Wednesday after we got out of class we met up with a couple of the other international students who told us they would be going kayaking soon and invited us to come along. Having nothing else planned for the day we went along with them. Mr Owen (the driver from the school) agreed to take us to the place and everything so we could save money on transportation fees, on the way we picked up Henry(i think) who was to be our guide for the day.
Once we got to the river we started unloading and setting up the gear. It was during this time I learned about synchronized biting. Quite fascinating really…. See I was standing on a fire ant mound but was blissfully unaware of it as they made there way up my feet and too my ankles. Then once plenty of these little firey demons were on me they ALL at once bit. Luckily being next to the river I was able to just run over and get them all off quickly and the water helped sooth the bites.
So after that little bit of fun we all went kayaking. It was a 9 mile trip down a river that ran in between Belize and Guatemala. Our guide told us sometimes people will just cross the river to get from country to country illegally since its so easy to do it down here and the river is quite shallow at parts.
Along our trip we saw a lot of cool birds and giant iguanas in the trees as well as a whole bunch of tiny bats sleeping on a tree. Our guide taught us all about the various trees on the river and what they could be used for. There is one tree down here that is extremely poisonous and is referred to as Black Poison Wood (metopium toxiferum krug). Its in the same family as sumacs but much worse. The sap of this tree is what is poisonous but its sooooo potent that even walking next to the tree or even the general area of the tree can give someone a reaction to it. If the sap gets on you it will immediately start burning your skin until it blisters and then start spreading. Our guide told us about a couple different cases of him or his friends having run ins with the tree and it didnt sound all that pleasant :P The cure for this can be found in another tree that I cant remember the name of, red something. You take the bark from this tree and boil it down and then put the liquid on any areas of the sap and it will break down and remove the sap as well as acting like an antiseptic. The part that I find most interesting though is that the Red-something-or-other-cure-tree can ALWAYS be found growing in the same area as the Black Poison Wood.
While kayaking I took some videos but forgot the camera back at the house so I’ll upload them later. (probably monday)
After we got back from kayaking we were pretty beat so we just got some food in town and called it a night.
The next day we had easy day of just relaxing in town and walking around. One time walking back, halfway to the house a dog started following us. The dog is a black lab and her name is shadow (one of the restaurant owners downtown takes care of her.) Her name isnt shadow because of her color, she literally is your shadow. For the rest of the day she followed us everywhere. We’d go in a store, she’d wait patiently outside for us to return. We’d go in the house she’d wait for a couple hours for us to come back. Once we went in the house for a couple hours once and then decided to go back to the ruins for a bit. When we came outside Shadow was nowhere around so we figured she just went off to follow the next person.
When we got up to the ruins there she was and as soon as she saw us she came running across the field back to our side and then followed us around the ruins, she even managed to climb all the way to the top of the tallest structure and then just relaxed up there with us for an hour or so before we decided to head back down. The nice thing about having her around is that when she’s with us people don’t bother us trying to sell us useless shit cause she just growls at them. Its like she knows lol.
Later we met up with some friends and went and played some pool and darts (both of which I suck at now but can guarantee you i’ll master by the time I leave this country) and uhhh yea that was about it…. (smooth ending right?)
Took this from the school van as it was speedin down the highway. Go me :P
Mooooooooon
Geckos at the house
More from Cahal Pech + Shadow
http://i.imgur.com/YPqd3.jpg (vultures)
