Blue Creek and Aguacate

Living in town affords me the opportunity to travel with ease to most of the villages throughout rural Toledo District. Most villages, the ones with roads, have a bus that comes to town at least once a week. The more populated villages have buses 3 to 5 times a week. Blue Creek, located about 1 hour and 15 minutes from town has a bus 4 days a week. There are approximately 300 residents two shops and an awesome cave in this small Mayan village. The cave is the main tourist draw within the village, this past weekend was my second trip into the cave. On my first trip I explored the wet cave, this trip I went into the dry cave with Nadov (PCV) and Tim(volunteer at Wildlife Conservation Society). After a short climb up to the cave we entered into the unknown. We clamored through the dark for over 2 hours stopping along the way to admire the amazing rock formations, unique bugs and of course the bats. Upon discovering an alternate route out of the cave we immediately began to following the growing light to the exit. We discovered the exit placed us about 60 feet above waist deep water, the only option was to climb down to safety. If anyone is looking for an exciting, unique and possibly deadly experience while traveling though Belize I strongly recommend the dry cave, but please call me with an invite first! For those looking something a little more relaxed the wet cave is a simple swim upstream and over a few small waterfalls.

I spent Saturday evening in Blue Creek at the Tumul Kin Center of Learning Campus, where Jeff (PCV) works and lives. Tumul Kin is a school in Blue Creek Village that emphasizes the importance of indigenous culture in eduction. The school works to preserve and promote traditional Maya values. I was able to attend the cultural night, students played the Marimba and demonstrated traditional Mayan dances.

I awoke Sunday at the crack of 8:00am. After a quick breakfast the trip continued. The four of us (Dov, Tim, Jeff and I) started on the walk to Aguacate village. The walk took a little over an hour, the weather was ideal for the hike, cloudy and cool. Once we reached the village it began to rain. Our final destination was Danny’s (PCV) house, a lovely board house with a thatch roof that Danny constructed himself. We waited out the rain in the comfort of Danny’s house. After about and hour and two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches we set out to go Iguana hunting, yes Iguana hunting. Jose, Danny’s neighbor led the expedition. We made the short walk to the river (I never learned its name) and proceeded to scour the trees for our scaly prey. The sun was high in the sky, and after three days of rain the lizards were eager to feel the warmth of the sun. The hunting was good. Hunting Iguana is really quite simple, there are two ways to go about it. The first is to climb a tree with some Iguanas and then shake the branch they are laying on and then retrieving them from the water. The second way is to create a loop of string and snare the Iguana around its neck. We chose the far more exciting first method. The lizards become spooked and leap from the safety of their perch in the cool waters of the river below, sometimes falling up to 60 feet. Jose did most of the climbing, I most likely would have fallen from the meager branches into the shallow water or a large bolder. Once in the water the Iguana tries with all its energy to swim into deep water, it was our job to stop them. This involved a large amount of splashing, laughing, cuts and scrapes. I found it easier to locate the few that got away and then pull them up from underwater. With the help of 6 local children 8 Iguanas were caught through out the course of the day. I only wish I had caught an Iguana during its short flight from the tree tops into the water and waiting hands of its hunters.

Dinner that evening was interesting. All the children took one lizard and some fish they had caught while spearfishing home to their parents. Jose took two of the beasts home, part of one became our dinner. The meat tasted like chicken, the eggs were better then those of a chicken. We prepared the sides, Jose’s wife cooked the Iguana. It was one of the most unique experiences I’ve had in Belize. Next time I will have to learn how to cook the Iguana.