June 23rd and 24th

June 23rd, 2018

Heyyyyyyaaaaa! Today was INSANE!!!!! To start off, we had the best breakfast. They made us homemade zucchini bread, what looked like a quiche, and lots of fruit (my favorite part). I have never had juicer fruit in my life. I guess that is how you know it is super fresh.

After breakfast, we had to say goodbye to Sophie, who had to leave unexpectedly due to a family emergency. We will miss her so much, and it was so difficult to say goodbye. Based off of today, I can’t imagine how it is going to be when we all have to leave in a week. Yeah you heard me, my time here is already halfway over! It feels like just yesterday we were arriving.

This weekend is our time to do touristy things and enjoy our time here in Belize.

First up was cave tubing. We broke up into two groups, and each group got a tour guide. They gave us a tube, a helmet, and a headlamp, and we were on our way. We first had to walk across a river, but it felt so good because it was super hot and humid out. Next, we had to hike 30 minutes through the jungle to get to the cave. When we got to the cave, we were allowed to jump off a cliff into the water to cool off. The tour guide assembled our tubes together so no one drifted off and we were on our way. We had it easy because all we had to do was sit in our tube and enjoy the views while our tour guide pulled 7 of us by a rope connected to our tubes. The caves were so dark but absolutely beautiful. The ceiling of the cave had so much detail on it from the water level rising. Halfway through the tour we stopped and hiked over some slippery rocks to another cliff. It was so dark so the headland definitely was handy. We were able to jump off the cliff into the water again, while still inside the cave. We got back into our tubes and continued on with the rest of the cave tour. It ended with a 20-minute ride down the river, which is exactly what I needed to relax.

After cave tubing we had the traditional rice and beans with stewed chicken. Normally, I would love this meal, but since I have had it at least once every single day I am completely over it. I can’t even think about rice and beans without getting nauseous. All I want is a burger or pizza or something with grease involved.

After lunch, it was time for some ziplining. Now, the last time I went ziplining was in 5th grade on the “camping” trip with Mr. Yaeger. In Belize, ziplining is very different because you fly on top of the trees in the middle of the jungle…way better than 5th grade!!! We all had to get in a harness, and get all our gear assembled. Then we had to climb up a huge hill to get to the top of the trees. One by one we went down the course. There were 6 ziplines so it took us about an hour to complete the whole course. It was amazing to fly through the jungle, and I got some good videos too. The look on my face was priceless because I was so scared to stop each time. On the third zipline, I was going too fast and couldn’t stop so I slammed into the guy that was trying to stop me and completely took him out…oops.

After ziplining we came back to Monkey Bay and hung out before dinner. I have become an expert at taking naps in the hammock. Dinner was fabulous as always because we had barbecue chicken. Finally, something that was semi American!! After dinner, we projected last week’s episode of the bachelorette onto a screen and watched it as a group. Slyvia (our group leader) popped popcorn, and we had tons of snacks/candy. We barely even watched the show, we just made fun of everyone on the show. It was such a good experience. After the show, we all went to bed because we have a lot planned for tomorrow too.

Nighty night!

June 24nd, 2018

Good morning everyone! Yesterday was the day I had been waiting for because we visited the Mayan Temples. You can see into Guatemala when standing on the tallest temple, and it was the most breathtaking sight I have seen on this trip.

We got to sleep in because breakfast wasn’t until 8am this morning which was so nice to get an extra hour of sleep. We departed for the temples, which was going to take about 2 hours in the bus. All of our supervisors and team leader left us for the day so we were on our own with Alex (the bus driver) and Rodney (our tour guy for the day). When we got to the temples we got to learn all about the history of the Mayan people first. They had a little museum on site that covered everything we needed to know about the Mayan people. Finally, it was time to hike up the hill to the temple. We got to the top, and I felt like I was on top of the world…literally. Words cannot describe how beautiful the views were so take a look at the pictures below to see for yourself.

On the way back home, we stopped for ice cream because Alex was in charge. We got to Monkey Bay and had the rest of the afternoon/evening to chill out and relax. Another group arrived here today, but they aren’t staying in the cabins, they are camping out for 6 weeks. It was weird to have them in the dining hall with us for dinner because we are so used to spreading out and taking up all the space. Hopefully we all get along and the rest of our time at monkey bay is great!!

Until next time!!