Placencia

This weekend, we went to the beach town of Placencia. It was like a post card. Most of our time was spent lounging in the sun with a book during the day, and enjoying live music at the nearby bar in the evening.

There are five in our group with SCUBA certification, and we were all hoping to get to go diving at least one day this weekend. After the full moon, the schools of snapper come closer in to shore, and following the snapper are enormous whale sharks. This would have been an excellent time to go, not to mention that they collect around Glover's Reef, one of the prime places to see healthy corals, spotted rays, sea turtles, etc. Much to our disappointment, the weekend was incredibly windy, the sea too rough to go out, and the visibility likely to be poor. You win some; you lose some. It meant we got to spend more time relaxing on the sandy beach. 

One of the local girls caught a squirrel and let us hold it. . . I was thinking about my rabies vaccine the whole time.

Barranco

This week, our nutrition group had the opportunity to help with one of the mobile clinics in the seaside town of Barranco. This primarily a Garifuna town, the primarily black, Caribbean group of people that is one of the many cultural groups of Belize. This was a busy clinic, and we had a great time with the friendly patient population. I saw mostly older women with chronic problems like hypertension and diabetes who needed check-ups and medication refills. I thought their knowledge of appropriate diet, foot care, and lifestyle changes necessary for those conditions was incredible. These women knew how to take care of themselves. I only wish our patient population in the US was more like them.

Barranco is also the original home of Andy Palacio (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Palacio), a Belizean Punta musician who had achieved recognition throughout Belize prior to his unfortunate death at age 48, likely from a stroke. His family continues to come to the Hillside mobile clinics in Barranco.

This is Sara, the pharmacy student, counseling a relative of Andy Palacio.

Actun Tunichil Muknal

On Sunday, our group went on the "ATM" tour. ATM stands for Actun Tunichil Muknal, meaning Cave of the Stone Sepulchre. This tour was one of the coolest things I've ever done.

We had an hour long hike through the jungle, including crossing the river a few times with all our stuff on our backs. Once we reached the cave, our guide outfitted the group with helmets and headlamps, and in we went. In order to reach the main chamber, we had to hike through various dark passages and swim through collected pools of water. At one point our guide had us all turn out our lights, place our hands on each others shoulders and walk through the pitch blackness. It felt strange for their to be no difference with my eyes open or closed.

When we reached the main chamber, we all took off our shoes and walked around in only socks. This was to prevent damage to the numerous Mayan artifacts scattered every few feet around the cave. We were walking around inches from ancient pottery and both adult and infant human skeletal remains.

Our guide took us further into the cave into a chamber of cathedral-like living stalactites and stalagmites. He had us close our eyes once more and we began hearing ethereal, melodic drumming. When we opened our eyes, he showed us that the stalactites each make a tone when tapped, singing like a drum.

We finally reached a rickety-looking ladder and climbed up into the final room, the Chamber of the Crystal Maiden. In this chamber is the skeleton of a young female, positioned as though she is dancing. Her spine is severed, and lying near her is the blade with which she was sacrificed.

Her skeleton lies to the left, just above where water would reach when the caves fill in the rainy season, and you can see the curtain-like glittering cave formations in the background.

Before we left on this tour, it was described to us as the "quintessential" activity to do in Belize, and I would have to agree. I feel incredibly lucky to have been able to tour this cave like we did. With the number of tourists traveling through every day, damage has been noted to the artifacts and condition of the cave itself. The tour guide association is currently working on restricting the number of people and the regions of the cave to which tourists may be taken. While it was amazing to hear the stalactite song and see these artifacts up close, I can imagine how this kind of daily exposure is causing deterioration. Case in point, in the picture of the skull above, you can see that the front teeth are missing. This occurred a few years ago when a tourist dropped her camera and broke them off. While I am thankful for this experience, I definitely think restrictions will be necessary to preserve this amazing combination of natural and ancient human works.

Tikal

Our internet hasn't been functional for the last few days, so I'm going to try to catch up on my entries since last weekend.

Last Saturday, we  booked a tour to Tikal, the largest of the Mayan ruins in this region, just across the Guatemala border. 

