Guatemala Adventure in Antigua

My family and I took an adventure to Guatemala. But where is Guatemala? It is in the middle of Central America right between Mexico, Belize, Honduras and El Salvador. It was the center of the old Mayan world and you can still see many of their descendants today still living a traditional lifestyle and still speaking different Mayan dialects. There is also a very big Spanish culture and Spanish is Guatemala’s official language. The landscape is amazing because there are volcanoes, lakes, mountains, rainforests, and even dry places there. I had a wonderful time and I am going to blog about and share it with you.

Did you ever think you could be on boats and buses for 23 hours, that’s almost a complete day of 24 hours? We left Blackbird Caye in Belize about 8:00 in the morning and said goodbye to our little island. Then we arrived in Belize City and got on a shuttle bus us across Guatemalan border to a city called Flores. We had been there before and knew where to get a good dinner. This was not our final destination. Then we got on a big fancy bus at 9:00 at night and we traveled all through the night to Guatemala City. The air conditioning on the bus was freezing so I didn’t get a good night’s sleep because I was shivering. It was probably to keep the driver awake which is a good thing. Then we got on a third bus to Antigua which was the end of our journey for now.

The city of Antigua is over 500 years old. It used to be the old capitol of Guatemala so it had some really fancy buildings. The city went through a couple of bad earthquakes so the capitol was then moved to Guatemala City. So there are lots of ruins of the old city and some have been restored. We visited a few of those ruins like old churches and monasteries. The streets are still cobblestone which is when they use stones for paving instead of tar or cement. We found a busy beautiful town square called the Parque Central. It was more of a park than a central square with lots of live music and listeners. We saw many Mayan people in tradition dress who were in the park and all around the town. We also had lots of fun in a big big market where many people sold fruits and vegetable, as well as flowers. There were butchers and many many many more things like clothing.

We went to a Spanish language school for 4 hours a day over two weeks. My teachers name was Maria. She was really nice and very patient. We played games and learned lots of different Spanish words and how to use these words. I was really interested in the names of the plants and animals. So we spent lots of time in a beautiful courtyard learning them. My parents were at the school learning too, I had lots of fun going to school with my parents every day. The school also had activities and we went to an organic macadamia nut farm which was a lot of fun because we got to see macadamia nut trees as well as seeing the machines they use to crack them. Not was only was it an organic farm but the machines used no electricity. The used gravity to separate the nuts and cracked the nuts with a bicycle contraption. Another activity making tortillas from scratch and we cooked them over a wood fire. That school was a lot of fun!

One day after Spanish class we went to a 500 year old monastery which is now a restored 5 star hotel with beautiful grounds. There were lots of big trees, nice flower gardens and beautiful fountains. My favorite part was the big scarlet macaws which are a type of parrot which were perched all around the place. They were really cool to watch and take photos of. They weren’t afraid of me and they even posed for me. I took photos for hours while my parents had a few cups of tea. It was one of my favorite places in Antigua.

Enjoy the videos....

Going on a Dolphin Trip

Back on Blackbird Caye, I had a chance to help a dolphin researcher named Izzy. My Mom and I got to go out on a boat while my Dad had to lead a snorkel group. We went out for the afternoon to look for dolphins. Izzy has been working with these dolphins at Turneffe Atoll for years. He often sees the same individuals year after year. He knows because of nicks and scars and patterns that unique to each dolphin and they are much like you own fingerprint. He studies their behavior such as mating, feeding or playing. We saw some dolphins of course. We were lucky that we saw some because they can go a whole day without seeing any dolphins.

