Last day ....

The perfect last day arrived with less wind and more sun and everyone feeling healthier.
Colleen, Owen and Nat got off fine, and all have arrived to their destinations without a hitch. We had a fun visit with the Island Academy kids (this is the school founded by the Bowens at which Caleb taught for 3 years - he's still a hero when he returns!), got some sun and had time to shop for our last souvenirs before heading out for a final dinner.
Nothing major to report today - no massive sunburns, nothing lost, no one unhappy - really just a nice last day! Maybe the pictures will tell the story.
We're out of here by 11 a.m. for a long day trekking, first by 14-seater prop plane and then to a more standard jet and on to home.

Main Street, San Pedro.

Preparing to deliver some new balls to the local school.

Katie working on capture the flag strategy.

Introducing ourselves to the second grade.

Pet coati mundi, anyone?

Preparing coconuts to snack on.

See most of you in Boston!

Do you suppose San Pedro knew St. Patrick?

The ferry to San Pedro.

Our new digs - Sunbreeze Suites.

Morning commute.

Dinner at Pinnochio's.

By all accounts it was a great day snokeling. The kids woke up reasonably early for their first day with a legitimate "sleep-in" and spent the morning souvenir shopping, getting hair braided and generally looking around. After lunch the group met for snorkeling, and despite the wind, conditions out at the reef were excellent. A couple of us were feeling under the weather and didn't join the group, but may give it a go tomorrow. Reports are that there were unbelievable sea turtle sightings, as well as a serious-looking moray eel, a bunch of jacks and numerous other fish. As Caleb said, "The sharks were bigger than I remembered..." - but he survived.  I'll try to post some underwater video footage later, so watch the links list.

We had dinner tonight at Pinocchio's Pizza to celebrate Nat, Colleen and Owen's last night, though we haven't managed a birthday cake for Katie yet so will get to that tomorrow.

It's St. Patrick's Day here, and not my favorite night on the island - Matt will stay with the students and all will be back in by early curfew. They've been so good about getting decent sleep and have shown excellent judgment so far, so I'm not at all concerned. Nonetheless, March 18 brings the loss of 3 in our group as well as the back end of St. Patrick - a little positive with the negative!

More multimedia later ....

Safe in San Pedro

After a long day of planes, trains and automobiles we made it across the country and the ocean to Ambergris Caye and our final destination. The kids are enjoying exploring this ever-growing little beach town tonight, where Caleb has already seen many friends and former students from his 3 years living and teaching here, and we've already seen Lady Dixie Bowen, long-time benefactor of this trip.

It has been unseasonably cool and rainy for this time of year, so we're doing a dance to the weather gods that there's a window of calm tomorrow afternoon so we can snorkel as a group before Colleen, Owen and Natalie have to leave, a day early. Colleen's masterminding a special dinner tomorrow night to celebrate their last night and Katie's 18th birthday the next day. More tomorrow - but rest assured all are well.

Another perfect day

The rainbow ends at Jackie's house!

A spider monkey joined us at the pool!

Celebrating the news that Katie got into another college!

A lecture  in the resort bar - a combination I'd like to suggest to any administrators reading this ...

Duna and Rita making a beef dish for lunch.

Jackie Bowen sharing her little puppies.

At the top of the Upper Escarpment.

This morning one of my favorite trip phenomena happened – the students started to realize that we’re leaving here tomorrow, and get the slight edge of panic in their eyes. No one wants to leave here (ever). Nonetheless, we must.

We spent the day horseback riding, working at the school, and taking a last few dips in the beautiful Chan Chich pool. After Colleen and I got a big-girls-only ride through the jungle with Emil to witness the devastation of Hurricane Richard, we all piled into the trucks and headed up some “sketchy” (to use a Brooks kid word) roads to the top of the upper escarpment, a huge rock promontory that soars over the jungle and allows a 360-degree view of the property, with the Guatemalan border in view. As we came up out of the jungle onto the rock plateau – and we couldn’t have scripted it better – a double rainbow appeared, leaving everyone squealing and clamoring for cameras. We had a variety of astounding views of the phenomenon over the next hour as we moved back down to civilization, and when we entered the open space that is Gallon Jug proper, it became clear that the rainbow ended right at the Bowens' house. "OMG!! There's not pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!  It's a basket of puppies...!!" squealed one clever passenger.

The village soccer game was canceled due to unseasonal rain, so Zander met us fetched us over to their house for a delicious feast with the Millers (conservation scientists from last night who have Matt all revved up trying to think about how to design an affordable camera trap for their animal counts) and the teachers from the school. We sat on their new deck and enjoyed the food, the sunset and the company during our last night in Gallon Jug. The kids enjoyed playing with the puppies some more, hanging out with the Bowen kids (Ace, 7, and Liza, 5), and even a little bit of Wii before the party started.

Due to some false advertising from the Trinidadian company Zander gets his cable from, we didn’t get to see anything but the last scene of Glee, but the students were remarkably resilient. I’m thankful for their brave sacrifice. I think we can watch it on Hulu in San Pedro tomorrow, if need be …

We just dropped them at the barn to do their last bit of laundry, pack up and be ready to roll around 8:30 tomorrow. Certainly Rita and Duna will have something delicious and some warm tortillas to get us going in the a.m., and we’ll find our way unescorted back through the jungle to Belize city – to the water taxi and our next adventure. Probably no update tomorrow as it’s a long travel day, but soon …

Hasta luego from the most beautiful place on earth …

It's a small world, but it's full of nature and stuff

The world is small.

