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Lobsterfest 2015 June 19-21

 Belize Chocolate Festival (5/21-24/2015)

1.  Savanna Guest House and Belizean Zoo
2.  Xunantunick "The Stone Lady" Mayan Temple Ruins

Lobsterfest 2015 June 19-21

A good crowd gathered for the Lobsterfest. The weather cooperated with the skies being overcast, but no rain. Except for one incident Sunday night by the Hokie Pokie landing, it appeared to have been a great success! Our own Gayle Hoover won the first place Tourist Board prize. She won two round trip tickets to either the US or Canada! Congrats to Gayle!

Gayle and I walked around several hours and sold raffle tickets, probably $150.00 dollars worth. We just wanted to give some time volunteering (good way to meet people as well.)

I just heard about the Sunday night incident this morning. A local, who is the bartender at the Pickled Parrot, got picked on by a gang of 7 or 8 from Independence, ended up getting a concrete block in the face while he was down and it really fractured his face quite severely. He ended up with a broken jaw, and all his front teeth gone. The reports indicated they were all drunk at the time and that the victim's wife has a child on the way. So sad.

Most people had an enjoyable time though.They also had a Lionfish tournament. Lionfish has become an invasive species eating the coral. So all communities on the coast are encouraging fishing the Lionfish. The prize winner had about a five foot Lionfish. A small crowd of about fifty gathered at the pier to wait the tornament close to see who brought in the biggest fish, about a five foot monster!

BTW, I sampled a piece of fried Lionfish offered by a woman to whom I sold some Raffle tickets. It was quite tasty with a nice spicy tang to it. I also had a small lobster pie and a slice of a lobster pizza. My landlady, Lynne, treated me to a full meal on the following Tuesday at Mojo's which included a lobster...succulently sinful! Mojo's is a lovely appointed small restaurant. They open at 5pm. High quality food.

Of course, the official beer of Belize, Belikin, was running strong the entire weekend! The Boardwalk was lined with small vendors selling about anything you could think of. There was also a large tent with some incredible carvings as well. Gayle, Michael and I ate at Wendy's (not the US chain) that evening before calling it quits for the day. My feet were worn out!

There were several musical groups there as well. A marching band, a Reggie group and my favorite, the Drums, Not Guns drummers, this time with a horn. I've taken several videos with several being quite lengthy. So we'll see which ones made it into the photo album.

Michael and Gayle treated me to breakfast Sunday morning at the Bistro at the Mayan Beach Resort. What a great setting and good company! I took a few pics of that resort. Here is the link to those pictures.(Not yet posted)

Click here to see the photos and videos of the Lobsterfest.

Belize Chocolate Festival
in Punta Gorda and Mopan, Belize
(5/21/-24/2015)
 Three links
The Festival and Street Scenes
The Garifuna Drum Group Video
 The Mayan Ritual Video

 

This is an annual festival to celebrate the abundance of chocolate produced in this small country. The Toledo District, in which Punta Gorda is located, has an abundance of Cocoa trees which grows pods containing the raw coaao. One of the producers is Goss Chocolate, along with several other brands, such as Ixcocoa, all of which had booths, except Goss, at the festival.

Officials close off Front Street, which runs parallel to the shoreline. The shoreline here this far south is a rocky shoreline, with fishing being the primay industry and now a growing eco-ourism destination. The Mayan indians have a ceremonial dance to celebrate the cocao bean.

Front Street was closed off for many blocks through town to allow vendors to set up their booths. Any food/drinks you can imagine are laced with chocolate, from beer, eggs, chili, salsa, tea, coffee, etc.

Vendors sell their handmade trinkets, mostly based on Mayan culture. A lot of foreign toursts were enjoying the festivities from as far away as Autrailia, Europe and the US.. A stage was setup mid-town for offcial ceremonies, including a Graifuna drum group and a couple of dancers. This group is five years old, sponsors many children nad have adopted a slogan which is “Drums, Not Guns.” Testimonials from children talking about how the group has helped them transform and give meaning to their lives were powerful, stressing personal responsibility for the choices they make, the importance of making a commitment to something lager than themselves. My firend Michael, the night before, had the privledge of playing with this group in a less formal setting. Mike is a drum builder himself and carves gourds.

Sunday afternoon, on the way back north, we stopped at a technical school where still more vendors and music were present. These festivities were in a heavy Mayan community called Mopan, and we watched a group of Mayans dance/act out a ceremony celebrating the cocoa.

