Dec 24, 2012 - Christmas in Belize

After Tikal, we made our way to San Ignatio in Belize, a small rural town where we would be spending Christmas. Christmas eve was a big deal with the whole town out in support of two marching bands that took it in turns of marching through the streets playing a mixture of Latin and Christmas music. This is the kind of town where the restaurant set a table up for us in the main steet of town and it didn't cause that much trouble. Christmas was pretty uneventful with some of the group visiting a sister resort and their pool whilst others...

Feb 4, 2012 - San Ignacio

A sunny day finally after more than a week of rain. Today we moved from the treehouse into San Ignacio. This town is different from others that we have seen in Belize. The town consists of narrow, winding and hilly streets. The people are Spanish-speaking Mayans and Latinos. Although I have not been to other Central or South American countries it reminds me of photos that I have seen of Columbia, Nicaragua, Honduras and South American countries. It is unlike other Belizean towns. Every town in Belize is like going to a different country....

Dec 31, 2011 - Happy New Year!

Well what a way to end 2011 but travel back in time to an ancient Mayan ritual site, Actun Tunichil Muknal. This was a sacred site that has now been protected by the government. It has been featured on History and Discovery channels. It is all day hike...starting at 730. An hour by suv through some pretty rural roads--pretty scenery, pretty rutted and pretty full of rocks and holes. A 40 minute hike crossing the clear, at times cold river, 3 times to gain entrance to this mystical location. You will be pleased to know that I met some fellow...

Dec 30, 2011 - San Ignacio, Belize

After Tikal, the trip to San Ignacio was a bit uneventful. We drove the Guatemala/ Belize border, but not before stopping at a gas station to "exchange" guatemalan money to belizian money with Chico the friendly money man. The border was busy, but not overly daunting; -take your bag, Fabi our tour leader paid the money for our passports to be stamped for our exit, -walk across the border to the customs(20 meters) -declare nothing, get passport stamped All done in 20 minutes. Our ride to San Ignacio was quick and painless and "home" for a...

Jul 17, 2011 - Belize 'dodgy' city.

San Ignacio 17/7/11 Belize ‘Dodgy’ City. Another hours boat ride found us in Belize city entering the dodgy part of town. You wouldn’t want to walk this part of town in the day, let alone at night. It was a short taxi ride to the bus station where we found a bus heading for San Ignacio. There were a lot of young men on there that made you feel a bit uneasy, may be they were on something, and it was a relief when they got off the bus. It made a lot of stops on the way and took for ever to get there. We passed many villages on the way, and...

Jul 8, 2011 - San Ignacio

Hello! Nous avons quitte notre ile un peu de reculons mais a part le snorkeling et le velo, il ny a pas beaucoup a faire!!! Nous avons fait notre chemin a travers le Belize jusqu;a San Ignacio, tout pres de la frontiere du Guateemala! Nous avons pris lautobus locale! Pour vous faire une idee, cela consiste en un autobus scolaire repeinture au couleur de Bob Marley, beaucoup de Beliziens avec seulement nous comme touristes, pas dair climatise ainsi qu;un cd qui repasse en boucle durant 3 heures de temps!!! Plutot amusant!!! Le Belize est un...

Jun 24, 2011 - San Ignacio

So I decided to do a bit of caving here in San Ignacio and it was a lot of fun. It took about an hour by van to get to the point where we could start walking towards the caves and our group had to cross three different rivers to get to it (another 30-45 minutes I believe). Once we got to the caves we ended up swimming through the main entrance of the cave before we could start walking through it and the water was a bit on the cold side. Also, we were told to bring shoes and socks for the inner part of the cave so it was a bit of an...

Jun 16, 2011 - Punta King

Last night we had a lesson in the infamous punta dancing- lots of hip shaking! It was great fun, the guy who taught it to us was MASSIVE but damn he could swing them hips! If you get the chance check out the song `slow tornado` by lova boy- thats an example of punta and it`s so popular here right now! Today Dr G was sick, so I went to A and E, which was interesting. The first patient was a three year old boy. I was totally put of pediatrics because he was screaming the house down and the poor thing was being pricked like a pin cushion when...

Jun 13, 2011 - You'd better Belize it!

So we've just had the most fun weekend! On Saturday we went to the ATM (Actun Tunichil Muknal) Cave which was a massive ancient Mayan cave. We had a wee 'hike' to the cave where we were told grim tales of sacrifices and so forth (egh!)Then we had to swim to get into the cave and for the next 3 hours we clambered, swam and bouldered our way 1.5km into the cave- it was insane! At one point we all turned off our torches and were launched into complete darkness (freaky!) We had to take off our shoes and just climb in our socks up to the...

Jun 8, 2011 - San Ignacio Hospital

I started at the hospital on Monday. The hospital is quite small, it has an ER and the other half is mostly maternity and OPD. I'm shadowing a great doctor- Dr Goncalvez. She's 60 and Cuban and doesn't speak much English. In Belize the whole healthcare system is computerised so it's my job to type up the history and fill in the prescriptions and stuff. I feel like I sometimes have quite a bit of responsibility- she sometimes just leaves me and is like 'take a history' or says 'examine her abdomen' which is cool! Don't worry- I haven't...

Jun 6, 2011 - Only country without McDonalds! (perhaps...)

The reason I called the last entry Hurricane season is because it is that time of year here, which means it does rain at night, so it`s quite humid. We traveled to San Ignacio (west of Belize city) with other Proworld volunteers on Saturday. There are 12 of us in total, all the others are American, mostly with an interest in healthcare and about our age. We`ve all been put up in homesteads- which is great! Helen and myself, along with two other girls (one who randomly just finished at Edinburgh uni!) are staying at our homestead. We are...

Jan 4, 2011 - this an that

YO it is I. just checkin in for any who may still be watchin. Im listening to Sizzla - Give me a try Happy new years BTW. hope yall had fun. I celebrated two new years this year and both were over the top MAD awesome. things are good. i just bought a guitar today actually. SO thats new. i honestly cant right any more than that. sorry. this is prolly a let down but my eye hurts. I was checkin out a friends bee hives and got stung right under my eye! that was yesterday. its a bit swollen but not too bad. it just is a dull itchy pain. I...