Tikal has 5 large temples, the Mayan palace, the market, and other parts of the city still under excavation. The enormity of the temples was mind-boggling, especially when I learned that ancient Mayans did not use the wheel. They did fashion large round stones, but these were used as sacrificial altars, not for transportation.

In this picture, you can see one of the large temples, there is a second mirroring temple across the courtyard. In front of the temple are two round stones with upright stones behind- these are both sacrificial altars. We learned from our guide, that unlike the scenes depicted in the movie Apocalypto, the Mayans did not perform sacrifices at the tops of their temples. There were different altars assigned for each of the different animal and human sacrifices.

This is one of the Mayan ball courts. Originally, there would have been two metal rings in the center of each court wall. To score points, the players would pass the ball through these rings. The fate of the defeated team was decided by the Mayan rulers, and the winning team had the honor of wearing the losers skulls on their belt. This is a fairly small court and may have been used for one-on-one or two-on-two play.

After our tour of Tikal, Katie, Ryan, Kelly, and I went zip-lining through the Guatemalan jungle.

San Ignacio

Belize is a traditionally Catholic country, and the Easter holiday is widely celebrated. The clinic was therefore closed on the Friday before and the Monday after the weekend. This left us a nice long four day weekend to do some traveling. Our group of 8 students left right after clinic on Thursday afternoon for a town in the Cayo district to the north near the Guatemala border called San Ignacio (see the map included in my first entry). We hopped on the James Busline that runs from Punta Gorda to the capital city of Belmopan. It was a surprisingly pleasant 4 hour bus ride. All of the buses here are All American school buses repainted in bright colors, a different combination for each bus company. We each had our own seat, and with all the windows down, it was breezy and a fun adventure. From Belmopan, we caught another busline west to San Ignacio for another 45 minute ride or so.

The first thing we all noticed stepping off the bus was how much more lively San Ignacio is than Punta Gorda. There were people out about on the streets, restaurants with outside tables and patios, a line of waiting taxis, and music projected from every store, restaurant, and vehicle. We had traveled from a sleepy coast town to a popular travel destination, and, I have to admit, it was a very welcome change. 

We booked our lodging thinking that we'd do our bus traveling on Friday, so arrived in town praying that our hotel would have enough room for 8 a night early. The owner of the Tropicool Hotel, Wally, was a great guy who squeezed us in. We felt so lucky that it worked out that I did not mind having to share a twin bed with the pharmacy student, Sara, for the night.

The next morning, we wandered over to talk with the tour company through which we pre-booked our tour to the mayan ruin of Tikal in Guatemala. After a discussion with the employees about what to bring, how to pay, etc, we asked what we should do for the rest of the day. The tour company did not offer any afternoon only tours, and there was nothing going on in town because of the holiday. The two employees we were talking with were a couple of younger guys named Andrew and Courage (what a great name). Andrew informed us that he was going to his favorite spot in all of Belize to go swimming for the afternoon. He then says, "I'd take you all with me, but I don't think you'd fit in my truck." Definitely a courtesy invite. But then Katie pipes up with "Oh, of course we'll all fit." And before Andrew could change his mind, Courage and the rest of our group were all piled into Andrew's Ford Explorer with a cooler of beer. We went swimming at a gorgeous spot in the river with turquoise water, small rapids, and lots of little fish. It was great and totally unexpected- which made it even better.

We got back to San Ignacio in time to watch the Good Friday processional. Four men carried a glass casket lined with flowers, a truck drove behind playing dirges, and the rest of the churchgoers and anyone else who wished to follow paraded through the streets. This was more of a celebration of Good Friday than I have had in my entire life.

Mobile Clinics

Last Thursday I had the opportunity to ride with the clinical group of students on one of their "mobiles." We drove two hours down the same dusty, winding roads I described earlier to the village of Jalacte. Our vehicle was another Toyota Landcruiser; this time with bench seats lining the sides in the back so we could fit up to 12 people- with 4 medical students, a pharmacy student, a pharmacist, 2 physicians, a local nurse to check in patients and translate, the driver, the clinic director, and a large box of charts and medications, it was pretty much full. The clinic is a fairly nice building, but small. I conducted my patient interview next to the pharmacy table. The other room had a history-taking station in each corner, but there are no curtains or means for privacy making a detailed exam more difficult.

