Brooks in Belize '09

Leaving San Pedro ...

2009-03-17T09:33:00.001-07:00

Last communication from here as we pack up. Will put more pix up later today or tomorrow, but for now check out the new video link to get a sense of the snorkling yesterday. The kids hung around together last night and some got up to watch the sunrise this morning (are these really teenagers?) After breakfast they trooped down the beach for requisite last group pictures, mostly orchestrated by Lindsey, and a last pass by the shops for final gifts.

In a few minutes the guys will come take our bags and we'll climb aboard the 14-passenger Tropic Air planes for a last view of this island and the coastline before heading to the "big airport" and on to home.

Won't be long until we see you!

Last day fun

2009-03-16T19:30:00.000-07:00

This morning we got up and joined Caleb at Island Academy where he teaches. We met the kids and had the chance to interact with them during lunch and recess. It was a much more diverse and energetic group than at Gallon Jug, and we had just as much fun.
After lunch we had a 2 hour snorkel at Hol Chan Marine Reserve and Shark Ray Alley where we saw hundreds of fish including sharks, eels, turtels and several types of rays.
Took lots of video that I hope to post soon.
Tomorrow we leave here at noon- - I may be able to get some pictures up before then.
Be assured that all is well. Hope it's not snowing where you are!

On the road again

2009-03-15T09:51:00.000-07:00

A quick travelogue to let you know how yesterday went - pictures later!
We left Gallon Jug at 7:30 a.m. and took the 2-hour drive in 2 trucks to Lamanai, one o f the oldest and largest aya sites in the region. Our guide Ysidro met us there with his boat, and once we transferred our considerable luggage from truck, to boat we had a good tour, wending with the climb up the high temple. A few of the kids were a little shaky on the heights (fine going up coming down, not so much.) Just as we got too hot, it was time to rest under a palapa and have a picnic lunch made by some wonderful local cook you will be surprised to know if consisted of chicken, rice & beans, coleslaw, papaya, plantains, salad (a few cheers for leafy greens).
Happy and rehydrated, we got aboard Ysidro’s boat and bombed down the New Belize River for an hour zoom. As the river narrows and the turns sharpen it’s reminiscent of any Everglades chase scene you’ve seen. Many birds flushed out including great blue herons, giant snowy egrets, multiple types of hawks and a bunch of birds whose names I didn’t catch as Ysidro shouted them out. We passed many Mennonite fishermen along the wya - a bizarre contrast to the local folks. The river, brackish as we got closer to the sea, holds bass, tilapia … and a bunch of fish I can’t remember - maybe Alex will remind me later.
The ever vigilant Carlos Lopez met us at Tower Hill where we unloaded from the boat and got our gear onto the bus and rode another hour into Belize City. After a quick tour of the city, including the governor’s mansion, the supreme court, churches built from the bricks the old logging ships used as ballast during the heyday of logging, and much more.
To our delight, our tour ended at a beautiful new marine terminal with fancy new boats. The captain dropped us right at our dock and we settled into the beautiful Sunbreeze hotel, where the rooms have AC and TV (!), a wonderful pool, gorgeous beachfront and a fantastic location on the edge of the town, near both Barry’s home and Caleb’s.
Tomorrow Barry says he has “something fun” planned - no idea what it is, but we’re up for it!

Catching up again!

2009-03-15T09:49:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the quiet days - the last day in Chan Chich we did a variety of activities including a truck trip up to the escarpment - a huge rock promontory that rises nearly 1,000 feet above the jungle floor and allows a view for hundreds of miles in most directions. The road is bumpy and climbs steeply, and Mr. Grant enjoys roaring up the last hill, cresting it and stopping just short of what looks like the “edge of the world” - a cheap thrill for him and a heart-stopper for the kids (albeit a safe one). Earlier in the day, while I rode horses with mom and Samantha, he took them on a jungle romp and allowed them to “discover” Punta de Cacao, a semi-excavated Maya site deep in the jungle that features a good example of “looters’ trenches”. When the privateers found Belize they quickly learned the architectural patterns of the Maya - in any given village, which structure would have been the temple (in which the treasure would have been stored). Most of the jade artifacts were spirited out of Belize this way in the 1800s, which is a shame. Though there is a jade museum in Belize City, I fear most of the native people’s legacy is spread throughout Europe’s private collectors.
We ended our last night with a big bonfire by the barn and a local BBQ cooked by Silvia and her friends. Some good reggaeton music, great food, lots of company (all of the teachers, Barry & Dixie Bowen and their kids Zander and family and Courtney, on break from Georgetown, with 2 friends. Gilly asked if it were possible that there were more starts here, and it sure looks like it. Though we can see all of our familiar constellations, they have many more neighbors than we are used to seeing because of the light pollution at home. Let’s just say Orion is wearing way more than just a belt and sword down here. The kids packed it in reasonably early and we got up muy temprano for our longest travel day yet …. All the way to the beach.

