A Trip to the ZOO!

After spending Saturday getting work done, I decided to take a trip to the Belize Zoo with a few UVM students. It was a really fun trip and, in typical Latin American style, quite the eye-opening venture.

In order to get there we rode the public bus, affectionately known as the 'Chicken Bus'. While nobody was transporting chickens that afternoon, it was PACKED full of people. There were at least to bodies to a seat and as many people crammed into the aisle as possible with a few standing on the stairs and sitting on the engine casing. The bus was obviously a hand-me-down from some American school and I got a kick out of the Safety Guidelines sign that stated "All violations of the safety rules will be reported to the principle of the school". I got the feeling that the Fulton Board of Education was not terribly concerned about the complete disregard for their posted rules.
Anyway, the crowd gradually dissipated as the route progressed and we each eventually got a seat. I am learning just how small a country Belize is and it was made more obvious when we recognized and said Hello to a few people on the bus who we interact with around town. After saying Hello to Diana, a waitress at Martha's, the Inn and restaurant we're staying at, we got a bunch of weird looks from other Belizeans, obviously surprised that the gringos knew local folk.

Once we got to the zoo I was impressed by the setup. It was a great example of how a zoo should ideally be put together, with large, natural enclosures. And apparently all the animals have either been donated from other zoos or bred there in captivity, so none have been taken from the wild despite the zoo being almost exclusively animals from Belize.

At the admissions ticket counter we informed the woman that we were students and had student visas but no IDs. She asked where we were studying, and when we said "Galen" she asked "Are guys from Vermont?". She must have noticed the puzzled surprise on our faces because she followed up by telling us that she had studied at Galen last semester. "Say Hi to Jesse and Conner for me, I had a class with them." Again, small country. It worked to our benefit though since we got in for half price.

The animals were all amazing, although my pictures of them somewhat less so. The Tapirs were a favorite. They are the national animal of Belize and these ones were rather friendly...

A nice schnoz shot while 'April' was lounging in some mud.->

Another Tapir standing up...


And with little to no regulation, you can even touch the animals! (hand of Claire Johnson pictured)

Naturally, there were also a number of other animals including Jaguars...

...and a bunch of Coutamoundi














We were able to see many other natural treasures of Belize and were enthralled for some time by the Harpy Eagle. A program is currently underway to re-introduce the largest eagle to the jungles of Belize.

All in all it was a fun trip and a great opportunity to support a good Belizean cause!

Election Madness

Just before I arrived a General Election for the Prime Minister was called and the vote will be on February 6th. This is pretty neat since there is an election only every 5 years. The party currently in power, the Peoples United Party or PUP, has been there for the last 15 years. The United Democratic Party, UDP, is the main opposition and there are a few 'third party' options that have made it onto the ballot this election, which is apparently a rare occurrence. Not only that, but the National Reform Party is actually expected to do quite well in the Cayo district, where San Ignacio is located.

This is probably because both major parties are teeming with corruption. I have heard all sorts of stories from people around here about embezzlement and even attacks on political activists who have spoken out against the government and all the investigations have either not been started or have been quietly overlooked. All the UVM students were surprised to see such long lines at the voting registration office the first few days we were here and then we found out that the PUP was paying people to register so that they would vote for them and they had apparently even allowed hundreds of Guatemalans to register in order to swing the vote.

Perhaps because of all this, there is serious political activity going on around the city. Every telephone pole is painted and postered with various party advertisements.

Last week the PUP had a huge rally at the 5 corners, a major intersection just down the street. They bused in hundreds of people and provided cheap beer and had concert. The rally was almost as impressive as the amount of garbage left behind.
Funny story: while the rally was going on a group of UVM students were getting ready to go out and hadn't realized they were going to be walking past the rally at 5 corners. One of the students had put on blue pants and a blue shirt and the other in the group were making fun, so they gave her a blue coat and umbrella to go with it. The PUP's color is blue. When the students got to the 5 corners and began to make their way through the crowd, people started to cheer. It only took a moment to realize that they were all looking at this one student, and were cheering the gringa who was proudly displaying her support for the party! At least she wasn't wearing red!

