Last Day! Home is next!

Please click here to see our video filmed underwater: UnderWater video


Jamie again!

I will take this moment to write about 5 things I’ve gotten to check off my bucket list:

1.       Pet a jaguar

2.       Jump into the middle of the ocean to snorkel

3.       See a real-life manatee

4.       Climb Maya ruins

5.       River raft through a rainstorm in a rainforest

So yeah, this trip has been pretty awesome!

Today we went snorkeling in four locations. The reefs were super cool, and there were tons of fish and other aquatic animals. We even saw a stingray that was about the size of Amanda! We boated out to open ocean, and I faced my fears and was able to jump off! We dove down in between the pieces of coral, and yes, I will admit, explored our inner Ariel. We then journeyed on to a mangrove forest, where we saw FOUR manatees floating around like the big fat grey blobs they are! Don’t get me wrong though, they can go pretty fast! Our instructor Jen jumped off and swam with one of them. I was only slightly jealous! Anyway, I got to go return this computer, because Pamster needs to pack it. And Amanda needs help treating her “minor” sunburn. Here I come to save the day!
See you all tomorrow!

Jamie

Tokyo, Yaritza, and Chupacabra here! Jamie pretty much explained everything… Awesome day, though! Water was incredibly warm and so clear and beautiful. We saw so much wildlife including groupers (Highlight of the trip for Yaritza and me!), eels during the night snorkel, gigantic rays (which luckily were sleeping and inactive), adorable manatees, numerous species of exotic fish, and gorgeous coral. We learned a lot about the ecosystem here and how much humans have begun to negatively affect it. Due to global warming, certain types of coral lose the ability to sustain themselves in the hot weather while others are impacted by hurricanes, also caused by climate change. Sunscreen and bug spray can cause harm to the animals in Belize, as well. We learned all of this thanks to our new instructors, Jen and Sean (By the way, happy birthday Jen!). Unfortunately, today was our final full day in this beautiful country and we are ridiculously sad to be leaving. We will miss our guide, Peter, who was funny and very knowledgeable, and our friend from the World Leadership Program, Javier, who was hilarious and hilarious and hilarious! We will also greatly miss the food here, which is too delicious for words! During this trip, we learned so much, saw so much, and had so much fun experiencing the great culture of Belize! We wish we could stay longer. However, we are greatly looking forward to coming home and seeing our… phones! Being away from technology has been very painful for certain members of our group… Meaning ME!

Thank you Belize! Both excited and sad to come home tomorrow evening. See you guys tomorrow!

And, thank you to our two fearless leaders in Belize, Javier Cano and Peter Herrera