Not quite the Woody Guthrie version. The area of northwestern Belize
in which I spent ten days this summer participating in the excavation
of Mayan ruins is interesting. The area has been occupied by a sect
of Mennonites since 1958. The story goes that this group first went
to Canada from Europe, then due to dissatisfaction with the Canadian
government, relocated to Mexico. That did not work out for them so
they headed to Belize where they signed a special agreement with the
government that exempts them from military service and certain taxes
and guarantees them complete freedom to practice their own form of
Protestantism and farm their closed communities to increase
agricultural production in Belize. They also practice their own form
of government and run their own schools and businesses. There appears
to be no typical government law enforcement in the area.

So in many respects “their” part of the country seems to be a country
within a country. The Mennonites make their own rules. It appears
that anyone who can see through a steering wheel can drive on the
roads. The interest in child safety is virtually non-existent. I
have seen as many as four children on a motorcycle, none with helmets
and the driver being maybe 10 years old and motorcyclists whose legs
don’t reach the ground while sitting on the seat when the bike is
stopped. I have seen a woman piloting a motorcycle to school with
three children on the bike while she carried goods in one had while
driving. And I have seen very young helmetless boys doing at least 80
mph on motorcycles on the highway.

This year they opened an ice cream shop that also has two internet
connections (they are considered “progressive” Mennonites). Actually
the internet cafe was very exciting for us communication deprived
archaeology volunteers. One day when we took some volunteers to get
ice cream, the parking lot was very full. Yet the inside was not that
busy. I jokingly said to someone that maybe those six twelve year old
boys eating ice cream in the corner booth each came in his own
vehicle. Ha ha! They did. When the six of them left the shop, each
got onto or into his own motorcycle or pick up truck and motored away.

Here’s the rub as most of us volunteers see it. They have no respect
for the nature of the land as it was when they arrived. So they
“pushback” the jungle. First they knock down all of the existing
vegetation by driving bulldozers through the jungle with chains
attached between the dozers. Then, after having knocked down the
forest and destroyed irreplaceable thousand year old Mayan structures,
they set it on fire to finish off what was here and then convert it to
grassland.

It is hard to photograph and show the accurate perspective, but I have
attempted it anyway.

Yes, This Land is Their Land♪♪♪♪♪♪♪♪.

I spent ten days in the Maya Research Program’s archaeology camp in
Northwestern Belize again this year. This is my fifth time to do this
but the first time during the rainy season.

This is the 20th excavation season for MRP which runs for eight weeks.
Most of the participants are students with a few adult volunteers
sprinkled in and the areas that are excavated each year are based upon
a research thesis of either the graduate students who use this work
for such things as their graduate thesis or someone who already has
their doctorate to develop a paper for publication. This year I
worked for Gail Hammond who is working on her PhD in London and who I
have now known for four years. It was the first time that I worked
outside of the jungle canopy (though it used to be jungle before being
“pushed back”, as they say, by the local progressive Mennonite
population) and in the rainy season. It has always been grueling work
but it is made more difficult and much less efficient by the driving
rains that come through during the day this time of year.

So the digging was delayed this year and I found myself having to
leave before any exciting discoveries. But indications were that some
were imminent on our site. The Mayans left strong clues of what might
be coming up under the floors of their residences and such signs were
hit on my last day of excavating.

So with little physical evidence to show for this year’s activities, I
have included some pictures of last year’s work to demonstrate the
types of things that are found. (Any pictures of me are from 2010)

On Sunday I was driven from my jungle hike about 11 am by a driving
rainstorm. Unfortunately it continued through the day so further
attempts to work on my monkey photography were squelched. It was one
of those rains that if we got one like that in Denver, there would be
the mayhem of closed roads and many flooded intersections. There is
no way our existing systems could handle such a deluge.

