After our daily 6am birding, we had breakfast and headed out to a local Mestizo village. Our first stop was at Susano Blanco’s home, whose knowledge as a medical botanist was passed on within his family over several generations. After a tour of his yard, full of chickens, dogs, and countless unique plants, he described to us in a mixture of broken English and Spanish the medicinal uses of each of his plants. Within an hour we knew how to cure anything from cancer to infertility using just the plants in his yard. Even Bruce tried out one of his 5-minute earache remedies. He concluded his lesson by giving us each a taste of “nani”, a juice said to help cure any ailments.
Continuing on our cultural adventures, we loaded back onto the bus to a local Mestizo family’s house to enjoy a traditional meal. Each person received tamale made with masa (ground cooked corn) and either spiced vegetables, cheese or chicken. We also enjoyed fresh pineapple along with one of their specialty desserts made with coconut and sugar. Before moving on to our final destination, the family described to us how they made this traditional plate so that we could have the opportunity to make it again.
We concluded our afternoon with a lesson in traditional Belizean dancing at a local school. The dancing was lead by the principal and her two young nieces, all of whom were wearing bright traditional garments. We all sat back and enjoyed the 30-minute performance by the three locals and then we all (or at least most of us) got up ourselves and joined in.
As we headed back out towards the bus, we were overcome by a storm of small children during their recess. Before we knew it we were all playing swarm-style soccer with about 40 young Belize students in their school uniforms. Even football player Tom joined in, who was at least three times as tall as these kids. After a day full of cultural adventures, we headed back to La Milpa to begin packing and preparing for our long trip to Blue Creek.
Sorry about the late posting, we promise we’re still alive!
Hannah and Cat