Monday started off slow and I actually woke up with the start of a migraine. But nothing some acetaminophen and two cups of coffee couldn’t fix! Breakfast at the Aguada was amazing! I need to figure out how to make a copy of the Belizian Breakfast plate here in Germany. And the fry jacks… oh the fry jacks! Great… now I am craving fry jacks. They are like a cross between Naan and funnel cake without sugar… amazing!
But Monday was a work day, and I actually already wrote ALL about it over on the One Library at a Time blog – check it out here. and the next two days here.
Monday afternoon after school we packed up and piled in the vans for a trip out to Spanish Lookout. This community is predominantly Mennonite and they speak Plautdietsch along with English and Spanish. Language in Belize proved to be a challenge. At one point there was even some German (from the Mennonite communities) thrown in – my poor brain was mixing German, English and Spanish the entire trip. Now that I am back in Germany and trying to get back into learning German I am remembering more Spanish instead that I didn’t think I remembered… opps.
Anyway, we got an exciting hand crank ferry experience to get across the river to Spanish Lookout. I guess they are the norm in the area instead of bridges in some places, but we were all quite excited about it. Once we crossed the river we headed to Western Dairy for an ice cream fix. It was so much fun trying all of the flavors we had never even heard of. And the staff was so friendly and kind to let us have so many different samples before we all ordered. I think the majority of the group went for one of the local favorites and all left happy!
After Ice Cream we loaded up and went on a mini shopping trip before heading back to the hotel for an amazing dinner and some much needed sleep before our busy Tuesday.
As you read in the OLAAT blog we had a rather crazy and busy Tuesday morning. But after lunch we got to get out and see some of the amazing country. We took a long bumpy bus ride (is it weird I miss those bumpy bus rides?) to the Belize zoo!
This zoo is a pretty special place. And to be honest I wasnt excited about going because I am not a huge fan of zoo’s in the true sense of the words. I wish more “zoo’s” would start using other termanology like sanctuary. Many of today’s zoo’s are actually helping the animals and promoting responsible breeding to help species in trouble. But the Belize zoo is kind of half sanctuary half zoo. The animals here have not simply been captured and put on display. From my understanding they were all rescued in some way and brought to the zoo to live. No it it not the fanciest, top of the line zoo, but they have done so much with what they have to work with. The animals are all local to Belize, which made it more interesting to read about some of the “locals” we could potentially run into later. The zoo was lush with local plant life with loads of shade coming from the large trees left to grow into maturity. While this might make it hard to see the animals sometimes, it is nice they have so much natural plant life and a space large enough for us not to see them all the time.
After the zoo we went on to an amazing little shop called Art Box, full of locally made art. While many of the prices were a bit higher than you could find elsewhere, they were still reasonable. And lets be honest, you sometimes pay more for surroundings, and the interior of this place was beautiful! Even the bathrooms left a lasting impression. So I understood why the prices were a bit higher. They also had an AMAZING little coffee shop within the store. And the coffee… oh the coffee… I ended up buying a huge bag to bring back home with me. I might have to find a way to order it online. I am currently trying to finish up what I have so I can dip into the Belize bag, and the stuff I had from before I left (that I liked) isn’t even that good now. So I call that shopping trip a success.
I guess there used to be a cafe there that we had hoped to eat at, but it has since been closed. So we headed down the road, per a suggestion, to a place called El Rancho. It was an interesting place. I ordered fajitas and got something closer to… terriaki chicken. It was delicious, just not what I had expected. We had a fun night hanging out before the long bumpy ride back home sitting on the spare tire in the back of the van. When in Belize, right?
*on a side note to Bailey; how do we not have a picture sitting on the spare tire??
see all of the photos from the trip here.
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