On Wednesday, we took the boat to Belize City (1 hr), waited 45 mins for the bus to Bermuda Landing (1 hr) and met Shane at the bus stop [his grandmother was on the bus with us, and we helped her carry out her groceries-- she bought them after winning the lottery last week!] Shane first pointed out some giant iguanas and a very rare bird, the Montezuma Oropendo, which has a strange, remarkable call. [See video] Then he pointed out a termite nest and ate a few of the termites (they taste like carrots! and were once used to treat venereal disease!). He encouraged us to try them (nope).
Our first acquaintance in the jungle was a giant, furry tarantula. After that, we met the family of howler monkeys that Shane has befriended. Happy, one of the younger monkeys, came down and ate the banana out of Shane's hand, but he got a little freaked that we were so close. We still got to see Happy's little brother, who is a really cute 3-month old howler monkey.
Shane concluded the tour by telling us a couple of secrets:
1. He is a shaman reincarnated in a young man's body and his mission is ecolution (ecology + revolution)
2. He uses howler monkey feces to fertilize his "jungle plants"
On Thursday, we went swimming with the fishes & sharks. Oliver and Karl took us out to Hoi Chan Marine Reserve, where we swam with eagle rays, nurse sharks, and a bunch of giant fish (including parrot fish). Karl likes to hug the sharks and rub their bellies, and really it's pretty clear that they're a bit tame (we rubbed their backs, which felt like sand paper). But their eyes are creepy! The best moment, though, was swimming just feet above a tortuga with a beautifully mottled shell. In the water, it looked like it was flying.
The guys took us beyond the reef to do a little deep-sea fishing. I've never even held a fishing rod let alone caught anything before, so I was pretty psyched. I learned that I can't cast a line (I think I got it past the boat like twice), but I was still able to pull in a few decent fish:) A lot of them got tossed in the bucket as "shark bait," but I caught a really cool trigger fish (named for the fin that disarms it). At the end of the day, Sara and I had red snappers, gray snappers, and a yellow-tail (Belize's filet). I was hoping to be able to clean the fish on the boat (see goal # ), but Oliver kept baiting us so that we'd keep the poles in the water (there was a lot of pressure-- he wanted us to get bigger, better fish LOL).
Nonetheless, we came back with a whole lot of fish, and Sara and I prepared and cooked two whole red snappers and a bunch of filets (wasabi, lime & sesame oil + garlic & olive oil+ black pepper & Marie's Hot Sauce). Good eats! We celebrated with bailey ice cream smoothies & episodes of The Office and 30 Rock.
Tomorrow we'll be volunteering at SAGA again. Saturday, we head to Tulum, Mexico.
yummm! We have to plan when lauren, jason, jeff and i are coming down!
ReplyDeletelauren s