Ryan Byrd’s Ramblings

This is the third and final of the Belize photo albums. The album letters, by the way, correspond to the labels on the digital camera memory cards. In Belize I used cards A, B and F. Though we’re out of pictures after this, don’t worry, there are still videos to come!

“Keep the Belize pics a comin’”, say the emails.  Who am I to  disobey?!?

Now it’s time for the first gallery of my pictures from the recent Belize trip. Enjoy!

During our recent trip to Belize, we took several hundred photos and a few dozen videos. I’m in the processing of uploading that media for your perusal. Here is the first photo album, this one taken by my brother. I’ve edited out the boring pics and those which were not family friendly.

This year I’ll be spending Christmas (and the week after) in Belize with my brother and sister. It all started a few months ago when my sister called me and asked if I wanted to go to Belize. “Sure,” I said, quickly Googling Belize, “I’d love to go to that great …. Central American country under Mexico.”

So, maybe you’d like to learn about Belize too? Here’s what I discovered:

• Belize is slightly larger than Massachusetts
• Belize was formerly the British Honduras until the name of the country was changed in 1973
• Bounded on the north and part of the west by Mexico, and on the south and the remainder of the west by Guatemala
• National Bird: The Keel Billed Toucan
• National Animal: The Tapir or Mountain Cow
• More than 500 Mayan ruins dot the country
• Caracol is the largest of Belize’s Mayan ruins. One pyramid is one hundred and forty feet high, the tallest man-made structure in Belize
• Belize also consists of over 200 cayes (islands)
• English is the official language and is widely spoken, as is Spanish. Other languages include Creole, German, Mayan and Garifuna
• Some tourists prefer to fly into Cancun as air fares are cheap. Then from Cancun catch the ADO air conditioned buses to Belize - about a 4 hour ride
• The 2nd smallest country in Central America
• The capital is Belmopan, 35 miles inland from Belize City
• About 1/3 of the country’s population lives in Belize City
• Member of British Commonwealth
• Approximately 30% of all Belizeans live outside the country
• Belize became a British Colony in 1862
• Most (60%) of Belizeans are bilingual (mostly English/Spanish)
• Creole: make up the majority population (60%); generally the offspring of the original English & Scottish settlers who married freed African slaves
• Mestizos: (Latinos): a mixture of Amerindians (often Maya) with Spanish (Mexican) blood; mostly mixed-race slaves who entered from the Yucatan during the War of the Races (ca. 1847-48); approx. 20% of the population
• Garifuna: blacks of mixed African & Carib Indian ancestry; many were forcibly expelled from the West Indes in 1797; approx. 20% of the population
• 70% of Belize is still covered by forest
• Belize has the 2nd largest coastal barrier reef in the world, which runs 10-40 miles offshore along the entire 185-mile length of Belize’s coast
• The region receives over 150 inches of rain/year
• Population of approximately 239,000

src: http://ambergriscaye.com/pages/town/factsbze.html

Most of you know that I’ve spent the last few days in the crown jewel of the pacific northwest, Seattle. It’s the second time I’ve been there and it provided me another occasion to practice what I call planned serendipity. Now serendipity^*, as you might know, is when good (unexpected) things happen because you’re in the right place at the right time. Now the time part is tricky and hard to control, but fortunately the place is easier to influence. What that means is that if you want interesting things to occur, you must get yourself to exciting locations. Sitting on your couch watching Seinfeld reruns is not one of those places, by the way.

When I arrived in Seattle, I had precious little detailed plans for entertainment^**, but due to a dash of luck and some frenetic driving (to effect planned serendipity), my sister and I experienced the :

• Bellevue Arts Festival (where an Asian girl at the info booth told me I had pretty eyes. The art was nice too.)
• Pikes Fish Market (lots of screaming and throwing of fish)
• Olympia Farmer’s Market (hippies galore plus fruit aplenty)
• State Capitol Building (they’ve got one big’ ol dome and a huge chandelier. Also we chatted with the assistant secretary of state)
• Jack in the Box (largest gathering of nerds. ever)
• Fox Island (you can drive right to this scenic hot spot to observe the well-fed flora)
• Tacoma Narrows Bridge (which once fell down, but they put it back up again)
• Torchlight Parade (simply amazing people watching)

* English author Horace Walpole coined the word serendipity from an old name for Sri Lanka, Serendip. Serendip was part of the title of a “silly fairy tale, called The Three Princes of Serendip; as their highnesses traveled, they were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things which they were not in quest of”

** I did have plans to have dinner with a friend or two (see previous entry)

I’m like 99.99 percent parched; I could really go for a cola.

– Jon Heder

That’s how I felt in Brazil. When you walk off the plane in Rio the humidity immediately confronts you, like a warm, wet towel draped over your face. I quickly realized that I was no longer in the dry desert of Utah. Even in their “winter” season, the temperatures still soar into the 90s, which mean that you (and I mean I), consequently sweat a LOT when there. Liquids out require liquids in and as much as Brazil is growing, the drinking water distribution infrastructure isn’t quite up to par and so the tap water simply isn’t potable. That means bottled and preferably canned beverages are a must. Lots of them.

Not content to simply resell others’ beverages, the Brazilians prefer their own home grown variety of soda: Guarana.