It was really cool when the dolphins bow ride. Bow riding is when the boat the pushes a water current forward and it forms a wave with the dolphins ride. It looks like they are having fun. There was more than one dolphin and they had a baby. Unfortunately that made it so we couldn’t get in the water with them. Izzy thinks that they were playing. I think so too. They were amazing. That’s all for now from the Nudibranch Network……

Tortilla Factory

We found a tortilla factory in Orange Walk, Belize. We wanted to get some tortillas and nacho chips so we went inside. They gave us a corn tortilla fresh out oven. It was the best tortilla I ever had because it was made right there before our eyes. The people there were very busy getting stacks of tortillas and serving many customers. We enjoyed watching this so much that we decided to make a little movie and hope you enjoy it too. The first step is batter making where they grind the dry corn into a pulp. The second step is run the batter through a machine that flattens it and stamps out a circle. Next the tortillas go through a toasting machine which is very quick. Out the other side they come and presto, you have a stack of fresh tortillas. These corn tortillas here are much much better than the ones you get at the store back in home.

Birding in Belize

There are tons of birds in amazing Belize. I like birds because; I just like birds even from when I was a baby. I like to watch them and draw then which makes me very happy. I have seen over a 120 species since we have been here in December. Most of them are new to me. They are very very colorful and look exotic. I would like to tell you about each bird I saw but instead I will tell you about the most interesting. We went to different habitats in search of birds such at Mayan temples, lakes, wetlands, rivers, islands and the amazing fig tree.

Pyramids sites are usually in rain forested areas and have many cleared spaces surrounding the pyramids and temples. The birds like these spaces. At Caracol, we saw Oscillated Turkeys which are one of the prettiest birds in Belize. Their feathers are iridescent and shine like copper and other colors. We also saw one of the most amazing vultures. It is the King Vulture. It has interesting head gear and is huge. We saw Keel Billed Toucans which have a large brightly colored bill which is often seen on items such as cereal box labels. This toucan is also the national bird of Belize. There was another pyramid site called Laminai with has lots of birds. There were trogons , which are the size as a crow but with a yellow bill and it has a lot of iridescence feathers especially on its stomach with a blue color sheen and yellow or black eye rings.

Lamanai is on the New River and we had to take a boat to get there. There were herons on the river such as the boat billed and Yellow Crow Night Herons. We saw a Yucatan Poorwhill which is not very common in that area. We saw a limpkin which is a bird where scientists can’t figure out which family to put it in so they made a new one just for this bird. We saw a small colorful bird called a Jacana which is also known as the Jesus Christ bird since it has very large feet which enable it to walk on lily pads and other aquatic plants. Imagine you could do that too. There is also another interesting bird species called the snail kite which only eats apple snails which is a large freshwater snail. It has a special shaped bill to gets into snail shells without cracking the shell. We spotted a common black hawk which also looks a lot like the snail kite except it has a yellow bill.

We had other guided trips to Spanish Lookout and Crooked Tree. These are both wetland sites and the name wetland suits this habitat perfectly because the beaches are mushy muck which I found out was not a good place to walk. At Spanish Lookout we saw a Jabiru Stork nest but not birds were home. The Jabiru could be called the Jumbo-ru because it is one of the biggest birds in the Americas. We looked at a laughing falcon through the spotting scope but it wasn’t very funny. We saw grove billed anis which looks like a grackle with the bill of a puffin. Then there were scissor tail flycatchers and this was the first place we saw the Vermillion Flycatcher which is a beautiful shade of red.

Back at the lodge there was a fig tree which was the most birdee-ist tree that I ever did see. We went there first thing in the morning and we saw Chacahlacas, Summer Tanagers, trogons, Great Kiskadees, and Aracasis which are a small type of toucan. At times there seemed to be more birds on the tree than leaves. The sound was a noisy concoction of calls and songs. And I have to add that the parrots sounded the worse. That’s the story of the magical fig tree.

Our next birding trip was to the Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary. We saw thousands of Wood Storks and we canoed real close to them. Mixed in with them was a jumbo Jabiru Stork. The Jabiru has a rufus collar and was much larger than the other storks. We spotted Roseate Spoonbills which are pink birds with a spoon shaped bill. There was a Black Collared Hawk which should be called the Rufus Winged Hawk. It was fun to watch the pygmy kingfisher feed and take its food back to a tree for lunch. It was really neat and is one of my favorite birding places. That’s all for now on the Nudibranch Network.

