Just Belize It...Part 2: The Zoo and Coral Reefs
08/29/2009
... So continues the story of our Belize class adventure.
Our next big adventure was our transition day from the field station of the rain forest to the island where we were to venture into the shallow seas. On our way to the boat that would later take to the island we stopped at the Belize Zoo. Here we got a chance to see all the animals we didn't get a chance to see in the wild. This included the harpy eagle, jaguar, kinkajou, and the deadly fer-de-lance snake.
Harpy Eagle
Jaguar
Kinkajou
Ocelot
Spider Monkey
There are plenty more pictures of the animals at the zoo. If you'd like click on the top picture (Elkhorn Coral photo) of this blog and it'll send you to 181 more photos of the trip. Also I have videos up on youtube of everything Belize!
Moving on. So it took about 2hours to get to the boat from the field station by van.The roads there are in bad, very bad shape. I was warned prior to the class to take dramamine for the boat trip. They were wrong. I should have taken it for the driving. Crazy driving. One side of the road to the other. No road rules. Oh and while on the way Ken fell alseep, the following picture is the result of when you fall asleep next to me on a 2hours road trip.
Sorry Ken. I had to. =)
Once done at the Zoo we continued to drive to Belize City and to the dock that the boat was awaiting us. The boat trip form the dock to the island was about 2hours.
I'm on a Boat! With my flippy-floppies
Our Island
The island was beautiful. We had the south end practically all to ourselves! the island was less than a mile long, and about 200ft wide. It was awesome to wake up, roll over, look out my window and see the ocean, roll back over to the other side of the bed and see the ocean. Oh and of course not ever having to wear anything on your feet for a week was awesome too!
The above picture shows our end of the island and a small portion of the reef that we were free to explore in our free time. This is also where some of us took part in the independent study about species abundance and identification.
Mainly on the island for the class we visited largers sections of the reefs and other places to snorkel. We also learned about the biodiversity, the importance of the reefs, and the importance of the mangrove forests.
The following are just some more pictures from the island and the reefs. Again, click on the picture at the top of this blog and it'll take you to more! Also many of the underwater pictures were taken by me. I acquired a special underwater case for my digital camera. All of these pictures are of us from the trip and what we saw with our own eyes.
Spotted Eagle Ray
The next picture is of us playing our beloved BVB, Beach Volley Ball. Those were some mean games!
The above picture is what dinner looked like every night there! Very "Survivor"ish.
Next couple of pictures are of the buildings and structures we lived among.
The directly above is a picture I took of a scary sea cucumber during our night snorkel.
Finally some videos for you also. More to come, for now enjoy!
I would love to hear comments about the blogs as well. There might be a part 3... with more pics and videos.
