BELIZE

I've been having trouble finding things to blog about probably because it's the middle of the school year.  School ends tomorrow so hopefully I'll have exciting things to blog about soon.  In the meantime I thought I would post some photos from my first trip outside of North America.  In May 2009 just after I had finished exams in third year university, I went on a Service Learning trip to Belize.  This was organized through the university and I went with ten (or so) other students and two faculty advisors.  I was ecstatic to be traveling and it was such an awesome experience.

We first stayed at the Tropical Education Centre just outside the Belize Zoo.  The first few days were full of painting at the zoo and exploring the surrounding area.  It's a really cool little zoo because they only house rescued animals and the pens are built around the animal's natural habitat.  My favourite animal was the tapir, also known as a mountain cow and coincidentally the national animal of this little country.

When we moved on from the Tropical Education Centre we landed in Maya Centre.  This was a very small village where we boarded in a guest house.  We spent time playing with the children, teaching them at school, painting the women's centre, and hiking in the jaguar preserve.  One afternoon while painting the women's centre we were brought oranges as a snack.  It was quite amazing because the oranges had just been picked and were still warm from the sun.

That is my trip to Belize in a nutshell (although we did many other wonderful things during our time there).  Here are some photos to prove it. :)



Junior Buddy the jaguar.  When I took this photo I was actually inside this little cage inside Buddy's large pen.  He is able to climb over the cage while you're inside it.

April the tapir!

Playing with the kids in Maya Centre.  Maybe I should have mentioned I was bald at the time.