Sophie

PS if you want to see video of a singing Summer Tanager or Wood Storks of Crooked Tree then click on the play buttons

Life on the Atoll

Life on the Atoll (20 February 2010)

We are in Belize City shopping right now in a grocery store. We are getting lots of food because we won’t see a single store for a whole week. The boat leaves in half an hour. We are too far away to walk so we have to get a taxi cab to the dock. We weave through busy streets filled with bicycles, trucks, cars and pedestrians. Then we turn onto a not so busy tree lined street and pull up to the dock. We get there just in time even though we know the boat won’t leave without us.

People load on a huge amount of gas cans, boxes, rolls of toilet paper and everyday items. Pineapples get loose and roll all over the floor of the boat. The Oceanica is our 43 foot boat which takes us 30 miles to Blackbird Caye and back. We see most of the staff and our new guests on the boat. Mr. Kent is our Captain. Wanda is our cook and some of you have skyped with her in your classroom. There is Alton who is an expert coconut open-er-upper and super fixer-upper of things. There is Rose the housekeeper and Richard the small boat captain. Security is Camille the dog. And there’s a hungry guy named Peckish who works at the nearby fishing camp.

We start off and we pass the little islands called Cayes and the MesoAmerican Barrier Reef. Sometimes there are swells when we hit blue water but today they are only 3 feet high. And there we go through Turneffe Atoll and go by lots of mangrove forests. And then we pull up to a long dock with sandy rocky beaches, a big buttonwood tree and coconut trees. Then we see cabanas on the ocean. We start hitting bumps as we head near the reef. Then we see a big palapa with a thatched roof.

We pull up to the dock and I run down the dock happy to see my island again. I startled some wish willies who are basking in the sun when I ran by. Camilla the evil munching puppy meets me with her tail which is wagging and her whole body is shaking. And it is time for teething. She lunges at me with the mouth wide open and I throw a sea grape leaf like a frisbee. Our place, the Oceanic Society owns about 50 acres of land.

I hear a RRRRRRRRRRRRRR from the generator which is the only way to get electricity until they get the solar working. If it’s not a very windy day then the mosquitoes, doctor flies and sand flies come out and bite. It looks like you have been to the doctor or need to go to one. There may be some bummers here but there’s so much more good stuff.

My favorite thing to do is to go snorkeling and fishing. Before it’s too late, we can go for a little swim. The ocean can be really warm here and you can play in it for hours without freezing. It also makes for good snorkeling but you can’t go swim at night because of the crocodiles. When I snorkel, I see thousands of fish called grunts, schoolmaster snappers, butterfly fish and yellow jack which like to hang out around our dock. After dinner, when it gets dark, my Dad and I go fishing. When it’s dark the big fish bite. We usually see two big red eyes underneath the water. We see a big body that looks like a croc. But it is only a tarpon which is a big game fish and it is like the crocodiles of the fishes. We tried to catch it but it just does not seem interested.

I spend a lot of my time homeschooling. It’s a lot like regular school but it is in your home. You also get the full attention of your parent school teachers. I do math, reading, writing and lots of other stuff like you do. I also get to learn about things that are special to me like field trips to Mayan temples for history class or my science class is about 100 yards away on the dock into the coral reef and seagrasses. And I always get to do art class by myself. You get a lot of attention by being the only kid in the class and it is also a lot of fun.

Well, that’s a day in my life at Blackbird Caye.

Sophie

PS We can see both sunrises and sunsets off our little island. It is only a couple of hundred steps from one side to the other.

