Day 1 Belize Feb. 17, 2013

Dios friends and family! (Dios means “hello” in Mopan Mayan). This is our very first blog post from the Mayan Cultural Center in Belize. Thus far, our trip has been absolutely incredible! Soon after arriving in the country, we saw exotic species of animals and plants at the Belize Zoo and the Tropical Educational Center. During our night tour with the guide Tim, we met an ocelot, a margay, and a jaguar, which we were able to pet. We howled with a tribe of wild howler monkeys and fed Belize’s national animal, the tapir!

Today, we had another unbelievable adventure! We visited beautiful Mayan ruins where we experienced an unBELIZEable panoramic view. We could see miles and miles of vegetation! It was truly amazing.

Afterwards, we shopped at local stores and bought cute souvenirs like hand-woven bunny bags and bamboo-slit drums. We ate at a local restaurant and then drove two and a half hours to the Mayan Cultural Center. During the drive, we saw awe-inspiring landscapes and were able to have some relaxing down-time with each other. Could it get any better? Yes! As soon as we arrived at our current destination, we saw a flock of toucans, the country’s national bird!

The food is great, the people are even better! Belize has been even more marvelous than I expected! Can’t wait for tomorrow when we get to start our service trip!

Until next post, Tomiko! J (P.S. the videos and photos are supplied by Jamie)                

Hi guys!

We are having TONS of fun! We all have nick names for each other- Tomiko is Tokyo, Jamie is Jaime (himay), Julia is Julia (hulia), Abbie is chupacabre, Yaritza is Yaritza (churiza), Amanda is grasshopper, Mrs. Conti is Pamster, and Mr. Hartwell is Enrique/ Mr. Crabtree/ Mr. Bridges/ Mr. Swiger. (We can’t remember his name.) We are all working on being quiet, but that is not working out so well.

As of this moment, our favorite activities are getting toilet paper out of used toilets and sharing stories. We are all looking forward to finding grouper, grouper, grouper, groupers!

P.S. Enrique is enjoying his delectable banana, and Pamster is being attacked by Tokyo (the paparazzi). And don’t worry- the World Leadership Foundation has been serving us purified water and all the food has been washed with the same, so we are safe. Much love, Abbie!

Hello everyone! (Yaritza here)
So far everything has been great till we tried to upload a video onto the blog! We will continue trying to share videos, but we hope you enjoy the photos at least!

P.S. how's Grandma?
Until next post! Much love, Yaritza