JanPlan in Belize

As expected with international travel, our day began early and extended deep into the night. We made it as a group to the airport at 5:30 am, and struggled to stay awake in the terminal. Once we boarded the plane, we experienced a slight delay as frigid temperatures and falling snow held up our plane for half an hour. Many of us forgot about the time zone change, and panicked when we thought we would miss our connecting flight in Dallas, however, we arrived relatively early and managed to grab lunch before our two-hour flight to Belize City. 

As our plane descended into Belize City, we weren’t greeted with the commonalities of American culture. We did not see any tall buildings or paved roads, only vast farm fields and unfamiliar rainforests. Hot, humid air rushed to meet us as we exited the plane, a nice change from the icy Maine temperatures we were used to. We went through customs, grabbed our bags, and jumped on the bus with our guides Peter and Marcus for what would be a four-hour bus ride into the jungle.

Loading up the bus!

Belize is roughly the size of Massachusetts, because there are only a handful of paved highways, our time traveling to our first study site was disproportional to the distance. Roads had no street signs and were littered with potholes and puddles from the heavy rains that had fallen the previous month. On top of these difficulties, our bus driver had to dodge animals and people walking alongside of the road. Once we left the main highway, the majority of our ride was through local Mennonite farm communities; a challenge because of the many horse buggies in the road. The Mennonites settled in Belize over 50 years ago and now contribute to Belize’s economy primarily through their agriculture. Finally, after hours among fields of watermelons and beans, we reached the entrance gate to Programme for Belize property with another nine miles remaining to the Hill Bank Field Station.

On the road!

Although it was dark at this time, we were able to see the outlines of a lush tropical rainforest, unlike any we had ever seen before. However, within the final miles of our adventure, the bus hit some deep mud and skidded to a halt. At this point, we had been traveling for over fourteen hours, and this setback seemed like an absolute disaster. Thankfully, our bus driver was able to skillfully maneuver out of the trench once we moved the weight to the back of the bus. Understandably, the entire group burst out into cheers of exhaustion and relief. A short ten minutes later, we arrived at our site, had a quick dinner, and collapsed into our bunks, ready for the next morning of bird watching and rainforest exploration.

-Emma Reif and Kellie Walsh

On May 2, 2000, the 24 satellites orbiting the Earth that were used by the military in tracking the location of all kinds of secret “stuff” became declassified and available to the general public.  On May 3, 2000, one enterprising individual named Dave Ulmer thought, “Hmmmm, I wonder if I put a waterproof bucket of stuff in the woods near my house (in Oregon) and posted the longitude and latitude of that bucket in the woods would people come and look for it?”  Most sane people (like my dad when I tried to explain it to him) would think, “Why would any one do that?”  However. come and look for it they did and currently there are now over 2 million such “caches” hidden all over the Earth, including one on the International Space Station.

Thus began the “sport” or “hobby” of geocaching.  In 2008, the Department of Geology purchased some new GPS units.  In my efforts to make introductory geology interesting or cutting edge, I tried to figure out how to incorporate this new technology in the classroom and in the field.  In the process, I got interested in geocaching in a BIG way.

Now, where ever I go, I check on-line at www.geocaching.com and check along my route to see if there are any caches hidden along the way.  There always are and I usually try to find some where I am going to stop anyway or at some place that I never knew existed, or a historical feature etc.  It never ceases to amaze me with the places that geocaching has taken me that I never knew about even around Waterville or my hometown of Ashley Falls, Massachusetts.

So what does this have to do with Belize you might ask?  Good question.  On the last trip to Belize, I was hoping to find at least one cache in Belize to get another country on my global map colored in while we were there.  I did and it was my fourth country (after US, Canada and Bermuda).  There aren’t a lot of caches in Belize and most are around the popular tourist area around Ambergris Caye.  However, there is one called Lamanai High on top of the largest pyramid at the Mayan Ruins near Hill Bank and it was my first find in Belize.  It was actually found by Sarah Madronal, but she let me share in the victory.  The cache was also the highest rated difficulty (how hard is it to find) and highest terrain rating (how hard is it to get to) of all the caches I have found to date with a 5 difficulty and a 4 terrain.  When you get there you will understand some of the excitement related to this game of hide and seek.