Made it to San Pedro!

Beautiful view when I was walking down the beach! Had to stop and take a picture.

We have made it to San Pedro, Belize! We took a water taxi here on Monday, and have spent the past couple days exploring the island, getting to know the people, and working on our community service hours. We plan on walking the dogs at the humane society, writing children's books, painting walls, and doing other tasks to help the city. An interesting fact about San Pedro is that they don't name their streets or have street signs!! They have 3 main roads that are "named" front street, middle street, and back street. It makes it super hard to navigate or find places! Most people drive around golf carts, which makes me love the small town, beachy feel!

One of my favorite places so far is this sweet little fruit stand! Maria lets you pick out any items you would like, and then offers to chop them up for you. I bought a fresh pineapple and was so grateful to have Maria cut it for me (because my mom always does it hehe!). She let me try the papaya she was cutting up and it was SO GOOD.

I think the main thing that surprises me about this country is how trusting everyone is. With money, with safety, with their belongings...it's a totally different world. For example, many of the excursions we took such as the ATM cave or Ziplining had no rules. There was simply a sign at the front saying "enter at your own risk." What! In America, we would have to sign wavers, have a million rules and regulations, and be restricted in many ways. In addition, their laws are so different. I've seen very few speed limit signs, and most people drive a little crazy to be honest! Every experience so far has been a positive one, and I'm super excited to get to know the people and then finally get into the classroom!!

Final Day in San Ignacio

 Right outside of our hotel in the main street of San Ignacio, Belize

Happy Easter!! It's sad being away from my family for the first time ever on this day. I miss my people so much! On the other hand, these adventures the past few days have been nothing short of amazing and I'm so thankful to have this experience to see more of the world. Today, we take our final excursion in San Ignacio to the Mayan Ruins. Tomorrow, we will take a Water Taxi to San Pedro where we will start student teaching throughout the upcoming weeks. So excited!

View from the top of the Caracol Mayan Ruins, also known as "Caana" (skybox)!! This temple is about 138 feet above the ground, and took over 300 years to build. Looking up at the ruins from the ground, we thought that there was no way we would get up to the top. They were SO high and the steps were SO steep. Our guide said, "Okay you have 45 minutes, go play!" Lemme tell you...climbing to the top was a WORKOUT. I felt like I was back in Jennifer's boot camp class at the YMCA! But it was way worth it. This view was spectacular. We didn't want to go back down! (And we knew it was going to be just as painful going down as it was going up...) Not only was this view amazing, but the actual structure resembled a castle with many rooms and nooks back inside of it. Our guide walked us through the passages and pointed out where the Leaders and Noble Mayans would reside, as well as the "conference rooms." 

Wanted to give a shoutout to one of my Math Professors, Dr. Slaten! In my History of Mathematics class (yes, I took that, and I loved it!), she taught us about the origins of numbers in various cultures, the Mayan numeric system being one of them. Throughout the ruins and other structures, I could recognize Mayan numbers all over the place!! I was probably a little too fascinated! Our guide was also impressed on my knowledge of the number system ;) 

Trip to Guatemala!

  

  

Since our group had a free day, a few of us decided to take a bus ride over to Guatemala. Here, we got to go ZIP-LINING!  Our guide, Hernando, was super fun and allowed us to go down the zip-line Superman Style and UpsideDown (which I know what you're thinking... yes, it is NOT allowed in the U.S.!). After going through the incredible zip-line course, we took the bus over to the Guatemalan Island/Town of Flores where we had lunch and shopped around. It was beautiful! 

When we arrived back in San Ignacio, we found out that there was a FAIR going on to celebrate the start of Easter!! How great! It felt much like the NC State Fair: all kinds of vendors, (rickety) rides, and food. This picture is taken from the top of the Ferris Wheel, which by the way, goes EXTREMELY FAST....When I got off, I told the guy controlling it how Ferris Wheel's don't go nearly as fast in America. He responded with a shrug and said, "Welcome to Belize!"

