Despite the horror of facing a 4:30 departure time from campus yesterday morning, everyone arrived on time and vaguely awake, and we left campus with out chauffeur, John Trovage, on schedule. Guy’s mom Connie showed up by surprise to take video of our exodus, and as we hit no traffic, we arrived at 5:15 at Logan … to face a HUGE line. That’s what we get for Saturday spring-break travel!
All were patient in line and the longer leg of the flight – Boston to Miami – was uneventful (there was much snoozing, but I promised the students I wouldn’t embarrass them by posting their drooly pictures here…) We arrived in Miami with plenty of time to get lunch and play a few rousing rounds of card games spread out on the floor of the gate area. As we were sitting there a mother and daughter approached us. “Hi, this is Olivia, and she’s waiting to hear today whether she got into Brooks!” said the perky blonde woman. It turns out they are from Wellesley and were taking the same flight to Belize.We may run into them again (eek – I hope the news was good …!) Just goes to show you – Brooks is everywhere!
At touchdown in Belize we ran the gauntlet of immigration and customs, got all of our bags with no problems, and were greeted by our old friend Junior, Barry Bowen’s right-hand man, who helped with the luggage and guided us to our waiting bus. As ever, he set us up with coolers stocked with water, sodas and juices, and we traveled in air-conditioned comfort the one hour to our first destination, Jaguar Paw. We had a wonderful guide, Dana, who filled the kids in on a lot of basic Belize facts – economy, import/export, population, geography – with infinite patience for our weariness and the requisite amount of humor.
We arrived at Jaguar Paw a bit wiser and ready for our first steps into the jungle. It has rained off and on the last few days (the first rain we’ve seen here in 5 years), so it’s damp but warm (87 when we landed). Owner Cy Young, a fascinating ex-pat American who played on the Boston Patriots the first year the team existed, was on hand to meet us, and we quickly sorted out our rooms. Cy’s wife is an artist, and each room here has a different theme. Sam & Jake are in the butterfly room, Matt & I are in the European room, the 3 boys are in a psychedelic room with funky lighting accoutrements that they are still playing with, etc.
Dinner last night was traditional Belizean fare – rice & beans, cole slaw, stew chicken & homemade strawberry cheesecake for dessert (OK, that’s probably not traditional Belizean). During the course of the evening we met a couple of schoolteachers from VA and an Ontario family with 2 teen girls dying to interact with their own kind (teens, not Canadians …) The kids swam and took advantage of the new hot tub – a beautiful set up outside under the moon with an inspiring illuminated view of the neighboring cliffs. Everyone was in bed on the early side, thanks to a long day of travel.
We, of course, are up early with eager children. We had a great breakfast complete with “fry jacks”, little bits of fried dough served with local jelly or sugar (Sam’s preferred method). Cy now has wireless in the main lodge, and while we were checking e-mail (a horror in paradise, I know), Javier walked by with 3 coata mundis, a parrot and a kinkajou. We’ll investigate the little zoo later – I aim to add 1 new animal a year and am eying that kinkajou for a personal encounter.
The students wandered in looking refreshed and hungry, and we’re ready to start our day. We will putter in the area this morning, then lunch, then head to the zip line for our aerial trek. More info and pix after we do that!