Guarana, as you might know, is a small fruit-bearing tree. It is the Guarana fruit that flavors the Brazilian soft drinks and provides the natural caffeine. Like many exotic fruits, the Guarana is alleged to have powerful curative properties: from weight loss and better heart health to increased cognitive function. Whatever the truth may be, this much is for certain, Guarana soda tastes good.

So I am clear, Guarana is not a name brand, it refers to the name of the tree (and fruit.) There are a number of soda manufacturers which produce Guarana-based drinks. In the US, the Antarctica brand is the most commonly imported and is frequently available in your local supermarket. As you would imagine, there are other popular Brazilian brands that are less available in the US: Brahma and Kuat, to name a couple.

Obey your thirst.

Eventually I’ll post all of my photos and videos of Brazil, but for starters, here is a taste of what is to come. Click the thumbnails for larger versions.

The days in Brazil were adventure filled, as were the evenings. We saw the filming of a telenovela, hit up a night club called “Les Gens”, stopped by a “boi caprichoso” samba festival, and a made a cameo at a Brazilian country dancing/micro-brewery, where we ran into Miss Amazonia and her twin sister, pictured at right. You’ll notice my shaved head, which was done to make me look mean enough to ward off potential muggers.

I might have mentioned before that we took a boat trip to the confluence of the Amazon and Black Rivers. At the intersection, the rivers refuse to immediately mix (due to different temperatures and speeds), so they run parallel for upwards of nine miles. A clear demarcation is visible in the water (as they are also different colors.) Here, to the left, I’m pictured holding a glass of water scooped from out from either side of our boat.

On that same boat, my brother and I pose (right) for a picture with the thick jungle in the background. You’ll notice my tattered NY Yankees hat has seen better days. It might not surprise you to know that that particular hat has been to five continents with me. Yes, I know it’s gross. Yes, several close friends have tried to rid me of that hat. No, I don’t know why my brother is using the gun pose again.

Next we transferred from big boat to canoe, and I, wanting to get all the action, moved to the front of the boat. The canoe trip up into a small stream of the Black River was one of my favorite parts of the entire trip. The lush foliage, vines and branches were just feet above our heads, obscuring the sky and plunging us into a thick, humid shade. The canoe was navigating the waters with only the slightest clearance on either side. It was something right out of National Geographic. Trying to capture it all, I took nearly 2GB of photos and videos in a matter of minutes.

And what do you find in rain forests? Exotic animals of all variety like snakes, alligators and sloths. Three-toed sloths, to be exact. Sloths who don’t mind getting their pictures taken. I asked a local if the odd-looking sloth (to the right) had a name. She said he did not, so I picked one for him: “Moore.” Yes, sloths move REALLY slowly.

They are the most ferocious fish in the world. They will rend and devour alive any wounded man or beast.

– Theodore Roosevelt, speaking of Brazilian piranhas.

Part of our Brazilian adventure included a canoe trip down a tributary of the Black River (which feeds into the Amazon.) As we canoed through a dense jungle swamp, it occurred to me that the river probably contained piranha. At first the thought was unnerving, as the canoe had shallow sides and was sitting low in the water. It wouldn’t take much for one of those monsters to flick itself into the boat and latch onto my leg. That fear soon passed and was replaced by a morbid desire for a wounded chicken. I’ve heard that piranhas can reduce an animal to bare bones in mere seconds, but hearing something and seeing something are entirely different. Sadly, no chicken was to be had. I did, however, confirm that the river was home to the meat-stripping fiends.

Luckily, we docked at a small floating platform where I purchased a few of the menacing fish (dried) as souvenirs. Roberto, my amazing friend and tour guide, chaffed at the suggestion that piranha were man-eating devils. “It turns out that piranha aren’t quite as ferocious as early explorers such as Theodore Roosevelt claimed. They will attack pretty much any wounded creature to be sure, but the locals in and around the Amazon have adapted and so long as you don’t jump in the water with open wounds or when animals are being slaughtered in waterways, piranha attacks on human beings are extremely rare.” They sure don’t look peace-loving though…

You might think that piranha are smallish fish that gain power only by sheer numbers. You’d be wrong. I purchased two fish each approaching a foot in length. I’ve included pictures for your viewing pleasure. Click for larger versions. Piranha, friend or foe? You decide.

src: http://brian.carnell.com/archives/years/2001/01/000018.html

Surfing the ‘net, that is. Fast web access down there is sometimes hard to come by. Cybercafes, when you can find them, charge from 2-5 R$ an hour (1 to 2 USD) and the speeds are not particularly remarkable, maybe 100 to 200kbps, if that. (The airport in Rio, on the other hand, charges fifty cents a MINUTE for online access!)

When walking around Rio, we passed by a McDonald’s, which ordinarily isn’t blog-worthy, but through the entrance door we saw something that made us stop: McDonalds McInternet. Yes, your favorite burger joint has now expanded into vending Internet time. For every menu item purchased at McDonald’s you get 15 minutes on their McInternet computers, which are equipped with a lightening fast 56k modem. My brother and I each bought an ice cream cone and then suffered through the McInternet’s blazing speeds to check our email. Life is rough in the third world.

Fast Facts: McDonald’s operates more than 31,000 restaurants in 119 countries. McDonald’s owns some of the the best (and allegedly most valuable) commercial property in the world (franchisees lease the land and are charged rent.) Oh, and speaking of fast food, the KFC in Rio sells grilled chicken, rice and beans with a side of french fries. Very tasty!