When darkness descended on the jungle though an amazing sound began to
emanate from it. Frogs. There had to be millions singing to make
that much noise. And it also brought all kinds of frogs out in the
lodge area with their being all over the sidewalks. The toads come
out every night and station themselves next to the path lights where
they feast on the bugs that are attracted to the light. I have seen
this in other tropical settings. The result is very fat toads with
almost zero energy being expended to feast on the bug supply.
Unfortunately I wasn’t fast enough in the dark conditions to catch
that action.

So just a few shots of the couple of spider monkeys I encountered,
some of the frogs and toads and the rain. I recorded the frogs (the
black photo) singing but I do not know if the sound will come across
properly on this post. The hum you should hear is the frogs but my
camera microphone did not do them justice.

I haven’t been to as many places in the world as I should have at this
point in my life. For instance, I have a friend who, by coincidence,
I was on a trip with to Antarctica in 2000. He did so much traveling
with his family that Antarctica was all five family members’ seventh
and final continent to visit, including their ten year old. I’m still
stuck on five. One of my “problems” is I tend to repeat some places
quite a bit. As an example, here I sit tonight deep in the jungle of
western Belize at a lodge called Chan Chich (www.chanchich.com).
Benjamin and I came here for an escape in August of 2009, loved it and
this is now my fourth visit in 22 months. My real reason for being in
Belize is to have my fifth experience excavating Mayan Ruins with the
Maya Research Program (mayaresearchprogram.org). But that begins on
Monday and now I can’t come to dig without visiting Chan Chich.
Twelve rooms set among Mayan ruins, 36 miles from the nearest paved
road. Wonderful staff who live here year round and raise their
families here as well.

I spent today on some of the trails here checking out the birds,
flowers, plants, lizards, toads, monkeys and my favorite, the leaf
cutter ants. I paced off one leaf cutter trail that measured 8 inches
wide and a half a mile long. I think they are amazing animals. But
tonight, Elder the manager, took me “Jaguar and Puma Hunting.” We
drove the gravel roads around the area, me behind the wheel and Elder
sitting out of the passenger window with his spotlight. Given there
were hundreds of deer including many fawn, the cats were apparently
not hungry during the early part of this evening. In addition to the
deer, we only had four gray fox and one raccoon to show for our
efforts (some bad pictures of our expedition in the dark are
included).

Once I get settled into the MRP camp next week and have a few days of
work under my belt, I will hopefully have another post. But just in
case that activity doesn’t generate another post, Baseball Tour 2011
begins on July 20!

We purchased 35 acres 15 miles south of Steamboat Springs, Colorado about a decade ago and finished a house on it in 2004. In 2002 I planted trees the first weekend of April. A few years ago my sister and her family spent spring break here in March and they hiked the forest without snowshoes. But this year has been different. Several weeks ago I was told they passed 400 inches of snow for the season at Steamboat Springs. Today, two days from May, it looks like this and it is still snowing. The trip over Rabbit Ears Pass today, the last pass before arriving in Steamboat from the south, had blizzard conditions.

Well, at least the yard work can wait.

Isabelle got her mini-tour of Harrod’s today. She wanted a dog. She
didn’t buy anything.

I think I wanted to take Isabelle to Cambridge because after visiting it in September, I thought it was one of the more interesting places I had ever visited.  After today’s trip, I am already ready to return.  With over 30 colleges and numerous ones being religious based with their sometimes extravagant chapels, the abundance of interesting architecture is amazing.  Add to that so many of these structures were constructed in the middle ages and all the impressiveness is compounded.  The magnificence of the King’s College Chapel must be seen to be fully appreciated.  Unfortunately, Trinity College, Cambridge’s largest college founded in 1546, was not open today or in September when we were here so we have yet to see what is likely to be another architectural gem in this fascinating community.

Take the description for Pembroke College.  “Enter Old Court where on the left are the oldest buildings of the college, dating back to the second half of the 14th century.  The college chapel is the first building to be designed by Sir Christopher Wren and completed in 1659.  You will see wide channels on either side of the road.  These formed part of the water supply system for Cambridge in 1610.”  And on and on.  Everywhere you look in this city are interesting building shapes and relationships.  The fascinating structures seem to be endless, at least to me.