Since the Easter holiday began on Wednesday, our clinic was very light, only about 5 patients and nothing particularly unusual. However, I truly enjoyed the morning observing the village. The church was across the street, and you could hear their band practicing for the Easter service. We went over to check it out, and they had a pretty sweet set-up. Two electric guitars, a keyboard, and enough speakers to be heard in Texas if they so desired- not exactly traditional instruments, but a fun site to see.

As a member of the nutrition group, I was particularly interested in the beans spread out to dry down the road from the clinic. There was a yellow school bus parked on the side of the road with a tarp tied to the side and spread out onto the ground. The men were scooping the beans out of large bags and throwing them in handfulls across the road. The beans would land on the tarp while the chaff was blown away by the breeze, collecting on the road. I thought it was a fairly efficient method of separating out the beans while lying them out to dry.

Dr. Dick, a retired family medicine physician and our nutrition group mentor for the first two weeks headed home the next day. We were sad to see him go. He had incredible insight regarding the health care system, the day-to-day community activities, and was a strong advocate for our group and our project. In addition, he is an amazing person, and we had lots of laughs and a fantastic time hanging out with him! We miss you already, Dick!

This is Belize

Yesterday, our nutrition team of 4 set off excited for our first meetings with the villages. We were to present the data collected by the team last month and get the input of village leaders regarding their perspective on their nutritional needs and interventions they might like to see. 

We clamored into one of the Hillside vehicles, an old Toyota Landcruiser with insufficient air-conditioning and the boys sitting on lawn chairs in the back, and then traveled to the end of the road. The highway was paved for about 10 minutes, then degenerated into a dusty, bumpy, winding gravel route. The clinic driver, a local guy named Andy, asked us if we enjoyed the "roller coaster," an apt description. 

Along the way, we could see the many areas where the forests had been slashed and replanted with rows and rows of corn.

Cherrymae, our resource at the Punta Gorda hospital as well as our key communicator with the villages, traveled with us. She had sent letters with Mr. Chen, the bus driver whose route includes the outer villages. He was to deliver these letters to the Alcalde (mayor), Chairman, and Community Health Worker in each village, letting them know that we wished to meet with them. She had arranged the meetings in Jalacte and Pueblo Viejo on Monday, and in Santa Elena and Santa Cruz on Tuesday.

So, we have our presentations prepared for the first two villages on Monday. And after a nauseating 2 hour drive, Katie, Ryan, Jimmy, and I are dying to meet the people and finally get some real work done. However. . .

The bus driver did not deliver a single letter. No one knew we were coming. We traveled to each village, finding that they had nothing set up and all the village leaders were gone working for the day and would not return until evening. Another lesson learned- things here just plain do not go as planned. The good that came of our trip was our ability to speak face to face with at least one prominent person in each village. We were able to re-schedule our meetings reliably. 

Ah well. That's how things are here. This is Belize. 

Kayaking and Beach Weekend

After a hot, dusty week, we were excited for the weekend. The clinical half of our group is done on Fridays at noon, so we had the afternoon to spend together, all 8 students. We went to TIDE, an eco-tourism group in Punta Gorda who rents kayaks by the hour. There are a number of small estuaries (places where freshwater rivers or streams meet the ocean), and left the TIDE dock in one of these small rivers. We first paddled inland through the mangroves. I was too worried about tipping my kayak to bring my camera (a legitimate concern- although I managed to stay upright, not everyone did), but I wished I could have. We navigated through the narrow mangrove passages with the graceful plants winding on all sides. When fallen trees and low water meant we couldn't go any further, we turned around and traveled toward the ocean. Kayaking along shore, we found a small place to beach our kayaks and go for a quick ocean swim. On Friday, the heat index was 120F, and we were all dying for a cool dip. However, the ocean temperature right off shore was like bathwater, had to have been mid-80s water temperature. Although it still felt good to get wet.

