Chiquibul Park Visitors' Center

As promised, here are a few photos of the new Chiquibul Park Visitors' Center, one from the outside, and two of exhibits inside, including a tapir skeleton.

Chiquibul and Challillo

This morning we went to the grand opening of the Chiquibul Park Visitors' Center, which is on the Chiquibul Road where it splits and heads left into the Chiquibul Park and Las Cuevas, and right to Caracol.  The Visitors' Center is a much needed addition to the area, providing a meeting place, information, and support to visitors to these sites.  All sorts of dignitaries attended the opening, and everyone was very supportive of the effort.

On the way home, G suggested we take a minor detour and take a look at the Chalillo Dam.  Tom and I have lived here for over seven years - with "here" being not just Belize, but in the Mountain Pine Ridge area - and we have driven to Caracol countless times, but we have never bothered to take the 10 minute detour to get a look at the dam.

It wasn't as big as we expected to be.  This is probably because it has caused so much heated conflict in the country about the environmental impact and the value of the power it generates, we figured it had to be absolutely huge.  In size, it's just not that big, although the size of its effect on the area is still being debated.

I want to take a canoe and paddle around in it a bit, just to get a different perspective on what it is...so hopefully more pictures to follow when we get around to that adventure.

Mexico to Florida

We spent a relaxing couple of days traveling through Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula before catching a morning flight to Orlando on Tuesday.  We took the 10:30 ADO bus from Chetumal to Playa del Carmen on Sunday morning, which got us into Playa around 3PM.  We had a late lunch at our favorite Playa restaurant, El Fogon, and then caught the ferry out to Cozumel.

We weren't all that impressed with our initial view of Cozumel:  typical cruise ship port city consisting of US and cruise chains, and fake Mexican crap.  However, it was a relatively quick walk out of the commercial area, and the rest of Cozumel felt more like typical Mexico.  We found a decent place to stay out of the hubbub, dumped our stuff, and went out to explore.  Cozumel has a park just like Chetumal and the same type of community fair was happening there, although there were a lot more tourists and we weren't singled out by the clowns.  We walked along the waterfront and then ducked back into the back streets, and found a nice little steakhouse where we had a great steak dinner with Mexican beef.  

After a quiet night's sleep, we got up, had breakfast, and decided to rent a car and spend the day driving around the island.  The clerk at the hotel told us where to go to rent the car for a reasonable rate, and we found the guy without any trouble.  We were a little surprised when we picked up the car that it wasn't exactly up to US standards as far as maintenance went, but to us it was in normal shape for Belize, although we don't see too many ancient VW bugs running around Belize.  

We drove out along the waterfront and headed out to the end of the island.  We stopped at a small village named El Cedral that has a small (very small) Maya ruin and an old Spanish church.  It was obviously outfitted for cruise ship tourists, and we did a quick walk around and got back in our buggy and headed for the next stop, which was the southernmost point on the island.  We looked at the sea, which was much rougher on that side, and then headed up the eastern side.  We stopped for a yummy lunch of mixed seafood ceviche at Chen Rio, and got our feet wet, plus a bit more since the water was very rough.  We then continued on our way to the San Gervasio ruins, which are small, but very nicely restored, and not at all crowded.

As we finished touring the ruins, we noticed that clouds were moving in, and decided that we would hightail it back to the town to return the rental vehicle.  We had to get fuel first, which was slightly stressful since the fuel gauge had been diving as we drove around the island and we weren't actually sure if we were going to run out and need to hail a taxi, nor were we sure that we weren't going to get scammed and get pulled over by the police for driving a illegal car as we headed back into town.  But, we didn't need to worry; we made it to the Pemex, got fuel, and got back to the rental agency without incident.

After returning the car we had a brief discussion about going to a museum or getting a snack, but the sky was getting very dark so we decided to head to the ferry terminal.  We were just in time, as the deluge hit about 2 minutes after we were under cover.

We got back to Playa, checked into our hotel right across from the bus station, and then headed out for an early dinner, again at El Fogon.  The food was delicious - again - and when we were just about done dinner, the water came over and asked Tom, in Spanish, if he could ask him a question.  Tom of course said yes, and the question was where we were from and where Tom learned to speak Spanish. Tom told him we were from the US but lived in Belize, which is where Tom learned Spanish.  The waiter got a big grin on his face, asked if we lived near Guatemala, and when Tom said yes, he told us that he was from Guatemala, and that Tom sounded like home, which is why he asked the question.  He told us where he was from in Guatemala, asked if we've been there (we have), talked about where else we've traveled in Guatemala, and called Tom "mi amigo" for the rest of the time we were there.  It was fun, even though this was not the first time Tom has had this discussion.  Tom can't decide if his high school Spanish teacher would be horrified or happy that he sounds like a Guatemalan, but I think it's great.

