Morning started out as it had every morning so far, peaceful and beautiful. We headed back to the mainland to make our way to the Mayan Village. Students packed up their gear and took one last tour around the island.
One thing the students did was to decorate a coconut to leave behind for future groups to see. All along the main area were coconuts decorated by high school and college students. After everyone signed the coconut we took a few group shots before loading up the boat to head back across the lagoon.
On the way we stopped at Man-of-War Caye. This caye is the home of many Man-of-War birds, also known as the the Magnificent Frigate birds. The males have a red pouch underneath their beak and fill it up with air during mating season. All over the caye were these red pouches. Also on this caye are nests for the Brown Boobie birds.
After reaching the mainland, the students headed into the Pelican Beach Resort gift shop to purchase some items while the luggage was being loaded back into the vans. After goodbyes were said, we headed out to the Mayan Village. Along the way we stopped at an orange groove, owned by the owner of IZE, to pick some very ripe oranges. This was a comical adventure for some of the students but it was worth it. The oranges you buy in the grocery store taste NOTHING like the oranges we picked.
A long dusty ride had us winding our way to the Mayan Village at the Base of Cockscomb Basin Jaguar Preserve. Here the students visited the primary school and split into groups to learn how to make tortillas by two Mayan ladies, Thomasa Pope and Dominica Ical.
While at the primary school, they sang songs to the classes they visited. The songs sang were B-I-N-G-O and the Star Spangle Banner. The Mayan children sang to the students the National Anthem of Belize. At recess, the kids played either duck-duck-goose or soccer. After saying goodbye, the high schoolers headed to their tortilla lesson.
Making tortillas isn't easy. First the maize is soaked in lime water to soften the seed. After that, the maize is pasted through a grinder several times until it is ready to be formed into a round tortilla. The tortilla is cooked over an open fire on a rounded piece of metal. Using just their fingers, they flip the tortilla to brown it on both sides. I can definitely say that if we had to rely on making tortillas for dinner, most of us would have gone hungry that night since it is a skill that isn't easily picked up.
We headed back to Aurora's for dinner and an evening talk by a scientist that is doing work on the migratory patterns of the Scarlet Macaw. While we were enjoying the talk, a scorpion made its way into the dinner area. It didn't last long. As the students were winding down for the night, several of them came across a tarantula. I pointed out to the students early in the day the holes in the ground where the tarantulas hide and stated that they'll probably be out later on at night. One of the chaperons was excited and wanted to see a tarantula. When it was spotted, one of the students dropped a leaf in front of the spider and the spider, thinking it was something to eat, jumped. Of course both the student and the chaperon nearly had a heart attack. When I mentioned to the chaperon that he wanted to see a tarantula, he stated he wanted to see one, not have it jump 2 feet in the air!
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