On Saturday morning, our favorite taxi driver, Hermando, picked us up at 7am to meet our boat, the B-nice. We planned a one night stay on Lime Key. It is an island owned by Denis, the divemaster and water adventure tour guide in Punta Gorda. (Yep, Kyle, he owns his own island.) Lime Key was nothing less than paradise. Clear turquoise water, palm trees, and a white sand beach. Denis's mother and aunt live on the island and cook fantastic Belizean meals for those visiting. 

On Saturday, we arrived at the island and set up our tents near the beach. Then Denis took us out on the boat for a quick dive before lunch. Katie, Ryan, and I are PADI certified open water SCUBA divers, so the three of us enjoyed a fantastic dive down the outer wall of the southern Belize barrier reef. The entire group then went snorkeling later in the day. The fish life was diverse, including various parrot fish, spiny lobsters, eels, and an array of corals. As the sun went down, we started a bonfire on the beach and were joined by (according to Katie) about 2 billion hermit crabs. I have never even imagined that so many could exist in one place. They were everywhere, and some huge- in shells as big as my hand.

The night sleeping on the sand was not as wonderful as it sounds. It turns out that sand is incredibly hard, but I suppose if I had to wake up uncomfortable at 5:30 am, the best place to do it is on a tropical island.

Our second day was a repeat of the first with more snorkeling and another dive down the outer wall. By the end of that day, we were all satisfied with an amazing weekend, pretty tired, sun-toasted, and very ready for our mattresses back at the Hillside Clinic. 

Realization

It's been a few days since I've been able to post, but its because we've been off doing some both incredibly fun and incredibly eye-opening things.

Last Wednesday and Thursday, we spent our days in the city of Punta Gorda contacting the various NGOs (non-governmental organizations) already doing nutritional intervention projects in the Toledo district. The breadth and cleverness of these projects was impressive. A group called Sustainable Harvest International is attempting to decrease the dependence of the villages on outside aid. They supply seeds and saplings of plants producing fruits and vegetables to supplement the villagers diets while also educating them how to collect and replant seeds for sustainability. In addition, the group has installed latrines that separate urine from feces, showed the villagers how to sterilize the feces in the sun for use to fertilize their crops and gardens. Another NGO called Humana People to People delivers chickens, coops, and feed to the villages. The people are taught to let the chickens reproduce and then can be used for meat and eggs. The chickens and their eggs can also be sold to help the family make a profit. 

The truly educational piece for our student group was the realization that many of our ideas for interventions had already been put into place by people much more experienced and with a better understanding of the cultural barriers. We began to question the basis of our project when so much has already been done in the nutritional field. Upon further probing of our contact with the Punta Gorda hospital who has ties to the Belize Ministry of Health, we found that she had a pre-formed agenda. Her desire is to establish school feeding programs for the kids who have long, very early bus rides every morning. While this is an admirable goal, it was frustrating to find that our nutritional surveys and the hard work done by the students in the last month was set up to cater to her pet project. 

This last week has been a lesson in politics- we have seen the competition between the NGOs and how our student group has been used to support a hidden agenda. Our challenge now is to learn how to navigate these political relationships while maintaining the  independence and integrity of both our group and our data.

Pictures of other fun things: (1) Swimming in Blue Creek, (2) A Garifuna drum band at Waluco's Cool Spot, (3) Hanging out at Waluco's after kayaking.

Orientation and our "Conference Call"

Yesterday was a long day of orientation to the clinic, the day-to-day workings of our small clinic complex (like where to put our garbage and hang the laundry), and a lecture by our fearless leader, Dr. Dick, about tropical diseases and rashes. We've had a little more time to get settled in our dorms, and now I've got a few pictures to post. It is lovely, but incredibly hot and humid in our rooms at night.

We were also given a lift into town to go to the grocery store. 

The grocery store stocks primarily expensive imported American food. The Belizeans purchase American food, especially the bad-for-you stuff, as a sort of status symbol. In addition, there is a fresh market on Wednesday mornings with gorgeous produce. Interestingly, as we are finding out starting to go through the data of our nutrition project, the Belizean families do not eat any of the fruit they grow. They grow fruit exclusively as a cash crop to make money the wealthy and the white tourists will pay at the market.

