in the distance. Supper was a delicious variety of 3 types of rice, scalloped potatoes, shrimp, pork, chicken, curry chicken, black beans and barracuda.
We are looking forward to the next two days of service learning.

Chantelle Pidgeon
Tourism Management Student
Pictou Campus