This morning the adults were having breakfast at Chan Chich while the kids ate Rita’s delicious egg scramble up at the barn. The new manager, Jennifer, came by to introduce herself and in conversation we discovered that her boyfriend’s mom, who has just arrived, is the head at Fay School. Our Fay School. She was as boggled that we were here as we were to meet her. She is Lanie Schuster, and is currently happily sitting by the gorgeous Chan Chich pool. Sometimes it’s good to be a teacher, I guess!

Let’s see – where was I in the narrative … Last night for dinner Rita made us shredded chicken burritos in homemade tortillas. Colleen was thrilled for the chance to observe Rita and Duna’s tortilla-making method, and even took video. I hope to reap the benefits of her scholarship sometime at home!

While we were waiting Matt went out to bring something exciting back for the kids to see. We had heard there was a boa living around the barn and hoped it wasn’t that. While he was gone our friend Jackie Bowen arrived – her husband Zander is Barry Bowen’s son, and they’re running things out here since Barry’s untimely death this time last year while piloting his own plane. She was carrying something coming up the stairs and I thought maybe it was more waters – nope – it was a basket of puppies. I’m not kidding - 9 5-week old Shi-tzus from her 2 recent litters. She now has 19 dogs. I think she might be a little crazy. Anyway, the kids completely melted and everyone cuddled a puppy for a while as we chatted and caught up. Jackie lives here and has invited us over tomorrow night to watch Glee at her house – some of this group of kids is in the weekly Glee group that meets at my house, so it will be perfectly natural for us to gather and do this again … in the jungle. Nothing weird about that ….

Chan Chich is a huge birding destination, and this morning I heard something that almost made me laugh out loud – an older man chatting with the waitress about his plans for the day said, “Yeah, we’re not really going to bird too hard today ….”  I’ve never considered the idea of “birding hard”, but you can be sure I’ll be working it into my vocabulary more often going forward.  With all the talk of birding “life lists” out here, my coolest sightings so far today are a collared aracari on the tree beside me at breakfast; I spotted a great currasow on the side of the road; lots of different hummingbirds flitting around, lots of oscillated turkeys (this place has the largest population of them in the world) … and I hear tell there is an ornate hawk eagle nesting nearby which I hope to see. Yesterday staff members saw 2 different pumas and 2 baby ocelots in the evening. All I ever hear are the stories – I never see them!!

Half of the kids rode this morning and got 2 good hours in the jungle with Emil, our favorite guide. The rest of us headed to the school for the first time since our friends Mike and Jill Casey, who had run it for years, also died in the plane crash mentioned above. It was a bit eerie for us and hard to get used to, but all our students saw were 52 very, very cute kids who were happy to see them.  Colleen and I settled into the 4-5 grade class with Reina, the only teacher we still know, and Colleen got to share some fun science facts about fossils, the 5 kingdoms (there was some consternation that she put us humans in the animal kingdom, so we had to detour there for a minute), bacteria, the age of the earth, and how geckos stay on the ceiling. I’m not sure they entirely bought her science mumbo jumbo, but they sure were paying attention!

After lunch (baked chicken, roasted potatoes, salad), Matt took the kids for a tour of the estate and they learned where chocolate comes from (see the picture of the mushy cacao fruit), where coffee grows and how it’s processed, and a bunch of other stuff. This place grows its own fruit, vegetables, herbs, chickens and cows, so they’re getting a real look at a self-sustaining enterprise. We’re now settled back at Chan Chich for some pool time, some trail hiking (have I mentioned that this place is built on an unexcavated Maya plaza? I uploaded an illustration of the entire site – we are located on “Plaza A”, if you can make it out. The ghosts of the ancient Maya are everywhere!)

Keep an eye to the right of the blog under the heading “links” – I’m trying to figure out the best way to get video up, and so far I’ve only gotten Indie the hysterical tapir up. He’s pretty funny, though.

The ferry at Spanish Lookout.

Sam doing her Titanic thing.

The map of the Maya site on which Chan Chich is situated.

A rare Ocellated Turkey.

The barn where the kids stayed.

Dr. K getting cooking tips from the local ladies.

Caleb and a new friend.

Dr. K talking fossils with the Standard 4-5 class.

Lauren tries the cacao "goo".

Cacao seeds. Just add ... sugar, cream, a bunch of other stuff ... and you have chocolate!

In the photos above you can see the barn the kids are staying in, some shots of the school, the common room in the barn and Rita and Duna cooking, and more. If you have any questions post them in a comment and I'll answer when I can!!

Tonight we’ll all enjoy a meal here at the Chan Chich restaurant with Jackie and Zander, and before that we’ll have a lecture from Bruce & Carolyn Miller, resident naturalists who came down here 2 decades ago on a Wildlife Conservation Fund grant to study jaguars and who never left. They always have fascinating information to impart – the kids will learn something whether they want to or not!

That’s all from here. Time to jump in the pool ….