The NRP had their rally last night in the park across the street. It has become quite obvious that there is no such thing as a 'noise violation' or 'public disturbance' here. The rally was drumming and playing music loud enough to hear across the city well into the night.

As the election nears, the excitement and anticipation is growing. Many citizens see this as a major opportunity to change government and remove corrupt politicians. Several Senate seats are also up for re-election. Although many people suspect that it will be the same story with different politicians.

I have seen a rag-tag team of riot police that have been doing drills more often. They lack uniforms but are equipped with helmets, shields, clubs and a few back boards. I have not heard of a riot occurring in San Ignacio, but this whole process is certainly in stark contrast to the election going on in the States. We will see how it all unfolds...

Trip To Tikal

This weekend I took a trip into Guatemala to visit the Mayan ruins at Tikal. One of the UVM girls in our group managed to get a hold of her friend who was backpacking with a buddy through Central America for the past few weeks. They stopped by the Inn last Thursday and decided to head to Tikal this weekend. I jumped at the opportunity to go and learn from these two sojourners about traveling Latin America. I definitely picked up a few tricks of the trade as we made our way to our destination with several twists along the way that landed us in a few places we didn't intend on visiting.

The city of Flores was one of them. A little island city in the middle of a lake, it was a pretty tourist spot full of interesting shops and interesting people. I found the best view of and from the cheap hotel we stayed at. At seven dollars a night with warmish, private showers and real beds, it was a steal!

The city itself was pretty as well...






We managed to talk down a tour guide and get a good price on a tour of Tikal that included a 3:30am bus ride into the park to catch the sunrise from atop the tallest temple in the site. The walk into the park was spectacular since it was still dark and you could hear the calls of monkeys and buzz and chirp of insects as the silhouettes of enourmous ruins emerged just off the paths.

The sunrise itself was more of a gradual illumination since there was an overcast sky and lots of fog. But the sounds of the howler monkeys roaring and screaming throughout the jungle bellow was unimaginable! It was something straight out of Lost World, like hundreds of warring dinosaurs strechted accross the horizon.





After sunrise we had a tour of the site in the daylight and got a chance to explore for a few hours once the tour guide had showed us all of the major ruins. While the entrance to the park was probably more secure than the Guatemalan border, there were no guards and hardly any enforeced regulation inside the site, so we were able to walk onto many of the ruins and temples and get some epic pictures!

The size of these solid, limestone structures is truly immense!

Since the archeological site is in the middle of a National Park we also got a chance to see a number of neat birds and mammals. I saw two varieties of Toucans. Although a little far for a decent picture, they looked spectacular and very peculiar in flight since their beak is as long as their body. I also saw some spider monkeys and a couple big, black Howler monkeys. I had read that Howler monkeys tend to pee on people when they see them, so I stayed out from underneath these two, which turned out to be a good idea as a couple people in our tour group were treated with a warm shower that morning!

It was an amazing trip, and I am developing some travel savvy for when I will be on my own between the program I am currently in and when I need to be in Honduras for the Sugar Project. It's gonna be a blast!

Galen University continued

Galen University Cafeteria. Maribel is the head chef and was also the one to pick us up at the airport when the UVM students first arrived. Since I arrived so early Jan. 8th, Maribal and I had a chance to share a cup of coffee and I practiced my Spanish with her. Being friends with the head of the cafeteria pays off by getting extra food each meal. Not to mention free Spanish lessons. Good Deal







The Library at Galen, located behind the main building.












A favorite reading/lunch spot in front of Galen. You've got to love a palm-thatched roof to keep the intense sun rays from cooking you.










