2008 Daily Journal

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Toucans! Toucans! Toucans! What a fabulous way to start a new day in a glorious place! After an overnight thunderstorm, the sun came out for our 6 am bird walk, lead by Nathan and Bill. We were lucky during our walk and got to see a brightly-colored male Keel-billed Toucan, Belize’s national bird, as well as a more mutely colored female. Although the males and females of this species have different colored feathers, they both have blue feet.

After breakfast and a 2½ hour drive on adventurously bumpy roads, we hiked through the constantly changing forest in the Pine Ridge Reserve, where we saw giant white and blue Morpho butterflies.

In the Domingo Ruiz cave, Mayan artifacts reminded us that hundreds of years ago other people shared this place. In addition to the stalactites and stalagmites and the wildlife within the cave, everyone found the extraordinary stillness of the darkened cave awe-inspiring — Liz and Ernease were even inspired to break into song.

Lunch beside the huge mouth of Rio Frio cave was the perfect setting for more cave exploring. Rio on Pool was so fun with us slipping and sliding down the rapids after we got massages under the waterfall.

Two Belizean teachers, who had participated in previous institutes, and their four daughters shared a cultural dance called the Brokdowon, a Belizean Creol dance. Miss Lydia, the cook for the Institute groups for the past 20 years, joined us for dinner and entertained us with her culinary adventures.

But wait! The day wasn’t over, even though dinner was. Nathan led us as we explored the endlessly star-covered sky. Tired but totally contented, we went to bed knowing that tomorrow would be filled with more adventures.

July 23 Q & A

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