Actun Tunichil Muknal Cave

It's Good Friday!! Belize considers this holiday to be one of the most important and holiest of days, so most of the shops and restaurants around town are closed. While we are still on our "spring break", our next activity was exploring this crazy cave in San Ignacio! The ATM cave, standing for Actun Tunichil Muknal, was a 3.5 mile long place that the ancient Noble Mayans used for worship and to sacrifice. Touring this cave was VERY physically demanding! We had a 45 minute hike through the woods and across rivers to the entrance, then the cave tour itself was over 3 hours of climbing on/through/over/around slippery boulders, squeezing through tight and sharp places, and swimming to the next rock (which some may be laughing because, well, not a good swimmer). It was fascinating to see remains of old pots and other artifacts, along with this fully preserved skeleton that was over 1,000 years old!!! Although this cave was only discovered in 1989, it's dated back to just year 1 AD. The views of the interior and crystal formations were epic and out of this world. 

PS: cameras were not allowed in the cave, so these pictures are from google. 

Today was SO COOL!

 A few of us woke up around 7am (still affected by the 2 hour time change) and went to breakfast down the street for eggs and coffee. We met the group and got on a tour bus to explore a Mayan Community that still speaks the native language and participates in some of the same values and traditions of the original Mayans. In the home that we were invited into, we got the opportunity to learn about how the women make tortillas and other forms of bread from simply corn and water, and then practice it on our own. Let's just say I did not have the skills to maneuver the grinding stones as the Mayan ladies did! My tortilla with Coconut Oil and Sea Salt was still delicious though!  After learning about their uses of corn, we observed a man making pottery followed by a wonderful lunch made by some of the women in the community. 

Once we got on the bus, we headed to the Amish Mennonite town. (Fun fact: There are a ton of random speed bumps throughout roads in Belize. Our guide called them "sleeping policemen" haha!) Around 8 families live in this neighborhood, where they have an abundance of land and spend their time farming and raising vegetables, herbs, and other crops. We were welcomed into the home of one family and got the chance to ask them any questions we wanted! I learned so much: they have no technology or electricity, rarely leave their land, only attend school through 8th grade, and basically live the most simplistic life. One of the questions I found interesting was, "What do you guys do for fun?" The father answered back with another question, "Why do you feel the need for entertainment? That implies that you have time for leisure and might be bored with life." 

Although both the Mayans and the Amish Mennonites lives are very different from ours, it was fantastic to learn and experience the two different lifestyles so closely. It was eye opening to see that families can live and survive with so little, and yet be so humbled and at peace with their lifestyle. 

We Have Arrived!

Finally made it to Belize City, Belize! Our group had no problems going through customs, other than being questioned of our excessive amount of school supplies (they thought we were importing goods). It is HUMID here. After immediately coating on the bug spray, our group hopped on an old school bus and headed to the Belize Zoo while we waited for the rest of our people to arrive. 

What I loved about this zoo is that almost all of the animals there are rescued from a dangerous environment or near death situations and are placed in this friendly, natural environment where they are well cared for daily. Since the zoo is only locally funded, one of the ways that they raise money is by allowing visitors to walk into a cage and letting the jaguar, Junior, play in the environment around us (humans in the cage, plot twist!) Obviously I had to take up this opportunity! It turns out he loved impressing us by doing rolls, strutting around, and jumping on top of the cage so that we could pet his toes and tail (with no doubt of being rewarded with chicken legs in return). 

After leaving the zoo, we took the bus to San Ignacio where we will spend the next few days exploring the Mayan culture and other historic sites. One of the great things that I noticed about this city while driving in is how families were sitting on their porches enjoying their evening in nearly every house we passed. Although some of the houses looked like they might fall apart at any second, it was beautiful to get a glance at the different life that they live here. 

Pre-Departure

Got my passport and GoPro ready for my early 6:20am departure tomorrow from RDU! It's been a whirlwind the past few days; from leaving my awesome students and partnership teacher, Mr. Mann, on Friday at Topsail High School, to making sure I bought Target's entire inventory of 40% deet bug spray (no thank you, Zika Virus!). As I reflect back on this crazy semester of student teaching in Wilmington, I'm thankful to have had a great experience where I've learned so much about myself and teaching. Moving forward to student teaching in San Pedro, Belize, I think I'm most anxious and excited about the different cultures that I will get the opportunity to interact with and learn about. Now I'm off to continue to pack, cram, weigh, and re-weigh my suitcase to make sure it's under 50 pounds!