The Galen bus that takes us to school from downtown San Ignacio. I've chatted it up with the driver, Ernesto. Bus schedules are more or less a guideline. I have spent some time at school chatting it up with Ernesto, so the bus doesn't leave without me :)










The Lecture Hall at Galen. This is the largest and nicest of the three classrooms. Firstly, there are windows at the back of the room; so class can continue without complete darkness when the power goes out. Apparently there are daily rolling blackouts in Belize although we have been lucky the first week and not had blackout during class. The metal, folding chairs are standard in each of the classrooms and are a bit brutal on the bonier bodies...especially for the duration of a 2 and a half hour class.

Views of the front of Galen University. The tiny, three classroom school is apparently well known as the number one Belizean university.

A view of San Ignacio from nearby resort

Classes Begin

After my second day at Galen University I have taken almost all of my classes with the exception of one. Yesterday I had Consumer Law and Ethics with Professor Jay Ashman, one of the UVM professors who traveled with the group here. It will probably not be the most exciting class I take here, but there is certainly going to be a lot of important legal information presented and the way Jay sets up class should make it more discussion-based and analytical rather than being solely lectures. There are only five UVM students in the class with the other twenty students being Belizean. Hopefully this will lead to some interesting discussions and opinions that I wouldn't get back in Vermont. My other Monday/Wednesday class was Indigenous Perspectives on Development, taught by Dr. Filiberto Penados, a Mayan who has done a lot of work in this field here in Belize. The class started off on an engaged foot, if you will, we discussed some definitions of 'development' and debated whether or not it was necessary and good and got into a bit of a mini-debate on cultural relativism. My mind was electrified by the discussion and although it is mostly international students in the class, they are not all UVMers and certainly are an opinionated bunch, which should prove quite interesting.



Today I started off with Adventure and Eco Tourism with Dr. Colin Young. Apparently he is involved in the Belizean government's tourism department and is the leading expert on Eco-tourism in the area. He is clearly no joke, and set out some high expectations for the class, but not without lightening it up with some casual discussion about theories and perceptions of tourism. I imagine I am going to garner a lot from this class, not least an overnight field trip to a Manatee reserve and some caving!
Next was another class with Jay, Applications of Sustainable Development. This is the class through which we will be doing our Service Learning Project. As a major part of the program, all of the UVM students are teaming up with some Belizean students to work on a community service project that incorporates some of the learning and theories from class to the real-world environment of Beilize in a nearby community. We have not yet determined exactly which projects we will be working on this semester, but there are many exciting ideas in the works including; English as a Second Language, AIDS education, Conservsation education, setting up a local sustainable agriculture cooperative and many more. We are currently talking to a number of potential community partners in order to determine the needs and desires of the communities so that we can launch a successful venture that will likely span beyond our semester here. There will be much more details on this to come.
Finally, my Mayan Culture and Civilization class was, regretfully, cancelled for today on account of the professor being absent. Dr. Jaime Awe is the top Mayan archeologist in Belize and potentially in Mesoamerica, so I am really excited about him teaching this class. Apparently it is not one to be missed according to the students who were here last semester. We also get to go on a few field trips to nearby Mayan ruins with Dr Awe. I will be sure to post pictures!

Classes have been good so far in this tiny, three classroom University. The entire student body at Galen is only 265, including all of the international students! It will be an interesting contrast to UVM. The classes here are an hour and a half to two and a half hours long, depending. So, when I return to Burlington, 50 minute class periods are going to breeze by! We will see how my expectations hold up throughout the semester...

Contact Info

For those of you who want to send me any mail, There are two possiblities which should work equally well.
You can send mail to where I am staying:

Shaun Gilpin
Martha's Guesthouse
P.O. Box 140
10 West St.
San Ignacio
Cayo
-Belize, Central America-

Or to the University I'm studying at:

Shaun Gilpin
c/o Galen University
P.O. Box 177
San Ignacio
Cayo District
Belize, Central America

I don't know how quick or reliable the postal service is, but I haven't heard anything notorious, so it must be better than Honduras.

