I am now a little over halfway through my trip and every fear I had went out the window by my second night! When we arrived at the airport, it was so very warm out and the first thing I noticed was the climate. I love warm weather, so I enjoyed the heat. On the bus ride to Punta Gorda, I immediately noticed the difference in landscape from Alabama. There was an abundance of jungle and mountains. We started our field journals as soon as we landed, adding in all of the new biodiversity we saw. We stayed at the Tide house in Punta Gorda before departing to Lime Caye. The host family was sweet and the food was amazing. I never liked beans, but now I love them and Belizean Fry Jacks. We stayed on Lime Caye, an island about 30 miles off the coast of Belize for about 4 days and got there by boat. There was no cell service, so it was really easy to dive into the experience without the distraction of a screen, social media, and updating people back home. Since there was little service for most of the trip, I was unable to make any mid-experience posts. The waters were so clear and warm and the days were brighter (as I expected being closer to the Equator). All of the wildlife flora and fauna was beautiful. We had a very set schedule for meal times, snorkeling and projects. We were given the option to go fishing every morning or afternoon, and we always ate the fish we caught. All of the meals were filling and robust. We boated back to the Tide House for a couple days where we visited an eco-farm, cacao production site, and Mayan ruins which were all astounding. We got the opportunity to buy souveniers from the Mayan Village women and artisans. Then we traveled to Southwater Caye for more snorkeling and data collection for our projects. There has been little difficulty getting places and doing things. The primary languages spoken that I have noticed are English and Creole and the currency conversion is quite easy (with one American dollar equaling two Belizean dollars). There has been very little culture shock thus far and all of the locals are kind and accepting. We spend the rest of our trip here on Southwater Caye and leave in a few days!
