February 16, 2017
After surviving my first semester of graduate school, I felt like I needed a mini-vacation. I decided to spend a week of my winter break visiting my close friend, who lives in San Pedro, Belize, a colorful town located on the country’s largest island of Ambergris Caye. Where is Belize, you ask? It is small country located in Central America, bordered by Mexico (north) and Guatemala (west).
Going to San Pedro, to me, is somewhat of a small mission I have accustomed myself to. If you are on a tight budget like me, you will most likely be waking up at an undesirable hour for your flight to Belize City. This time around, my flight was at 6:40AM. By the time I arrived in Belize City, I was shedding layers of clothing and rocking my Tevas. No rock hammer this time, but only because I took a carry-on bag.
My favorite part of my trip is the 20-minute puddle jumper ride to San Pedro Town. You quickly transition from inland jungle and rivers to the sandy shallow waters that characterize the carbonate shelf that Ambergris Caye sits on. As always, I sat on the right side of the plane, to see and appreciate the Meso-American barrier reef. It is the second largest reef in the world, and about a mile away from the shores of San Pedro. You can only see it in its entirety as the plane descends: it looks like a white line separating the calm from the rough waters. At this exact point, I start to think about the sticky, carbonate sands that will forever be stuck on me, and thank the reef for being a good carbonate factory.
The first two days on “La Isla Bonita,” or the beautiful island as Madonna described San Pedro in her 1987 hit, were spent well. I did what every graduate student dreams of during the semester. I ate tacos, pupusas, and ceviche, relaxed, and thought about absolutely nothing. Once I got tired of being a normal, unstressed person, I went diving. Despite hearing about the damages incurred by Hurricane Earl around the island, I found that the reefs were doing all right, with nurse sharks and Caribbean reef sharks hanging around, as usual. I spotted a hawksbill sea turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) casually munching on seagrass and algae.
I spent one of my days on an excursion to the Secret Beach, a not-so-secret beach on the western portion (lagoon side) of the island. Getting there on a rented golf cart—the main form of transportation on the island—takes anywhere from 30-40 minutes. Back in 2013, I visited the beach with Smith College emeritus professor Allen “Al” Curran and a driver. The driver took us to an area filled with mangroves—an important ecosystem serving as nurseries to coral reef species, where he said people were planning development. Al was perplexed and requested a rock hammer to hit the ground, which was obviously karst. With two swings, he broke a hole and said, “Now why would anyone want to build a house on karst? Karst is hollow ground!” To date, the plots are still there—waiting to be built on.
My last day on the island was spent discreetly filling up a water bottle with carbonate sand to take back to my little brother and friends. On the flight back, I thought about who would most enjoy me telling them why a half pound of carbonate sand is so cool, using hand lens, of course. The sand stayed with the clear winner: my little brother.