I also have a cell phone here, although calling me directly from the States will cost between 50 and 70 cents a minute, so I will not be offended if you don't feel up for it. But the number is:
(501) 625 0060
if you're calling from the States you need to dial 011 before international calls.
Otherwise, e-mail and comments on this blog are probably the cheapest and easiest way to keep in touch with me. Talk to you soon!

Last Weekend before classes

This past weekend was rather exciting with many activities.

Saturday is the big market day and San Ignacio was bustling! I Made it down to the market mid-morning and was thoroughly impressed by the spread. Peppers, tomatoes, onions, pineapples, papaya and everything in between, including many things I have never seen before. While I have since found out that the market is open with produce most days, only on Saturday can you also buy puppies, and parakeets, orchids and shoes. The locals were happily unfazed by the white faces meandering among them. And deliciously fresh bananas can be purchased, 10 for a BZ$1 (US$1 = BZ$2)! I will definitely be frequenting the market when not traveling on the weekends!

On Sunday the UVM group traveled to DuPlooy's and the Belize Botanical Gardens. The trip was breathtaking! This hotel/resort and garden was created by expatriots on eroding cow pastures. In twenty years they've created an expansive jungle of native and popular species of plants grown in Belize. The climate here is amazing and since it was formerly a British colony, there are a wide array of plants from the West Indies, Asia and a number of other places that were used by the colonizers for varies economic endeavors. There are also hundreds of native orchids, palms and fruits that aren't found anywhere else. I got a chance to volunteer repotting orchids for the Botanical Garden staff, which was a lot of fun too. A swim in the river topped off the last day before classes start.

This morning was the first day of classes. I have two on Monday and they seem like they are going to be pretty interesting. Consumer Law, and Indigenous Perspectives on Development. I will update you more later in the week and will hopefully be able to upload some pictures once I get access to Galen University's computer system tomorrow.

First Impressions

I made it to Belize! After an arduously long but uneventful trip I am in San Ignacio and have had a chance to explore a bit. I'm down here as part of a UVM program and am with 17 other UVM Students. It seems like a pretty good group of kids overall and I am sure I will return to the States with a few more close friends.
The Inn I am staying at is beautiful. I am sharing a room with two other UVMers, Josh and Ben, both seemingly stable fellows who I am sure I will get along with. The benefits of being stuck in a triple is a kitchenette and AC, the later of which we are doing our best not to use. I get the sense that once we turn that on there will be no going back.
My first impressions of this place have been nothing but good! The people are friendly, the weather is warm (although rather humid and expected to get hotter in the coming months), the country is beautiful and the food has been fantastic so far. It is amazing to see the contrasts between Belize and Honduras! The mix of people and cultures here is exciting and I am eager to learn more about all of them.
I've already had a chance to explore some of downtown San Ignacio. It is a tiny little city that is full of neat things. I played some ultimate disc with a few elementary school kids who go to school down the street. We've checked out a number of places to eat and I already notice familiar faces around town who are more than happy to say Hello.
Today we spent most of the day at orientation at Galen University. It is a tiny school with only three classrooms and a couple hundred students. Definitely an interesting contrast to UVM. There are a number of other international students going there this semester and I had a chance to meet a few of them along with some new Belizean students who were at orientation as well.

I am really excited about this whole experience. I feel like there are so many more things I could write now, but it is getting late and there will be much more time for details later. I should get some sleep since the giant produce market is tomorrow and it is apparently not something to miss! I will eat an extra fresh pineapple for you :)

The Expedition Begins!

Tuesday, January 8th begins my 5 month semester in Central America! I am flying off to Belize to study at Galen University in the city of San Ignacio. I'll be there for the semester as part of a UVM program and this will be my attempt to keep you updated on the happenings down south. I've never kept an online journal so bear with me and feel free to comment. Here we go