We stopped at Walmart on the way back to the hotel, where Tom found some gym shorts he's been looking for for quite a while.  We then stopped at the bus station to get our tickets for the 5am bus, and headed back to the hotel for an early night.

We got our bus, got the plane, and arrived in Orlando without any difficulties, and even a bit early.  We got to Tom's parents' house and have been having a good visit, interspersed with a bit of shopping we have to do for ourselves and friends in Belize.  The week will be gone before we know it, and we will be doing the return trip to Belize.

Chetumal!

Heading north, we bused out of Belize yesterday and crossed the border into Mexico at about 6:30PM.  We are heading for Playa del Carmen, but since we had the choice of hurrying for the bus, or getting a good dinner and spending the night in Chetumal, we of course opted for dinner.  So, we had a lovely seafood dinner at La Botana, and checked into a little hotel where we have stayed before where we know it is quiet and comfortable.

On the way to La Botana, we walked through the Centennial Park in the waterfront.  We've never been here on a weekend night before, and we were pleasantly surprised to see that the city has a festival atmosphere on a Saturday night.  Slides and jumps for the kids, little cars for the kids, people kicking around glowing balls, light-pulsing music-blaring buses, and a clown show all grabbed our attention.  The clown show was actually a little too much attention, since when we stopped to watch the clowns immediately noticed the only two white people in the crowd, and started exchanging silly patter with us:

You speak Spanish?

Si!

Habla Ingles?

No!

Where are you from?

Belice!

Le gusta taquitos?

Si!

Le gusta tequila?

SI!

Barratos!

Everybody laughed all the way through, and while it was a little uncomfortable to be in the spotlight, it was fun.

Today we are on to Playa, where there are more tourists.

More Beetle Burning

Last week, we burned two compartments, for a total of about 450 acres.  This week, we are working on getting some of the beetle spots destroyed.  Fortunately for spectator purposes, one of the largest beetle spots on the property is visible from the fire tower, so as the guys went out to burn Tuesday night, I climbed the firetower with binoculars and my iPad to document the burn.

We start burning in the late afternoon, so I climbed the fire tower right around sunset.  This is the view to the west.

This was the view to the east.  I have no idea what makes the rays in the sky opposite the setting sun, but it's beautiful, and I'm actually surprised that they came out so well in the picture.

This is the fire, just getting started.  By the time they finished, they burned 2 spots about this size on Tuesday night, and another small spot and two large spots last night.  Unfortunately the night pictures don't come out too well, so although a much larger area was burning, it was difficult to see in the pictures.

The guys are out right now clearing fire lines around some additional spots.  It's gray and drizzley and damp today so we won't be burning tonight, and we won't burn tomorrow since the crew leaves on Saturday, but we will pick up with the burning next week.  Our goal is to get most of the beetle spots burned, as well as another compartment, within the next few weeks.  Because the rain has mostly stopped and we seem to be into the dry season, it won't be too long before it is too dry to burn and the danger of the fire running wild will be to great.  Then we will have to wait until fall, and hope we don't have another year like 2013, when it was too wet to burn for most of the year.

Compartment Burn

View of the main fire

After spending an evening burning spots that had been cleared to prevent the spread of the pine bark beetle, we were warmed up (haha) to do a full compartment burn the next night.  The property is divided into compartments, each 200-300 acres.  Each compartment is defined by firebreak boundaries, either bulldozed roads, or natural waterways.  The man-made breaks are placed based on the geography, either where the bulldozer was able to go, or ideally so the geography around the break can help control the fire.

The compartment we burned is roughly a triangle, with a public road on one side, a bulldozed road on the next, and a creek forming the third boundary.  For this compartment, the creek and the public road were givens, so the man-made boundary was bulldozed from the road down towards the base of the hill to where it meets the creek.  This made a good firebreak, because fire tends to burn up, so it is unlikely that a wildfire will spread down the hill vigorously enough to jump the break, and when setting the fire, it can be set along the uphill side of the break and can then burn up the hill.

Ronnie and Tulio filling one of the water packs

Based on wind conditions, the plan was made prior to the burn to burn a break along the bulldozer road, and then set the main fire along the public road and let it burn down along the creek to the break.  The bulk of the crew was planned to go along the main road, with just a few guys going down the bulldozer road to burn the break.  However, when we got out there, the wind had shifted slightly, and because the bulldozer road was less cleared than the main road had had some dry grass growing in it, the decision was made to split the crew more evenly, with half going to one side and half to the other.

