Jungles of Belize

 

I could probably write 20 blog posts about Belize alone. Most of the times I travel outside of the country are due to months of preparation and foresight, but this was an exception. It was the week after school ended, and I had some free time before I had to go home and start my summer internship.

One of my friends used to live in Belize and was going back to visit there during this time, and he invited me to come. That day I bought a plane ticket to leave in 5 days, so it was short notice and I had no idea what I was in for.

Belize is a naturally beautiful country that has a really low population. There are only about 350,000 people living in the whole country, so most of the land is natural and untouched. The ecosystem is different than anywhere I've seen in America.

As we drove across the country (which you can do because it's so small) we saw mountains of jungle. I've seen mountains before, and I've seen jungle, but never together like that.

Sadly, this is the best photo I have to show for the hills of jungle, but it was really unlike anything I'd seen. We even got to see the Sleeping Giant, a famous mountain and tree formation that looks like a giant lying down.

It's too long to even describe all the things we did in Belize. We took food out to villages that are far from the rest of civilization, we worked with men in a halfway house who were out of prison and reforming their lives, we met with youth who were in prison and seeking hope.

The country and its people just had so much beauty to experience and admire.

At the end of the trip, we went to this cave where we had to continually duck because bats would fly at out heads. The cave went on and on, but we got to just stand there and listen to the echoes in the darkness. We sang songs and got to listen to the noise bounce off of the walls and ricochet for a long time, providing unique acoustics.

It gave me a new appreciation for both the people and nature of this country I had never been to before. There was so much to explore and so much of it was undeveloped. I just imagined how in America a place like this would be crowded and developed and a sight for people to see from all over. However, in Belize, we were the only people there. That is such a different way of life.