Hard to Belize
With the conservation organization this month being Clearwater Marine Aquarium in support of their manatee rescue and research, I feel it is only fitting to sit down and tell you all about my adventure in Belize and the last time I saw manatees in the wild.
I genuinely wish I had a good personal photo of a manatee or manatees, but I was even more of an amateur photographer and the water was pretty murky. In 2019 through my master’s program, I got the opportunity to travel to the beautiful country of Belize. Settled on the north-eastern coast of Central America, salted with a rich history of Mayan civilization and European colonization, and filled with diverse ecosystems that many plants and animals call home, Belize has a special place in my heart. Dwindling down to the roots of the country, so many of the people in Belize prioritize protecting their environment. When I think of communities that have a true understanding of the importance of the ecosystems around them and utilizing their resources respectfully and compassionately, I think about the people of Belize. From visiting the Community Baboon Sanctuary to snorkeling at Tobacco Caye, I learned so much about how to work in conservation while I was there.
Most of my time was spent with staff of the Belize Zoo (A.K.A. the best little zoo in the world) and the Tropical Education Center. Celso Poot who is now the zoo’s Director, and a few other amazing colleagues of his traveled around with our class sharing all of their knowledge about their country. Though he showed so much passion for everything he taught us about, his heart belonged to Belize’s national animal, the Baird’s Tapir, the mountain cow. While they have quite the look, mountain cows serve important roles in their environment, including mitigating tick populations, seed dispersal, and ecosystem biodiversity. However, due to habitat loss, poaching, and climate change, tapirs have found themselves on IUCN’s endangered species list. One issue that Celso focused on was tapir’s colliding with vehicles and through his hard work was able to have road signs put in place where tapirs are likely to be crossing the road. Check our more from the Belize Zoo: https://www.belizezoo.org/
A very happy Tapir lounging in a pond at the Belize Zoo.
Celso is seriously the coolest and I owe him so much for everything he for me while I was visiting Belize. If you know me personally, you’ve probably heard about this more times than you care to know. But here I am, inserting it now (I’ve always wanted to a reason to use the photo below, so here we are). While I was in Belize, I discovered that I have an allergy to cashews. If you didn’t know, and I didn’t at the time, cashew trees are in the same family as poison ivy. Both of these plants produce the same oil, urushiol. Well… Belize is very well known for their cashew exports and it has been a long-time tradition to roast cashew husks (pictured below). Staff that were roasting the cashew husks with us did worn us that if the oil stays on your skin for too long it could cause blisters (hindsight’s 20/20). So, they stressed to us that we thoroughly wash our hands after consuming the cashews which I did. However, I woke up in the middle of the night that night with a tingling feeling in my cheeks. I took some Benadryl and tried to go back to sleep. When I woke up the next day, my whole face was red and puffing. I have such a high pain tolerance though that I didn’t let it bother me and carried on with the day. As the day progressed and we walked through Mayan ruins in the heat, the reaction on my face got worse and worse. I continued to play it cool though…By the evening, it was spreading to other parts of my body. My instructor and Celso both insisted I go to the hospital which was a 45 minute drive from where we were. Once I got to the hospital, four nurses were on me and a doctor immediately came to us to ask for history. I was given so many drugs… I don’t even remember what they were.. one made my mouth test like metal. The reaction did not change much within an hour of me being there, falling asleep for an hour, calling my poor parents to tell them I was at the hospital, and the doctor basically saying that I shouldn’t be on the trip that I was on. The next day our class was head to the Tobacco Caye where we would continue to sleep in un-air conditioned, humid, sun beaten bungalows. The doctor very much wanted me to stay inside for several days, hahaha. So, they gave me a steroid cream and anti-histamines and I just carried on.
Moral of the story: go see the world, take risks, and try new things, but make sure you get travelers health insurance! Sure did save my butt.
