Belize River

Banana Bank lunch stop
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Our canoe trip on the Belize River was relaxing. The first day we paddled 15-20 miles, but the river was flowing really fast, so we weren’t actually paddling very hard. We stayed the night at the Global Vocational School, camping on their lawn. Global is a vocational school for 12-17 year-old boys who don’t have the opportunity to go to high school, because the costs are so prohibitive. Global teaches skills like woodworking, mechanics, welding, and digging wells. All the teachers are volunteers, mainly from the states. They must pay for their own room and board; most are sponsored by people from back home. Global is a worldwide Christian organization, but this particular one was the first. They had a pretty nice compound, but they weren’t at capacity due to lack of funds. The principle spoke with us the morning we left; he is the one who makes the admissions decisions. I can’t imagine being in that situation, knowing that the boys you don’t take most likely will not be able to support themselves

Belize River
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The second night we stayed with the Martinez family at their home on the banks of the Belize River. The area surrounding them is mainly land used for agriculture, rented by the Mennonites. The family used to be squatters, but the owner of the land eventually gave them a plot to live on and a plot to farm on. Their plantation was about a quarter mile away in a forest. The reason they were given that spot is that because it is a Mayan site. The site has not been excavated, but there is a visible courtyard and mounds. The mound in the center is a huge man-made hill, visible for miles. There are other smaller mounds, which may have been homes of the laborers who worked for whoever lived in the central mound. Plows can’t get through the area, so the owner allows the Martinez’s to grow crops there. The Martinez children were very friendly, the five or so we met, there are about fifteen total!

Sonja, Karen Martinez, and I
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We saw a bunch of wildlife along the river. The thing I find most impressive are the howler monkeys. We saw some lounging in the trees as we were paddling, but at night was when they really came alive. They make this guttural sound, which sounds like the noise from the Grudge. So the forests sound like Jurassic Park, with different troupes howling back and forth at each other, I half expect a T-Rex to come running out. We saw a lot of birds including Mangrove Swallows, various types of Herons, Toucans, and Parrots. There were also a lot of iguanas in the trees. You could tell when we were in areas where they are heavily hunted because they would fall out of the trees into the water when they heard us approaching. Our guides used to hunt iguanas before they were restricted and they said once the iguana hits the water it is nearly impossible to catch. We only saw one crocodile, and it was just for a brief second.