Reptiles in Belize

There are so many different kinds of reptiles in beautiful Belize and I want to tell you about some that I have seen and held. In San Ignacio, there is a resort that has a green iguana restoration project. The project is to mate and grow them for replenishment in forests. They were in trouble because people were hunting them but now they are protected. We got to go there and visit the iguanas. We got to see them and hold them. My favorite was Gomez. Gomez was a big male iguana who had orange colors because it was mating season. I got to pet him and he looked at me as if it felt real good. He was very smooth and soft and cold, but scaly. He was calm probably because it was a cold day.

The next day we went back to the green iguana restoration project and Eddie, the caretaker, hung 20 baby iguanas on me like a Christmas tree. They were hanging off my hat, my hair, my shoulders, my jacket and the middle of my pants. There were surprisingly calm because if was one of the coldest days yet.

Every day I see iguanas on our island. They aren’t as friendly as the greens and they are a different species. They are spiny tailed iguanas or wish willies. When they get real scared, they run very very fast. They also climb trees and are brownish beige.
We also have salt water crocodiles on our island. We have a big swamp that is loaded with them. A crocodile on our island is 14 feet long and his name is Tommy. There is a guy how works with us named Alton who has an odd way of calling Tommy and the others. It isn’t a whistle and he does not say here boy. Instead he throws a coconut into the brown mangrove water and they have a fake meal. The problem with crocs is that they eat dogs. Other than that, we cannot go swimming at night and don’t get near them in the mating season.

There is another species of croc called the Morelet’s crocodile and its habitat is slow moving freshwater rivers. I held a baby croc during our recent trip to Orange Walk. It liked to sit on my lap. It just laid there and fell asleep. Also there was a smallish boa constrictor that they found crawling around outside our room door. I got to hold it but had to hang on to its head tights so it would not bite. They are no venomous but they do hurt. But it didn’t bite me. That’s all for now. See you later on my next blog.
Sophie

Sophie meets Sylvia Earle

A famous scientist and explorer named Dr. Silvia Earle came to visit our little island to promote new her project called ‘Places of Hope‘. The reason she chose Turneffe Atoll is because of its high number of species of plants and animals found on the coral reefs, seagrasses, mangroves and on the island itself. Turneffe Atoll is also in danger of it being over developed, fished out and destroyed because it has no protection to the plants and animals that live here.

Dr. Earle has many nicknames, like ‘Her Deepness’ or the ‘Living Legend‘ but I found her to just be a nice person with an important mission. My favorite nickname for her is ‘Hero for the Planet‘, because she is so inspiring. She said that people have the power to do many things that have hurt the planet but we have the same power to do things to help the planet. She feels that we have the knowledge and the power to stop the bad things we are doing to the ocean. She said we used to believe that we could take as much out of or put into the ocean whatever we wanted and that it was so vast that it would not matter. But we have found out that it is not true.

I really hate to give bad news, but I’ve been out snorkeling around, listening to the lectures on coral reefs, fish populations and pollution and I believe we have a serious problem. I think the good news is that we really can make a difference now. I believe it’s now or never. I have some ideas about what I can do and am curious about what you think you can do.

1. Use less plastic. I see so much plastic washing up on our beach that it makes me feel very sad. This plastic seems to come from all over the world.
2. There are a lot of half worn shoes that wash up on our beach, unfortunately only one at a time. Can we make worn or unmatched shoes a fashion statement?
3. I buy stuff locally made so it doesn’t have to be shipped all over the world using lots of oil.
4. I don’t eat shrimp! When you see how the Mangroves are cut down, and then the gross places where the shrimp are raised you would not be able to swallow them. Then these festering shrimp ponds are abandoned after a couple of years and left abandoned because the water quality is not good anymore. Even wild shrimp has so much by-catch that is killed. There can be about a ton of fish killed for a bucket of shrimp. This happens is Biscayne Bay and all over the world.
5. REALLY think about what meat you are eating and how much feed does it take to grow the animal. Whether it is a fish farm or a cow. Don’t eat too much slow growing top predator fish or land animals.