You Better Belize It!

As we approach 1/6/07 (a date that has seemed far away for a long time now and suddenly is right around the corner...) I am turning my attention to getting ready for our trip to Belize. This will be Tom's 5th trip to Belize. He has been going every other year now for 10 years. The first two trips for Tom were work/research related, and then after that, he and his colleague and good friend Steve have team-taught a course that has an international study component. He has always wanted me to be able to come along, but in the past the trip was always 2 weeks long... so there were a number of reasons I chose not to go along including the time away from work, expense, and of course, Matt being too young to go along with us. This year the trip is reduced to 8 days, Matt is old enough for this adventure, and to heck with work once in awhile, you know?

If you are interested in seeing where we will be staying, an ecotourist lodge called Chaa Creek, visit this link: http://www.belizecamp.com/. You will note that there is a fancier resort-type place that the 20 alumni on our trip will stay, and then there are the casitas, still nice, but not quite "resort," where we and the 16 students on our trip will stay. (More facts on Belize and more information about Chaa Creek can be found at: http://www.chaacreek.com/facts/traveling/). Chaa Creek is a 365 acre private nature preserve located on the Macal River, at the foothills of the Maya Mountains -- closest village on the map is San Ignacio -- near the Guatamalan border. You can maximize the map above to make it bigger by clicking on the image.

The course Tom and Steve teach together is called Economy and Ecology in Belize. Tom teaches the political/economy aspects of the course and Steve teaches the biological/ecological aspects of the course, and it appears that they integrate the two quite well. If you are interested in learning more about their course, check out the following link where you can even see the syllabus: http://www.cortlandabroad.com/profiles/belize_econ.html. Note that the students have met all fall 2006 long and this trip culminates their experience. Matt and I will be going along on all the class field trips and excursions. We will be in the rain forest for the majority of the trip and the last day and a half will be at the beach to see the beautiful Caribbean Sea and barrier reef. Just before we head to the beach, we will stop in Belize City on the Thursday of our week to visit the Belize Zoo. The director of the zoo was just in Cortland this fall. It should be quite something. Here is the link to the zoo site: http://www.belizezoo.org/.

I plan to take a lot of photos! More to come soon.