I took 150 pictures today.  In the interest of not putting everyone to sleep yet again, I am only posting 32.  I wish I could do the buildings more justice in trying to shoot them.  We had a great day including perfect weather again in Cambridge which included Isabelle’s first trip by train and concluded with dinner at one of our all time favorite restaurants, Patara.

Wrapping up tomorrow and returning to Colorado on Saturday.

We couldn't be more fortunate on the weather here.  Today was cloudless and around 60 degrees.  So we started the day at the London Eye and enjoyed the great views of London from there.  Then to lunch for Isabelle's first visit to a pub followed by Westminster Abbey where we spent most of the afternoon taking the tour covering a thousand years of British history and some time lingering in their Gardens.  After a refreshment break in St. James Park and a stroll through Green Park, it was back to Zanya for dinner at Isabelle's request and another day in the books.

A couple of pretty standard London tourist days on Monday and Tuesday.  We started Monday at the Tower of London when it opened and had a great, gory and entertaining tour covering a thousand years of London history from one of the Yeoman.  Ah, the Middle Ages.  You just can’t beat the fun and frivolity the powers that be came up with during that period of western “civilization.”  After lunch we spent the afternoon touring St. Paul’s Cathedral and environs including a walk over to the Millennium Bridge.  St. Paul’s is probably my least favorite architecturally of any cathedral I have been to but it does have significant history associated with it and is a must for any first time London visitor.  Dinner at the Lebanese restaurant Laya Lina (www.layalina.co.uk).

Tuesday saw us heading to the British Library (http://www.bl.uk/).  Since we are this close, I want Isabelle to be able to say she’s seen the Magna Carta and a Gutenberg bible when she studies them in school and now she can.  I love the Library with its incredibly old books and documents and think it is a don’t miss freebie when you
are in town.  On Tuesday afternoon we went to see Phantom of the Opera at Her Majesty’s Theatre.  I first saw it there in 1990 so there’s a clue as to how ancient I am.

Dinner at Ciro’s Pomodoro (www.pomodoro.co.uk).  Now how do I describe that place.  We thought we were taking Isabelle to a nice little family pizzeria.  She was the only young person there.  It was downstairs, tiny and packed with very interesting looking people with every major celebrity’s picture on the wall with the owner.  Family place yes.  We’re just now sure whose.  The food was terrific.  We’re going back on Friday for the last supper.

The highlight British moment of the two days was the announcement on the Underground that there was “no service on the Central Line because of a passenger illness.”  Had to wonder if someone passed away on the train or if it was something more embarrassing than that.

So the plan was to hit the Tower of London and Covent Garden where Isabelle could see how a city should manage its public plazas.  Okay, I didn’t know people could spend that much time on their backs with their eyes closed without needing to call the coroner.  So with the late start and being a weekend, we headed straight to Covent.

Our first stop was La Roche for lunch.  Konnie and I had lunch there several times in September with the manager Sarah from Iran being our server also.  Sarah recognized us right away and even remembered how long we had stayed in London in September.  Another great lunch there with Isabelle diving into an authentic looking Middle Eastern version of British fish and chips.

Isabelle ended up diving into the shops and activities at Covent Garden so that consumed the entire afternoon.  Under the helpful eye of Konnie, she successfully stimulated the British economy.  We strolled from there to a muffin and coffee shop on King Street called Muffinski’s where even the non-fat muffins were great.

From there we strolled to Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus and then on the Underground back to our flat.  Then to dinner at Patara with Gail Hammond, our friend from the Maya Research Program (sorry Jacquie (Gail’s fun loving friend who is now in Oxford with a real job)) and Gail’s friend Robin.  I didn’t receive what I ordered but perhaps I should stop trying to pronounce Thai names??  But it was outstanding anyway.  In seven meals there everything has been excellent.

A lovely evening for sure.

The girls are getting a wake up call tomorrow…!