At the end of the day, I was excited to find our last two group members had safely made it to Punta Gorda. 

This morning was spent primarily on our nutrition project. The group of students volunteering last month had collected surveys and nutritional data at each of the rural villages served by the Hillside Healthcare Clinic. It will be our job to turn their data into a complete report as well as begin to develop nutrional interventions based on the needs identified by their data. In order to transition the project smoothly, we set up a conference call with the previous students. We really wanted this to work out, and it turns out that the best internet connection in Punta Gorda happens to be at a small resort run by an American couple originally from Ohio. So, we were able to mix a little business with pleasure and complete our conference call in between dips in the ocean-side pool. (I know, life is rough.)

In actuality, one of the things I was most excited about today was the oscillating fan Katie, my roommate, and I purchased to help cool our room at night. We carried this four foot tall fan around all day, but it is definitely going to be worth it.

The pictures from top to bottom: 1. Our clinic manager, James, a nurse practitioner, holding a rhinoceros beetle. 2. The rhinoceros beetle. 3. Claire, a med student from England, standing in our kitchen. 4. Amie, another med student, in our living area. 5. Katie's and my bedroom before Katie got here. 6. Supaul's Supermarket. 7. Katie petting the iguana a few of the local boys caught and brought to our front door. They named it Bamboo Chicken. We later watched them climb the tree to put her back. (They assured us it was female, although who knows how they could tell.) 8. Jimmy hanging out by the nearest power outlet for our computer conference call. It just happened to be at the bar as well. 9. Katie and Ryan hanging by the pool. Working hard.

Arrival

For all of those who may be concerned (Mom and Dad), I was lucky enough to make it to Punta Gorda without a hitch. I even made it on time, which I hear is rare around here. I feel especially lucky, 

knowing that two others in our group were caught in the midwest snow, and will have to wait to arrive tomorrow.

My trip was fairly uneventful until my local flight from Belize City to Punta Gorda. I boarded a truly tiny 15 passenger (including the pilot) puddle jumper with a group of spring breakers and a family with three kids. We flew about 25 minutes over gorgeous scenery to Placencia, a popular beach destination where we dropped off every body else. I was the only passenger going all the way to Punta Gorda. The pilot offered to let me sit up front in the co-pilot seat, and my view was spectacular. I could see the treetops of the dense rainforest, the coastline, and the very few small towns along the way.

One of the clinic employees met me at the airport and drove me to the clinic site and the dorms where all the volunteers are staying (pictures to come later). The other students had arrived this afternoon and were ready to go eat in Punta Gorda. We ate at a fun outdoor restaurant called Waluco's Hot Spot (maybe? I have to double check the name). All the tables were out on a large deck with a palm frond roof. There were probably about 20 other people there, and, to give you an idea of the size of Punta Gorda, that may have been the majority of the adult population. We had Belizean beer, curry chicken, and a great time singing Karaoke with the locals. (They tended towards old school country. We, rather embarrassingly, sang Beach Boys and The Thong Song.)

The pictures are (from top to bottom): a couple of lovely views from the plane, the runway in Placencia- taking off after dropping off the rest of the passengers, my first view of Punta Gorda, and finally, the Punta Gorda airport. (Yes, that is really it.)

T-minus 14 hours to departure!

Welcome to post #1 of my attempt at a Belize travel blog!

I am leaving bright, early, and weather-permitting tomorrow morning for Punta Gorda, Belize. (Click on the map at left to enlarge. Punta Gorda is in the Toledo district in southern Belize.)

Once there, three other University of Wisconsin medical students and I will be spending four week volunteering at Hillside Healthcare Clinic, a non-profit medical mission serving southern Belize. For more information about Hillside Healthcare International, and to see pictures of the clinic, check out http://www.hillsidebelize.org/main.html.

During the week, I will be working at the Hillside Clinic location caring for patients, traveling on mobile clinic visits to rural areas, as well as contributing to a project surveying nutritional needs in the area. The weekends are free for fun, sun, and travel! When possible, I will post news and pictures of both activities.

My goal is to update every few days. Please feel free to message or comment if you'd like to hear more!

Finally, I have to give credit to Sean for my blog title. Thanks friend.