Tuesday=Cultural day!

Cultural day: We began this morning with a lecture on the different cultures in Belize. There are East Indians, Garifuna,  Mopan Mayan, Kekchi Mayan and Chinese. Each of the cultures have different dialects and foods. The majority speak some English, which makes it easier for us practicing healthcare here to communicate.  Then we hopped in the mobile and went to Nim Li Punit, which was only a 25 min drive from Hillside. I am not a history person , so I was slightly bored when the tour guide was going on and on……… but then we got to walk around the site and see all the stone laying and carving into pillars of stone: Stellas. There were pictures depicted on the stones of the gods.

 After the tour, there were families selling odds and ends, nice souvenirs, I bought a dish that had a nice little serving knife, I was excited to use it for hummus :) (see the rest of the story below) 

View from the top of the Mayan ruins- I would make my village up here as well!

the dish that I bought for hummus or a canoe.... I like my use for it better

Then we drove to a local women’s group and our guide, Santiago, was telling us about local crops and how the culture practices organic farming.  We got to try cocao straight from the plant- not what I thought chocolate beans would taste like at all- slightly bitter when you bit into the center. We learned how to make baskets, the process of how to dry and grind corn to make tortillas, and then actually making a tortilla.  We had jippi-jappa, a cabbage made from dried palm leaves, it had a slightly slimy consistency, more chicken- what would a meal be without it?, corn tortillas, and of course- 3 different juices! Then we were able to purchase things from a store. They had beautiful bread baskets made out of the palm leaves, and then I saw canoes, with seats in them, which looked exactly like the dip and knife that I had bought earlier. Then it hit me, I bought a canoe with an oar and I didn’t know it!  Yes, my naive sense strikes again- funny stories…..

Next stop was Blue Creek- where we were going caving.  The hike up to the cave was more intense than I was expecting. I was literally rock climbing at times, slipping all over the place, falling on the 5^th point of contact (my butt) a lot more than I anticipated. But it was a gorgeous river hike, to the mouth of the cave.  Getting prepared to enter the cave was interesting, the guide (who was wearing an UNC hat!) awkwardly was putting on all of our life jackets so that they were basically sideways around the waist- a reach around at its finest, for sure! 

The  mouth of the cave

This caving experience was much different than the ATM caves.  The guide was not as vocal and wasn’t as concerned with our safety as Oscar, our guide at the ATM caves was. BUT the guide was the one who discovered the cave in 1986 (or at some point). We had life jackets on, so maybe he felt like we would be okay? The water was still freezing, but there was quite a current the majority of the trek into the cave. It took a lot of upper arm strength to navigate around some of the walls.  We were not able to go as far into the cave because the water levels were up. So we turned around at one point, and were able to go with the strong flow of the current and float towards the exit! Then we hiked back down to a spot where there were rope swings and a diving platform. We spent a lot of time there, relaxing in the river and playing on the swings! 

We headed back down the path and were on our way to Anaconda Bar for dinner! Allison, a woman from the US, who moved down to Belize, owns Anaconda Bar, and she makes delicious chicken, burgers, key lime pie and doughnuts! This night her new menu item was a chicken burger- basically a chicken sandwich- which was amazing. She also makes yummy lime juices, which go well with rum. We had dinner and hung around there until it was time to return to Abby's house after a long day.