Cave Tubing

Our first Belize adventure started bright and early. Waking up in time was not a problem though, as I've been going to sleep ridiculously early and the jungle's animals are a very effective alarm clock.

The humidity was brutally contorting my passport.

Not only is our resort filled with magical plants, but they are helpfully labeled as well:

Pencil Cactus Medicinal

Euphorbia tirucall, EUPHORBIACEAE

Common names: naked lady, milk bush

Native to tropical Africa, naturalized anywhere in the tropics

Milk bush is a hydrocarbon plant that produces a latex which can be converted into crude oil. In the 80s there were a number of countries that did the studies to show how effective this plant would be production of oil. This usage is particularly appealing because of the ability of the plant to grow on land that is not suitable for most other crops.

They had a pool bar but sadly it was never in use.

John Milito: where classy meets sassy.

In Garden of Eden fashion, many of the plants were edible. So I ate them.

Our small group of about 8 had a quick breakfast at the lodge then hit the trail. There would be plenty of driving in the days to come, but luckily there was plenty to gaze at out the car window.

One fun fact that we learned on the drive is that one of Belize's exports is orange juice.

We got out of the bus and ignored our guides while we jumped all over the trees trying to grab oranges.

When I initially heard "cave tubing" I had envisioned some nice leisurely lazy river type ride that went through some caves while I just sat, floated, and looked around. It was a lot more involved than that. To begin with, we began our trip paddling against the current.

The tubes were actual tire inner tubes, complete with pointy metal valve stem things.

We arrived at the mouth of the cave and piled up our inner tubes to don our headlamps and do some looking around. We would alternate between floating and carrying our inner tubes a few times while in the caves.

Specifically we were at the mouth of Footprint Cave on the Caves Branch River.

One of the interesting features of the cave were these large, black, and nasty looking alien holes. Well, it turns out that bats use their acidic urine to burn holes in cave ceilings, thereby living in their own bat toilets.

We then stopped and examined some artifacts. The tour was our first introduction to Mayan cultural history. The Mayans believed that the caves were a gateway to Xibalba(wikipedia), the Mayan underworld. Since caves were so close to this hellish place below, they were a good place to make offerings to appease the gods that lived there.

It's still hard to believe, but it's apparently not a big deal to see 1,000 year old artifacts in the caves in Belize. The still air, constant temperature, and protection from the other elements all make caves great places to preserve the things the Maya left behind. Due to the way the caves are formed, even a complete flooding won't completely fill the caves.

Many of the smashed pots were that way on purpose. An offering's container was smashed to release its spirit.

  

While one guide was distracting us with tales of hell gods, the other was setting up a lovely cave picnic for us. Quite the juxtaposition.

One-claw Charlie the Crab was our official mascot.

An even cooler Mayan area of interest was the fertility god. Couples would make offerings and so forth to the god (you can still see where the fires were set up complete with scorch marks). The god would then make you magically pregnant. A deal is a deal though, and you would then sacrifice your first born down in the cave. Seems fair. 

Lydia quite possibly risked her life by handling this hideous scorpion spider.

These little monsters are arachnids, but neither scorpion nor spider. They are the unfortunately named order of Amblypygi.

The creature has a cameo in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Cave Shrimpy!

The cave was as musical as it was magical.

Cave cricket.

These dangling things are sticky little strands that insect larvae use to catch prey.

Lydia of course had to touch these things too. They stuck to her finger quickly, and were surprisingly stretchy before springing back to their original position.

Lydia described the experience as "what you wish American caves could be". There were no handrails or lightbulbs hanging everywhere. We could touch everything minus the active cave formations (due to destructive skin oils and all that). We could get in the water. I think the most interesting aspect of the caves were the animals, which most certainly would have all been chased away by tourists long ago if this cave was in the US. Very fun indeed.

We were back at the lodge in time for Chef Jay to explain what delicious meat would be on that night's carving station.

2/29/08 The School Year's Dusk Approaches

Its been painfully gusty the past week or so. My daily bicycle commute is sort of like trying to row a sailboat against the wind.

The school year is starting to die down, with classes finishing up mid-March. For the 3 graders, though, classes are going to be finished next week, maybe on Tuesday. For me, that means I am teaching lots of "last classes". I am often supposed to give some closing comments to the students. I've mostly been telling them that I appreciated our time together, and giving them some hints for developing their English abilities in the future. I feel a bit guilty, as I don't really feel sad in the slightest. I only see each class once a week, and I still don't know most of their names. I feel like I have a good relationship with the students, but its usually at a pretty non-personal level, I think. We have fun, learn some grammar, I try to make them laugh, but after 50 or so minutes class is over and I move on to the next group.

I felt bad then. Yesterday, though, was much, much worse. I was saying my last goodbye at the end of yet another lesson, but this one was different. A couple of the students came to the front of the class and gave me some flowers and a card. I was really surprised and I thought it was very kind of them. I thanked them and put a little extra feeling into my last comments. Back, at my desk, I read the card. Inside was a fairly long, handwritten note. The student wrote their name at the bottom, but I couldn't tell you which one of those kids it was. I'm a terrible person.

The flowers never would have made it through the bike ride home, so they are currently sprucing up my desk.

Monday the students put on a ceremony for the third graders. It was much more showy than the usual long speech ridden assemblies. Curtains were pulled over every one of the windows to set the mood, and chairs were brought in: every other event I've been to, everyone just sits on the floor. In addition, the kids all had their fancy uniforms on.

I think the school uniforms deserve a bit of explanation. On usual days, the kids all wear these little tracksuits with stripes up the sides. There are three colors: gray, dark blue, and light blue, one for each grade. The colors follow a student, so the dark blue that the third graders are wearing now will soon roll back to the new first graders. A detail that I find a bit militaristic is the names. A student's last name is embroidered onto the front of their track shirt. And the front of their pants. And the backs of their shoes, as well as the front of the T-shirts that they wear under the heavier clothes. Sure, no one's clothes get lost, but what does is the sense that they are children, not soldiers or one big football team.

This ceremony was important, though, so everyone was wearing their dress uniforms. The clothes that the boys wear are particularly question-raising. "Japan's school system, established in the 1880's, took as its model the Prussian system, complete (for the boys) with black military uniforms with high collars and brass buttons. Today, even though the boys have dyed hair and wear earrings, they must continue to wear these uniforms" writes Alex Kerr, author of Dogs and Demons: The Fall of Modern Japan (amazon). Wow. Say what you will, but the Japanese can keep a tradition alive like no people I have yet encountered.

Every day I walk by this painting hung beside the doorway that teachers and visitors use. Its Manet's Le Fifre, painted in 1866. I've checked it out once or twice, but I couldn't determine the significance. "Why the heck is this here?" I wondered. After reading about the uniforms, it hit me. The coat that this child soldier is wearing is just about identical to the ones in use at my school in the present day.


In case you've forgotten about the things I am daily forced to eat for lunch here, I present a reminder. Ahem, the menu today is a bowl full of noodles, with chunks of tofu and tiny bits of a meat. Half a kiwi and a tin of rice comprise the safe portion of the meal. For the main course, formless lump on a stick. My teacher said it was made of ground up fish meat and bones. Wow. "Hey, I'll trade you my fish lump for your kiwi." The cool thing was the milk. That little brown tube has chocolate stuff inside. You simply poke the sharp part through the hole in the milk box and squeeze to make chocolate milk. Delicious, but not a strong enough taste to wash out fish lump, unfortunately.



And now for something completely unrelated. Star Wars according to a 3 year old. Enjoy.