Back to School

2009-03-12T14:11:00.001-07:00

Well, the boys survived their ride (though the horses were a bit frisky and made a galloping beeline for the barn at the end - Gilly and Osayi held on - it's OK!) and we had yet another delicious dinner with Silvia. Some of our friends dropped by (Miss Jill who teaches at the school [a Tabor grad] and her daughter Makayla, 2, and Mr. Alec and Miss Zoya from the school (she went to Bates!!) and their daughter Siboney, 2, and Jackie Bowen (married to Zander who picked us up at the ferry - see a few days ago) and her kids Ace (5) and Liza (3)) so we played with them (read: we were forced to assemble the games we had brought them - drat!) for a while, then Jackie invited the students to her nearby house to watch some satellite TV and play with her 6 (!) shih tzu puppies. (as an aside, try to imaging Jackie, who came down here on a UT archaelogical dig, met Zander and never left - in a cowboy hat, cowboy boots and a hot-pink t-shirt dress - hysterical!) After that, a quiet night as the students prepared for the birds and horses to wake them up early.

This morning the girls and Andy got up early for a morning ride with Emil, then at 10 we descended to the school.

Later this evening I will ask someone else to write about the school, as I'm sure you want to hear someone else's voice, but from my perspective it went great again this year. The students did not all feel like they were as prepared as they wanted to be, but they did great!

Here are Megan's thoughts:

My first impression of the school was that it was very hot inside the small classrooms. The students were seated very close together, wearing pants! I was wearing shorts and a tank top and I was sweating. Leah and I taught standards 5 and 6, in other words, 7th and 8th grade. It was very difficult for me to stand up there, like a teacher, and speak to them. The nerves hit me immediately. Once we introduced ourselves, and Mr. Grant broke the ice with one of his jokes, the class began to warm up to us. The students were very attentive and eager to ask questions. After we taught them about the three types of rocks, igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary of course, we handed the floor over to Mr. K, who spoke to them about the latest election of President Obama. Leah and I joined the kindergarten class who sang songs to and with us. The Itsy Bitsy Spider is their favorite song. I was amazed at how excited they were to see us. Visiting the school has been my favorite activity so far.

Some thoughts from the kids

2009-03-11T19:27:00.000-07:00

I pinned a few of them down - here are their words!

Leah says: When you take a trip to Belize, you definitely leave all your worries behind! Belize is absolutely stunning and it feels great to be under the sun after a long, cold winter. All the natives here are very welcoming and the 16 people traveling with us are all great fun to be around and get to know. It's odd to think that we all weren't very good friends before coming on the trip because we already feel completely comfortable around each other. Going from Jaguar Paw to Gallon Jug was a huge transition, but both places are impressively beautiful in their own ways. We've been on many adventures so far and had many laughs; there is no doubt that there are more of those to come!

Peace from Belize!

Andy says: This place is wild - out of this world. The jungle is really cool and taking walks is beautiful and relaxing. Belize is awesome and helping us all relax from school (well, at least I am relaxing). The trip is amazing and I'd love to do it again, even though it's only 4 days into the trip. Belize is crazy!

Gilly says: Taking a trip to Belize has definitely been one of the most relaxing things I've done. The country is so incredibly beautiful and the people are amazing. Being able to walk through the jungle and horseback ride through the astounding landscape has kept me constantly speechless!

Lindsey says: From the heart of the jungle at Jaguar Paw to the rolling hills of Gallon Jug to the elaborate lodge at Chan Chich, Belize is beautiful. Our adventures, including ziplining and cave tubing, have been amazing,. It's also been relaxing sitting in the pool and getting to know the other people in the trip as well as the natives. All of the Belizeans we've met here have been so welcoming and kind ... right now 2 women, Silvia ad Myra, are serving us dinner on the ranch. They made spaghetti and meat sauce and it looks delicious, Like everything they cook. Everything keeps getting better. I can't wait for tomorrow, but I wish today would never end!

Catching up ...

2009-03-11T12:42:00.001-07:00

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.

Action-packed day

2009-03-09T10:02:00.000-07:00

Wow! I'm not sure we've ever had as many thrills in one day as we had today. OK, we had 2 big adventures - that's a lot in a place where time moves slowly.

After a leisurely morning we trooped up to the zipline at 11. After orientation and outfitting by the guides, we broke into 2 groups (me and the families, and Matt, Caleb and the students) I'm not sure I've mentioned Caleb Williamson - he is Brooks '03, St. Lawrence '07, and has been teaching in the Bowens' school in San Pedro for the last 2 years, so he is our second Belizean contact down here. Caleb secured a week off from teaching 7th and 8th graders at Island Academy to join us for the duration of our trip, and we're thrilled to have him. He not only knows the country well but he is closer to the students' age and relates with them quite well. He is an excellent addition.

