Waking up this morning was not easy, as I had not slept in 48 hours. I snoozed my alarm for about half an hour and I finally woke up to a beautiful view of the Caribbean Sea. Our room is on the ocean front and the Sea is right outside our window. Last night I suggested to Courtney (my roommate) that we leave the curtains open for natural lighting in the morning; also I was afraid that we wouldn't wake up at 6 a.m. if our room was completely dark.
We went down to the main floor level and had an
amazing Belizean breakfast. The hotel restaurant had a breakfast buffet that
consisted of the following; scrambled eggs, breakfast sausage (which looks like
sliced American hotdogs), Johnny cakes (which is like a biscuit but more
dense), brown boiled eggs, beans, potatoes with green bell peppers, fresh
fruit, mozzarella cheese (my favorite by the way), cucumber slices, tomato
slices, salami slices, yogurt mixed with fruit, and toast. There was also
water, coffee, and orange juice. What was interesting to me was the orange
juice, it's not your regular orange juice, what they did to create this
concoction was they poured water into a large liquid dispenser and then added a
concentrated orange flavored juice. Even though it wasn't traditional orange
juice, it was really tasty.
After breakfast we all met in the hotel lobby
and waited for the bus to pick us up and take us to our planned excursions.
Originally we had planned to go cave tubing, and zip lining, however it had
rained a lot during the days prior to our arrival and the water levels were
higher than normal so if we did go cave tubing our heads would be
touching/hitting the cave's roof (which is probably not safe). So our new plans
were still to go zip lining and then go to the Belize Mayan ruins. The
bus picked us up at 8 a.m. and our tour guide for the day was a man named Major Tom,
who is an intelligent tall man with large hands. On our drive to our
destinations, he would informed us every so often about the towns in Belize and
talked about the culture of Belize. What was interesting to me was how he
discussed how women in Belize had a lot of rights. For instance, open carry is not allowed in Belize, however, a women is able to carry a gun to protect herself. Also if an unknown man comes to the woman's door and knocks and if she tells him to go away and knocks again and refuses, she has the right to shoot him without any consequences.
We went zip lining at the “Zipriders of the Howling Hills”, which was an
hour drive from the Ramada Princess Hotel. Our ride to the zip lining and Mayan
ruin excursion was interesting, we drove through the country of Belize and saw a
lot of different things. We saw farmlands, cemeteries, living quarters (which
were impoverished), children playing soccer/outside, women washing clothes by
the river banks, children helping their mothers wash clothes, men working outside
of their homes/fields, people walking along the street, people selling things
along the street, boys playing basketball barefooted, and little shacks that
were selling handmade Belizean items. Seeing all of these different living environments on the drive to our destinations made me think about all the things we have in the United States. It also made me more aware that we are so lucky and fortunate to have all that we do in the U.S. Being exposed to a different country has made me more appreciative of what I have back at home (Texas).
We arrived at our destination and the zip lining guides prepped us for
zipping. We were given helmets, harnesses, and gloves (one glove had a brake
which was used for stopping at the receiving end, and the other glove was used
to hold on). The zip lining guides followed us along the zip lines and helped
us get hooked to the zip lines, and they were so helpful. We went zipping
through the canopy of Belize’s rain forest for about an hour. At the start of
zipping I was nervous and my adrenaline was pumping. I finally jumped off the
ledge of the first zip line that they called “chicken run”, I’m assuming it was
called “chicken run” because it wasn’t high at all and it wasn’t long, but to
me it was. My initial thought was that the height and speed of the zip lines
would gradually build up to be higher and faster, but I was wrong. The zip line
following the “chicken run” was the fastest and it was SO HIGH that we were
almost of the top of the tallest trees! I was thinking to myself, geez this isn’t
a gradual process at all, and I began to get nervous again, but as I jumped off
the ledge I was fine and my adrenaline was pumping even more. After that we zipped
through 4 more zip lines, and the last two were the coolest. The second to the
last zip line was extremely long and ran over a gorgeous river (that was my
favorite zip line). The zip lining
through the rain forest was a thrilling and invigorating experience beyond
belief, and the views were so breath taking that no photo can do any
justification. Zip lining is a definite must at least once in your lifetime!
After we had finished zipping we got a drink of water and juice and loaded up
the bus for the Mayan Ruins.
The drive to the Mayan Ruins was about an hour and a half
from the zip lining location, so we just sat back and enjoyed the ride. We
finally arrived at our next destination, but in order to get to the Mayan Ruins
we had to cross over a river in a ferry, which was hand cranked by a man. The
view of the river on the ferry was absolutely amazing I must add.
A van picked us up and drove us to the top of the hill where
we went had lunch. Lunch today consisted of rice (which looked like rice pilaf),
a chicken leg, coleslaw, and bags of pineapple and jicama. Out tour guide Major
Tom poured this type of salt that was different from your traditional salt, it
was good.
After lunch, Major Tom gave us a presentation on the culture
of Belize and how it came to be; it was a very intriguing presentation. When
the presentation was over we started to walk up to where the Mayan Ruins were,
the walk was long at all, but it was exhausting because we had to walk at an
incline. We reached the top of the hill where the Mayan Ruins were and it was
nothing like I had ever seen before, it made me feel so small. It actually made
me think that there is more out there in the world. As we
walked through the Mayan Ruins Major Tom informed us on each of the Mayan Ruin
Structure. Walking up the main Mayan Ruin was extremely exhausting and the steps were quite steep, but eventually we made it to the top. The view from the top was gorgeous! While we were at the Mayan Ruins we saw lots of monkeys in the trees and there were so cute!
After the Belize Mayan Ruins, we drove back to our hotel, which was a 2 hour drive. While on our way back to the our hotel, most of us had decided to take a nap on the bus. We finally arrived at the Ramada Princess Hotel and went straight to dinner.
Day 2 was extremely fun and I did things that I had not done before, I zip lined through the Belize Rain Forest, actually it was my first time zip lining, climbed a huge Mayan Ruin, and made unforgettable memories with some pretty awesome people. Another thing that I want to add, Major Tom said something today that I absolutely appreciated:
"It's not about the foot steps you leave behind, it's about the memories you make"
This quote fits today's adventure perfectly!
Best,
Gabrielle
Great blog! Belize is fun and great!
ReplyDelete-Matt