Today we had a wonderful introduction to Belize. We hailed a taxi outside our hotel and arranged a ride to the Community Baboon Sanctuary, about 40 minutes out of town. Our taxi driver, Byron was such an interesting, good guy and he gave us a running commentary on what we were seeing and about how things work in Belize. He loves to cook and told us how to prepare some of the classic Belizean dishes. He said that the first thing a farmer starting a farm in Belize will plant is coconut trees, because you can drink the milk, eat the meat, make oil for cooking and use the shells and wood for making things. The only thing an old time farmer needs from town is salt. Everything else you need you can get or grow in the country.
The community baboon sanctuary is a locally run collective of landowners who have organized under the leadership of the non-profit to preserve the habitat of black howler monkeys. Farmers agree to leave some of the trees the monkeys need and not farm on the banks of the river, which leads to erosion and loss of habitat. Our guide Robert was very knowledgeable about the rain forest, both plants and insects. He also knows the monkeys pretty well and can call them. I didn't know we'd get to touch the monkeys, but a couple of monkeys came and sat on both Otis' and my shoulders. They are wild monkeys but you can interact with them carefully with a guide.
We also saw what fire ants and leaf cutter ants look like. You have to watch your step there because if you step on a fire ant nest they will crawl up your legs and when they are all up they will bite you at the same time. They don't bite until they're all up and they produce an acid that makes the bites burn. You have to watch your step in fire ant country! The leaf cutter ant warriors are huge and were used in the past for stitches. Once their jaws bite down on something they don't release so you can use them to hold skin together. We did a unit on ants in homeschool and it still blew us away to see these ants in real life. They are impressive.
Our tour was cut a little short because Sofia was scared of the forest. Usually she's pretty fearless and she has been fine in forests at home and the mangrove forests in Mexico, but the rain forest freaked her out. She was wearing sandals and thought things kept biting her. We're going to be spending 3 nights and four days on a farm in the middle of the forest next week so we'll make sure she wears good shoes and hope it works out.
A side note for anyone traveling to Belize: if we had booked the tour through our hotel it would have cost $99 US per person. However, we were able to get the (same!) taxi for $80 total and paid the entrance fee on our own for $21 US total. So just by walking down the steps and talking to the driver we paid 1/4 what we would have paid for walking 5 steps into the lobby and asking about a ride.
Here's a link to the sanctuary: http://www.howlermonkeys.org/
After our tour, Byron, at our request, took us to one of his favorite Belizean restaurants. I tried Black Relleno, a stewed chicken dish served with rice. There was a cooked egg yolk in it, along with onions and some other veggies. It was tasty and hearty. Otis ordered the fish patty Barracuda, which they all thought was hilarious, and Patrick tried a Belize specialty: Gibnut, which is a rodent. Last night Patrick tried cow foot soup, pictured below, which was delicious.
Pictured Below:
Black Howler Monkeys
Fern Leaf Tattoos
Black Relleno
Cow Foot Soup
Bellikan in front of our hotel window
2 comments:
We love the picture of Otis and the monkey! - Anthony and Erin
Otis says Thanks!
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