Tuesday, April 15, 2014

The Long and Winding Road to Punta Gorda

It's been less than a week since my last blog post and so much has happened! I left off last Thursday, the day before Isla Bonita's annual beach party, which marks the beginning of their two week Easter break. Because Teacher Hector had just left for a trip inland, I was tasked with supervising 12 energetic children at the beach. Fortunately, the beach doesn't have huge crashing waves here, or I might not have made it through. It does have docks with loose, nail-filled boards that certain students (mine) like to wield at each other for fun... However, my students and I both made it to 1:00pm (the end of the party) unscathed and ready for break.

The next day, our group piled on a catamaran to go snorkeling. We snorkeled at two different sites, the Hol Chan Marine Reserve, and Shark and Ray Alley. At Hol Chan, we followed our tour guides in three small groups as we snorkeled. I am still in disbelief at how clear the water is here. We saw eagle rays, other stingrays, lots of different fish, some baby nurse sharks, and a couple sea turtles! At our next stop, our guides threw sardines into the water and the nurse sharks were literally piling on top of each other, heads out of the water, to get the food. It was insane. Then we all jumped in with our snorkel gear and swam with them and the rays until they dispersed, as the food was all gone. After we got our fill of snorkeling, the boat served us some delicious salsa (with shrimp!!!), I enjoyed a pineapple Fanta, and we sailed on to Caye Caulker for lunch and some exploring. It was such a cute little island and we had lunch in a restaurant that has swings for seats.
*I cannot take credit for any of the beautiful, underwater photos. All were taken by others from the cohort*







On Sunday, I went to the Catholic church, which is right on the beach, to celebrate Palm Sunday. It's very similar to my Episcopalian church at home, so it was comforting to have a familiar experience. That evening, I went "croc hunting" with Miriam and Captain Chris from ACES, along with some others from our group. We took a flat bottom skiff out into a few lagoons and they would shine spotlights into the water, hoping to catch the red-orange glow of crocodile eyes. When they did, Miriam would swim out to the croc and attempt to catch it. They're super quick and hard to see, but at our last stop Chris caught one! We were there to release a small croc ACES had caught the week prior. The bigger crocodile Chris caught was about 4 feet long and pretty fat! Miriam and Chris taught us lots about crocs, especially the ones that live in Belize. After learning about him/her, scanning its microchip (it had been caught before), getting some measurements, and taking some pictures, we released the crocodile back into the lagoon. 





The next morning we woke up early to make our way to Punta Gorda, Belize for the first leg of our week-long trip inland while the kids are on Easter break. We took a water taxi to Belize City, which took about 1.5 hours. From there, we got a cab to the bus station, where we waited for almost two more hours. We were told the wrong gate to stand by while waiting for our bus, so we were afraid that we wouldn't get seats as we made a mad dash to the bus. Despite lots of hectic pushing, we did make it onto the bus and everyone in our group got seats! The bus, similar to an old school bus in the states, was packed with two people per seat. Little did we know, there would soon be many more on board. Throughout our six-hour ride, we stopped to add more, until the aisles were packed with people standing, and some sitting on luggage. Needless to say, we were very pleased to arrive safely in Punta Gorda!

Waiting for our bus
Our feelings on the bus ride
View from the bus window
I think the bus is full...

Today, our first full day in PG, we took a drumming class with a man named Ronald McDonald (no joke!). He and his father are part of the Garifuna culture, and the drum school, Warasa, works to preserve it. It was a great class and we all learned a lot and had fun! 



My next post will be all about the rest of our inland trip. We have many adventures ahead!

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