The whole crew, minus G, Jerry, and Tom, prior to the burn

Tom and I went with Tulio, Angel, and Arsenio to the bottom of the bulldozer road near the creek, while Salomon, Jose, Ronnie, and Myron went to the point where the main road and the creek meet to start the big burn.  When we got to the bottom of the bulldozer road and started trying to light the fire for the break, we had trouble getting it going because there was absolutely no wind down in the valley, and the tiger bush and grass were somewhat moist...no surprise considering we were in a creek valley in the evening.  Tulio and Angel chopped a path through the tiger bush a little higher up the hill and started lighting up there, while Tom continued to try to light up along the road.  Arsenio and I stood back and watched to make sure the small fires didn't spread into the road, and didn't really have to do much since at that point we were having trouble getting the fire to burn at all, and having it spread in a direction we didn't want wasn't really an issue.

As Tulio, Angel, and Tom moved up the hill lighting the fires, they were easier to start.  Arsenio and I drove the truck up out of the valley, and continued to watch the progress to make sure the fire didn't go the wrong way across the road.  For a long time it did exactly what it was supposed to do, burning 30 to 50 feet into the bush away from the bulldozer road and creating a line that the fire coming from the other direction wouldn't be able to cross.

Tom using the drip torch along the bulldozer road

We were about halfway up the hill, before the road starts to flatten out, when Tulio and Angel came jogging back to the truck to grab the water backpacks for Angel and Arsenio.  The wind had shifted slightly, and the bush was dryer, and suddenly the back burn was moving forward and trying to cross the bulldozer road.  I was dispatched with the truck to retrieve Ronnie and Myron from the other side, where we could see the fire they had set along the road burning quite well, and coming towards us.

The fire lighting crew along the main road

G had arrived on the scene with his friend Jerry, and G was directing the efforts for getting the burn going on that end.  He said they had burned far enough towards the point where we were heading, and since the triangle was narrowing at that spot, they left the fire they had started, which had burned well in from the main road, and G, Jerry, Salomon, and Jose moved to the intersection of the main road and the bulldozer road and started burning down towards us so the break would be wide enough all the way along the bulldozer line by the time the main fire reached it.  I dropped Ronnie and Myron off to work with Angel and Arsenio to keep the bulldozer break clear, and Tom and Tulio continued to set the fire to form the break, moving towards the top of the bulldozer road.

Jerry using the drip torch along the main road

Despite having to work a little harder than expected to form the break and keep it from jumping the bulldozer road before the main fire reached it, everything went well and G declared it a textbook burn.  The fire stayed within its boundaries, it stayed within the range it was supposed to as far as flame height and heat, everything burned well, and nobody was hurt.  The only bummer is that it was almost too easy, and Tom and I feel that we still have a bit to learn since we are going to need to be faced with a bit of adversity and misbehaving fire before we can really figure out how this works, and we need to know how to deal with wildfires since they do happen up here, and Mother Nature doesn't always cooperate with planning for where to start the fires and wind conditions.

The view from the truck as I shuttled people and equipment

The burned break in the foreground, with the main fire coming towards us from the main road

Beetle burning

Part of this job is doing controlled burns, both for the general health of the forest, and to destroy the pine bark beetle.  We started this job in August of last year, and since that time the weather has been consistently wet, and we have not been able to learn how to burn...until now.

Things have finally started to dry out, and G decided that we can start to do some of the burning maintenance jobs.  Last night, for our maiden voyage, we went out and burned five spots that had been cleared because they were infested with the pine bark beetle.  We took the afternoon off, and late in the day hooked up and filled the water trailer, and put all the fire setting and fire fighting equipment in the truck.  The guys had an early dinner, and around 5PM we set out for one of the larger beetle patches.  

We burn late in the day because we want the fire to be controllable, and late in the day the wind tends to die, the humidity goes up, and the temperature goes down.  Plus, when it gets dark, it is easier to see sparks that may blow out of the fire into surrounding areas.  Tom and I were the only ones not experienced with controlled burns, and the crew immediately started their jobs with some picking up fire starting torches, and others filling the water backpacks.  They spread out along the already cleared fire line, and started the fires.  They figured out where to start them based the breeze and the area that had been cleared, and very quickly had the area burning.  Everybody walked around until the fire had burned well towards the middle and there was very little chance of it jumping out of the planned burn area.

When the first fire was under control, we moved to a different beetle spot and burned that.  By this time it was completely dark, and it was easy to see which way the fire would head.  The second site was smaller, and it only took about 45 minutes to burn the area until the fire was contained.

The third, fourth, and fifth areas we burned were areas where Jose had pushed all the downed trees into windrows with the bulldozer in the middle of the cleared areas.  These were relatively easy burns, since we just had to light up the windrows and get them burning, and very little perimeter maintenance was needed.  We deemed the last one safe at around 9PM, and headed back to the farm.

The weather is still favorable for fires, so tonight we are going to do our first compartment burn.  The property is divided into 200-300 acre compartments, with compartment boundaries defined by either roads/fire lines or natural waterways.  Tonight's planned burn has roads on two sides, and a creek on the third.  It should be interesting...photos to follow!