So, ziplining. The students did a tremendously good job listening to the guides minding their equipment, and all had a fantastic time. As we made our way from platform to platform through the canopy one could hear the occasional scream - of glee, I'm sure - and a few Tarzans emerged from the crowd. I'll put some photos up later. Those who confessed a fear of heights were really brave, trusted their guides and equipment and had great growth experiences. At the last platform the only way back down is to rappel (about 80 feet), and the guides Elian and Hector gave the kids a bit of a thrill by letting them drop quickly for a moment - lots of squeals there, and I think Lindsey's may have broken glass in the restaurant down the hill ... I'll post pictures later.

After a great lunch of local fare - rice & beans and baked chicken (and local coleslaw so good Mr. Grant and Andy got in a fork fight over extras on people's plates - jungle manners prevail, I guess), the kids took a break and hit the pool. Later in the afternoon we met in front of the lodge for some quality time with Gumbo the monkey (Andy was his favorite yesterday) and for our next adventure - "Jungle Tumble".

This is a new addition since last year; it is essentially a knock-off of the New Zealand sport of "Zorbing" (look it up for a pic of the giant hamster ball it involves). In this case, they have carved a half-tube path down a hill and lined it with tarping. The inflated ball - perhaps 10 feet tall, has a few gallons of water inside it and the victim - I mean adventurer - accesses the inside through a hole that is then sealed up. The ball rolls down the half-tube and is caught at the end by a large net. As a responsible adult, I felt I had to be sure it was safe, of course. First, I vetted it with an American couple staying here who had done it earlier in the day. Big thumbs up. Then when we got there I sent my own kids first - the little one bounces, so I figured he'd be OK. Finally, I tried it myself, so I could faithfully report the experience to you. Once sealed in the ball and sitting in the water, one feels adrift from the outside world. As the men set the ball rolling down the tube, the water suspends the adventurer and keeps her/him facing forward and positioned in the bottom of the ball. The ride is wild, nearly surreal, and thrilling. Thankfully it does not toss the rider around (as I suffer from motion sickness), and at the end the "catcher" unseals the ball and releases the participant. The well-mannered adventurer then assists the guides in pushing the ball back up the incline, which I did right up until my months of treadmill work ceased to pay off.

All of the students participated, some were nervous, and all were exhilarated at the end. Another great character-building victory! I feel moved to add that I was the only adult to do it...

Tomorrow, another leisurely morning and cave-tubing in the afternoon. We're looking forward to it!

We made it!

2009-03-08T07:01:00.000-07:00

Now that we've safely arrived I can say what I was thinking all of yesterday - wow, that went without a hitch! Our flights were in time and efficient, our layover long enough to get food but not too long, our bags all arrived safely and we made our bus connection with no problem at all.

Carlos Lopez, ever-reliable tour guide extraordinaire, picked us up at eh airport and delivered us in style to Jaguar Paw, a 1.5 hour trip west into the rainforest. His knowledge ranges from the fascinating ("there are 4,000 plant species in Belize") to the ridiculous ("the Maya Mountains depict the profile of Abe Lincoln - look, there's his nose...!") and he's funny and thoughtful.

We were greeted warmly by the Jaguar Paw staff, quickly had our rooms sorted out and the kids set out exploring.

As the students go their bearings, Jake and I set out to find his "best friend", Gumbo, the baby black howler monkey. The 2 had bonded last year (they recognized kindred souls) and Jake has been looking forward to the reunion. the bad news came when Ralph at the front desk told us he'd been run over the prior month. He was alive, but had been at the vet for a month and had lost a limb. Jake was heartbroken.

the good news was that Donna, the American ex-pat owner of the resort and inveterate animal lover, had insisted on saving him. She arrived a bit later and we got the chance to cuddle with him as he began his new life as a one-legged monkey. While we won't have the exciting monkey hijinks Jake has been dreaming of, we'll get some experience in primate rehab - who knows, maybe a veterinary career will be launched!

Dinner was a more lavish affair than usual with several choices. With a long day of travel behind us, this adventurer retired early, and I imagine the rest of the group was not far behind (after an evening soak in the hot tub with the jungle echoing all around them, I'm sure).

Today's adventure is zip-lining, and we'll post more news and pictures later in the day.

All travelers are well and looking forward to the first full day in Belize.

More later!!

Getting under way

2009-03-04T17:43:00.000-08:00

As school winds down here in North Andover our thoughts are turning to our upcoming 7th trip to the Belizean rainforest and reefs. We will travel from March 7 to March 17 and will experience all aspects of this varied country's ecosystems, We will also work with folks in towns, villages and schools. We will, as always, bring our students and our own children back to Brooks School wiser and more grateful for all they have, and with broader perspective about the lives and goals of people in other parts of the world. Come along with us!