Sunday

We arrived LATE last night, safe and sound after a long day of traveling.

Had some big storms last night, but woke up to a dry, hot day.

We split up into a couple of groups today. Tessa and Barb headed into town to catch up with their guide, Oliver, who took them out to snorkel off Snake Caye. They climbed the ranger tower, had a picnic lunch on the beach, and saw many interesting fish (lobsters, blow fish, sting rays, crabs and sea urchins).

Ann took a group out to mass in San Lucas. Mass was said by a priest from Texas who was here with another mission group. Twelve children received their First Holy Communion at mass. Afterwards, we were served our FIRST lunch, a delicious, steaming hot, spicy bowl of cahoun cabbage (just what you want when it's 90+ outside!)
From there we drove down the road to Corazon Creek. The high school graduation ceremony was today, so we had to wait around for an hour to catch up with some friends who were at the graduation.
We continued on down to Otoxha where we were served our SECOND lunch! This was a steaming hot, spicy bowl of chicken caldo! We drove up to the school and were able to get in the church to see the beautiful tile floor our team laid in January.
Margie and Holly needed to meet with the Peace Corps worker, Rachel, to get the details about a women's health clinic they will be presenting on Thursday. In typical Belize fashion, this meeting, which was scheduled for 2 pm, finally happened around 4:00.
We then drive back through San Lucas to and stopped in to visit with the Caal family to help them celebrate the graduation of their son, Juan Carlos. We were then offered our THIRD lunch, more chicken caldo!!
We made another stop to congratulate another graduate, Karen Chubb, and politely told the family we could NOT EAT any more hot, spicy food! The families were kind enough to send us down the road with caldo-to-go!

Captains Log- Hey families! It's Abbe, Anita needed to hop off and prepare for tomorrow's lessons so I am taking over. Today a small group headed out on a slightly different path. Side satchel, hiking books, and adventure map in hand we headed out to discover ancient Mayan ruins. Now I know what your thinking families, "Abbe, you all sound like Indiana Jones, this is ridiculous!" Perhaps, unless the first Mayan ruins you head to are the ACTUAL site that the real Crystal Skull was excavated in 1926! Talk about a start. We then headed into a second site of ruins, called NIM LI PUNIT, which translates to "big hat" (spoiler: we never found the big hat). The second ruins were amazing with a stunning view of the mountains, incredible stelae (big stone pillars that documented political events, village moments, and since they knew we were coming; my birthday!) and tombs! If you don't know me, here's a great way to. The first thing I did when I saw a tomb was think; "if I jump in, can I get out?" The answer is yes, considering I'm now here typing. After most of the group hopped in different tombs to take a photo, we realized that they were royal tombs that held the Maya elite. The only thing I can say to that is, the groups got good taste (but if this trip goes awry, it's 100% because we got the entire group cursed.) We ended our day making oceanside PB&J's while waiting to pick up our snorkeling friends and then headed back to the lodge.

At this moment we would like to add that after heading back to the lodge we watched the news and got word of the mass shooting that occurred in Orlando, FL. We are sending prayers all the way from Belize for the families and friends for the victims and are deeply saddened by such actions of hate.