OK, couldn't write yesterday as it's one of our big travel days. Where to begin? Cave tubing was a big hit - pix to come later. After an hour hike in life vests carrying their tubes, the kids did some great rock jumping and vine swinging into the deep pool at the imaginatively named "Cave 6", then hiked back down to Cave 5 to put in. The water was a great depth and had little speed, so it was a lazy paddle through caves and out into clearings that allowed them great views of rock formations and wildlife. Jake get them all going with his favorite "Boy Vs. Wild" trick - knocking live termites out of their nests and eating them. ("they taste like minty carrots") A few brave students joined him - we learned a lot about edible and medicinal plants and critters a few years ago from a botanist guide, so even these hikes offer a world of information (the give & take tree gives you an itchy rash if you touch it at the lower end, but cures you if you use the fruit at the top ... etc, etc) Mr. Grant dropped his favorite underwater video camera in Cave 4, and we thought all was lot. Not so at Jaguar Paw! Intrepid guides Rick and Joseph, just as happy to have a challenge, headed back up to Cave 4 at sunset with diving lights and worked for a couple of hours, finally finding it in 20 feet of water - as good as new! All was well, and it was a good thing - Donna Young, the owner, told us that the "cruise ship people" (hundreds of them) would be arriving the next day, and because there are so many they often drop stuff - thus there is a group of local kids (she called them "water rats" who follow behind and scoop up trophies. We'd never had gotten it back after that.
A last quiet night at Jaguar Paw and we packed up and jumped into Carlos Lopez' bus again for a long travel day. An hour and a half drive to the Maya site of Xunantunich ("Stone Lady"), a circa 680 C.E. site excavated mostly by a UCLA group in the last century.
The kids were awed at both the structures and the view - it was our first day out of the dense jungle and the rolling hills of the Cayo District are gorgeous. From the top of 'El Castillo' - the largest temple - we could see the Guatemala border.
Next stop was Hode's, our favorite lunch spot - outdoors, great food, and a nice cool place to hang out and escape the heat. After ice creams all around (they ran out of chocolate so the kids got adventurous - coconut, soursop - all kinds of interesting things!) we piled back into the bus to head to the ferry crossing at the Mennonite village of Spanish Lookout. There we unloaded our bags from Carlos' bus and hauled them down the hill to the hand-crank ferry that took us across, to where Barry (Brooks '63) and Dixie Bowen and their son Zander were waiting with cold drinks and trucks to take us the 2 hours north to their property, Gallon Jug Estates. We were sorry to say goodbye to Carlos but we'll see him one more time on Saturday.
Barry and Dixie were, as ever, warm, welcoming and hysterically funny. One son had just gotten married so we were regaled with wedding stories, and Barry was heading back to Belize City (he flies himself in his own small plane) for an early morning TV interview - he had just won a Supreme Court case and was going to discuss what that meant on national TV.
The ride to Gallon Jug is on old logging roads - I'm sure you can picture them, first carved out of the jungle by the British who were hunting mahogany. They are single lane and are described as "1 way - whichever way you're going". The girls and the kids "called" the back of the pickup, and bounced their way along the roads enjoying the sun, the breeze and every new thing Barry stopped to point out to them (papayas growing on trees, giant sapodilla trees with machete hash marks in them where chicleros tapped latex to make gum, etc.)
Arriving at Gallon Jug itself is always a huge relief, in part because it's a long hot day, but mostly because there is no more beautiful or peaceful place that I've ever been.
Barry and Dixie dropped us at the loft and headed off to their next stop, and we settled in.
The students sorted their rooms out, got the lay of the land, met Silvia and Myra who are cooking for us, and ate dinner. Barry is kind enough to provide us with our own van and a separate Bronco, so we are quite independent on this 150,000 acre property and tour ourselves around. After an evening swim at Chan Chich, the Bowens' resort, everyone headed to sleep early, mindful of our warning that here everyone gets up when the jungle gets up, and that's early.
Today, up early, great breakfast of eggs, homemade tortillas (your children are ruined for life, I'm afraid - there are no such things in the US) and mango and papaya jam. Then we piled into the trucks for the first tour of the property - the coffee and cacao plant, the mahogany sawmill and the small village where the workers live. A quick stop at the store and a few purchases (can you believe the tiny store had Chidi's favorite drink from Nigeria, Milo? Small world!), then back to the loft for Silvia's famous shrimp and rice fry [shrimp from Barry's huge shrimp farm in the south] - don't worry, Megan got hers shrimp-free.
Presently 4 kids are horseback riding in the jungle with Emil, our favorite guide, and the rest are here at Chan Chich swimming, sunning and hiking.
Pix are hard to load here so be patient and check back!
Tomorrow, to Gallon Jug Community School, our favorite stop along the way.
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