Wednesday, June 17, 2009

April & Zack - with a little bit of Trekforce

We just finished another fun-filled week with our latest guests, April and Zack from Florida. Before coming here, they spent 10 days in Hopkins, so they were already used to the ways of Belize, and had a pretty good idea of what they wanted to do while here.

They started the week with a trip to Caracol, and a relaxing stop at Rio On Pools on the way back to the farm. We’ve learned to advise our guests to just hang out for an hour or so, because even though lots of tours stop at Rio On on the way back from Caracol, most of the resort tours have their guides limit the Rio On stop to 45 minutes or an hour. We’ve learned that our guests love waiting out the crowd, and then having the whole beautiful place to themselves until they feel like leaving. The next day they went to ATM, and were awed by both the history and geology, and really enjoyed a private tour with Gonzo.

The following day we took a trail ride to Sapodilla Falls, and again didn’t see another soul for the entire day – one of the definite advantages of visiting Belize in the off-season!

On Friday night, we were joined by three women volunteering here in Belize with Trekforce. Trekforce is a British organization that organizes groups of volunteers to do projects in developing countries around the world. The group these three women are in is on its last segment, and they are living with host families in small Cayo villages and teaching in Cayo schools. They get the weekends off, so they decided to splurge and head to Moonracer Farm for a few nights in “real” beds, hot showers, gringo food (including “a proper cup of tea”), and a trail ride to Big Rock Falls.

On Saturday morning, the three Trekforce volunteers, Lucie, Roseann, and Jo, joined April, Tom, and me on a trail ride. Zack decided to forego a second day in the saddle, so he went with Selwyn to a fishing hole in the Macal River, where they didn’t catch anything, but enjoyed the river and the jungle.

The six of us had a great ride up to Big Rock, and just as we got there around 1:00, Zack pulled into the parking lot in their car and joined us for lunch and a swim.

Everybody had a great time, jumping off the high rocks, and Zack and Tom enjoyed hanging out with the bikini babes. I left early and took the quick route home so I could get cleaned up and get dinner ready, and everybody else stayed for another swim.

On Sunday, Tom took Zack and April to Ka’ax Tun. They were as impressed with the place as Tom and I were, so we’re definitely adding this to our list of adventures for our guests.


They even climbed the rock chimney, and used the vines to rappel up and down the rock walls – something I want to do next time I go!

They had a delicious lunch of chaya soup prepared by Julio’s wife Janet, and then made it back to Moonracer Farm in time to pick up the Trekforce volunteers – who had a nice lie-in – for a trip to the Green Hills Butterfly Ranch before heading into San Ignacio so the volunteers could catch a bus and they could do a little shopping and get dinner.

April and Zack used Monday as a research day. April’s sister is getting married and is considering a honeymoon in Belize, so April and Zack visited some of the honeymoon destination lodges on the other side of the river to take pictures and collect information. This also gave them time to visit the Belize Botanical Garden at DuPlooy’s, which was a highlight of the Cayo segment of their trip since April grows orchids and Zack creates bonsai trees.

This, by the way, made our expeditions into the jungle with them very interesting, since they were spotting orchids and other vegetation that Tom and I would never have noticed, and explaining things to us – very interesting! Then, they were off bright and early on Tuesday morning to head into Guatemala for the final segment of their trip.

1 comment:

Julian from SC said...

Hi Guys,

I was getting worried with the last post dated June 3 -- until today. Glad you've been busy and thanks for all the articles!!

Julian