Xunantunich and River Clean Up

Sunday morning, Lenney Gentle took the class on a early bird walk at the Trek Stop - it's own 22 acre private reserve, butterfly farm, museum - even a frisbee golf course!

Later the class headed to Xunantunich Maya ruin right across the river from Trek Stop.





We ended the day with a river clean up service project on the Macal River right in San Ignacio town. It's a really great thing for students to experience the west before heading to the cayes - not only are they seeing the transition between the ecosystems, but they are seeing that there are strong connections between healthy rivers and healthy reef. Also, learning about cultures and how people live in these environments is critical to their understanding of the larger pictures of how these ecosystems work.

During the river clean up, it was a great experience working side by side with youth from Sacred Heart Junior College cleaning up garbage on the banks of the river and then canoeing up and down stream to see riparian habitat - Thanks NMSU for helping keep Cayo clean!




On Monday we picked up our two Belizean students, Lisa and Gedisa - 2 serious Biology students. Gedisa from Galen U. is pictured below from Sunday's river cleanup -she's in the front with Erin, Chanz and Nish.

Driving through the Hummingbird Highway was incredibly beautiful, with of course a stop at gravity hill to witness our bus roll UPhill - an optical illusion that left people's jaws dropped!

Right now we're headed to Maya Center enjoying a traditional Maya lunch and a tour of the brand new Maya museum. We'll be headed straight from here to Sittee River where we catch a boat all the way through the river and mangrove systems out to the lagoon and Tobacco caye. Should be a beautiful trip! It is overcast today but nice and cool.

Below is a photo of Lenney (left), Nish, and Kimo - our stellar guides and instructor.