 
Savanna Guest House and the Zoo

Richard Roger

We drove about an hour from the Belize City airport my first day in country to the Savanna Guest House run by an English couple called Foster. Richard has an incredible life story. We did not get to meet his wife as she is suffering a relapse of MS and cannot move around much. They are wildlife film makers with many expeditions around the world. Richard and several friends, when he was still under twenty, purchased an 80 ft steamer and traveled the world taking no more than 12 guests at a time, for legal reasons, to some of the most exotic places on the planet. He was one of the early groups to explore the Galalopados Islands and the Giant Blue Hole in Belize. He traveled in this manner for I think it was ten years, until their ship had to be retired. After hooking up with his wife carol, they traveled as a team to the African savanna and filmed the big cats from the top of their Range Rover, never once getting attacked! If you have seen the Planet Earth and Life series, you have seen some of their work. They have a studio setup to film animal behavior for other filmmakers now. Fascinating sets he has created on his property of 20 acres. It sits in the middle of 900 acres owned by a friend. They have been here 30 years. Every June they hold a class for aspiring nature film students to teach them filming techniques. The stories this modest man tells are amazing.

So Google them and see what you find on line. They are Carol and Richard Foster. Let me know what you find out. My Belize travel book mentions them as having created a film for Belize called, “Path of the Rain Gods”

He was telling us about a staged film shoot he set up involving Vampire bats, He was approached to set up a replica of a prison cell from the famous Hell's Prison in Equador as there were stories of bats sucking blood of prisoners. Richard spent three months preparing a set including a replica of the cell and brought in Vampire Bats to aclimate them to the evirons. Then he laid down in the cell with only his leg exposed, One bat finally landed on him and felt him tear a piece of flesh off his leg. They secrete an anti collagulant, that keeps the blood flowing. By the end of his “practice run” he had a pool of blood under his cot. The film crew came in with the survival actor for this series, and they had the scene shot in two days.

The Zoo was actually started by the Rogers donation of animals and was setup and moved down the road a few miles and is independently run. It sits on 50 acres. All animals and birds housed there are either found or injured and brought there. Those that can be returned to the wild are done so.

We went back for a night tour at the zoo and had a really interesting time with a great guide. It was to cost us about $20 US apiece but Richard gave us the tour gratis. The lodging and Zoo admission fees are all very reasonable.

A little more about the Savanna Guest House owned and operated by the Rogers. Apparently for years they ran their entire operation off of solar power. They have huge water storage tanks around their main home and the guest house that supplies potable water. BTW, hot water is only available for showers, as is the custom here in Belize. Their lights and other appliances ran off their solar system. In order to operate their studio, they supplemented their solar with generator(s). The amount of energy demanded to run these really awesome studio lamps, was extensive. Finally, the cost of fuel and the demands of maintenance of the entire system was getting expensive. They opted to go back on grid and purchase their power as others do. I could tell it was a major let down for them, for they truly believe in the low impact life style they helped create here. But, basic economic reality and the the economies of scale won the day.

About those studio lights...they are made by one man in Germany and only about three people or operations in the world have them. They are unique in that the high intensity candlepower would fry any small insects or butterflies they would attempt to film in close up shots. What makes these studio lamps unique is that there is a water jacket in front of the lamp, that is fed by a large water reservoir tank inside the studio. I forget the figure but a tremedous amount of water (gpm) flows through these jackets and keeps the lights cool to the touch. I found those lamps facinating and almost one of a kind.

Richard more so than before, is the go-to-guy for professional wildlife fimmakers who need to get closeup shots of animals jumping or fishing, etc. He explained that the demands for such high resolution filming requires cameras that cost in the $200,000 range now. Too expensive to purchase, these film crews rent the equipment. As a result, they cannot just wait in the jungle or natural habitat for the animals to act the way they want to film them. Richard's skill comes into play and he creates studio sets, trains the animals where appropriate, sometimes taking months to get their “actors” to make the moves they need. The crews then come in and shoot their scenes within a several day window and move on. So, the next time you see animals close up doing something unique, it just may be you are watching a multi month process of staging and shooting the action.

The condition of the coral reefs off of Belize. Richard told us that in his personal experience diving the coral reefs that they are dying. Over his 30 years he says that the reefs are now only about 20% of what they were when he first cme to Belize. He also stated that one of the big recreational sports of swimming with the whale sharks is also in danger. These whale sharks migrate from all over the Carribean to a spot near one of the most famous diving spots. In the past there woud be literally hundreds of them congregating for mating and feeding. Now, with all the human activity in that spot, whale sharks are rapidly disappearing there. Where there were hundreds, now only a hand full are regular visitors to that spot. He puts the responsibility for the change in their behavior to all the divers and the disturbance of all the boats in their waters. It may also be due to the fish they feed on being chsed away.

San Ignacio Area

 Xunantunick "The Stone Lady" Mayan Temple Ruins

 

 Beneath the visible is a recently discovered evidence of a Mayan temple built around 1500 BC. The visible temple compound has been dated to around 950 B.C.. Experts estimate this roughly 40 acre compound was the center of an ancient civilization of about 10,000 people. These ruins are about four miles from the Guatamala border. There is evidence that drought played a role in the abandonment of this settlement. Located close to two rivers, these people traded with other groups as far away as across Central America as well as to the Carribean Sea, as evidence by the existence of sea shells and precious stones used as money. To this day, the Belizean National Forces have a small outpost at this site to keep looters away, looking for turquoise. 

As would be customary for the Mayan culture of this era, only the High Priest would occupy the very top of the temple, with lesser priests allowed at lower levels. This was, of course a very hierarchical culture, so only those of the upper class were ever allowed onto the temple itself, but the large smooth squares were places of busy activities with markets, festivals and ceremonies.

There is an interesting game played in smaller "stadiums" to the side of the main squares. This was a ball game consisting of two teams of two men each trying to score points throwing a  9" rubber ball through a stone hole. This game would last as long as five days, day and night, until a winner was declared. This was a great sport for entertainment, but it also served as a spiritual ritual for ceremonial reasons, and was used in settling political disputes between rival communities.

The stones are cemented together using crushed sea shells, limestone (which are the block materials) and water and some other filler. This site was completely grown over and laid undiscovered until sometime in the 1800's when the then Governor of British Honduras personally discovered the site. After many iterations of names for the site, archeologists discovered a stone block with inscriptions in hieroglyphics and determined it was called "The Stone Lady'"

There are sacrificial/ceremonial obelisks around the squares. Those locations are where citizens would cut and pierce their tongues with sharp obsidian and let the blood pool in a stone bowl carved into the bedrock. Before cutting their tongues, they would chew basil leaves to numb their tongues.

Mayans believed that when you die you go into the underworld, so on the temple are nine openings used as ritual decending into the after world, and eventually you arise, if you are a holy person, into the spiritual world.  The spiritul world is reflected by thirteen openings toward the top of the temple. There are caves where the dead are placed as the beginning of their journey.

Each of the thirteen openings represent one of their thirteen gods they worshiped.

You will see on a lesser block structure, what look like a bench. This is where lesser priests would gather their tax from the goods and foods brought into the market squares.  These were administrators of the village. In fact, the squares themselves were leveled by hand. Can you imagine hundreds of people using crude instruments and their hands and baskets removing rocks to make these large squares smooth? Remember, this is before the wheel was introduced by the Spanards to Central America. 

Our guide Oscar, is a Mayan (there are three known distinct lines of Mayans) and is the tenth generation to live in this area. A very proud man of 33, he used to play on these temple grounds as a child as his father worked to help restore this monument.  Oscar showed us a small fruit looking oval object from a local tree (see picture) which he torn open. It turns out to be a natural glue. He told us that his mother would give him money to go buy glue for school and instead of buying glue, would use this instead, and use the money to buy other things he wanted. (cute personal story that added a human quality to the overall temple. )

Gayle and I took the steps up to the first level. The people were barely over 4 feet tall and the steps were a good 1.5 to 2 ft high. This meant that to climb the steps you had to bend over in deference to the High Priest.  Gayle and I quit after going about a third of the way up the temple (150 ft tall, or 500 ft above sea level.)  (Hey, I'm 69 and out off shape, okay!? Cut me some slack here!) Of course as we continued our tour we went around the right side of the temple and found there was a walkway with handrails to use. I was pleasantly amused at the trick Oscar played on us!

Related to this place, Oscar told us of another temple further south. The road to take to it was so dangerous that the National Security Force would have to escort you the last 40 miles as there is much trouble in that part of the Guatamala border.  Something Mike told me was that a few years back, Guatamalan forces were gathering in the southern border of Belize and were about to begin an invasion to reclaim land they still claim is theirs. Fortunately, an earthquake in Guatamala created a humanitarian crisis and the troops were redeployed.