Monthly Archives: March 2010

Spectacular Sarteneja!

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By David Chanter:

Arrived in Sarteneja by water taxi on Monday  to be greeted by the Blue Ventures team (Jon, JJ, Al, Nick). Everyone in Sarteneja is really friendly, welcoming, and appreciate any small effort made to try and involve yourself in their culture and customs.

A fellow volunteer (Sean) and I are staying with possibly the nicest family I have ever met. They are so hospitable and even the dog (Puppy) has eventually accepted us, after a few tickles.  They couldn’t do anything more for us and I wouldn’t want them to change anything. I am definitely never going to go hungry in Sarteneja.

I have been in the village now for five days and have really settled in. I particularly enjoy the daily football matches with the local kids, which has grown from four aside to approximately twelve aside in a matter of days.

The location and local wildlife here in Belize is breathtaking. I have already seen numerous bird species, bottlenose dolphins, and two manatees in their natural environment.

Having learnt the relevant fish and coral ID over the past few days I am incredibly excited about the prospect of putting into practice this knowledge in the marine environment.

We head out as a group tomorrow to Bacalar Chico Base Camp for the next stage of the adventure to begin…

Hauling the boat in

By Sean Callahan:

I’ve been in country now for 5 days and it’s been nothing short of spectacular.  Even the boat rides up from Belize City to Sarteneja were beautiful.  Upon arriving in the village we met our home stay family who has taken us in and treated us as a member of the family if not better.  This first week has been packed with field preparation and science training but the staff has made it a breeze and a lot of fun.  Just spending time in the village with the people and especially the children has been a huge highlight.  A game of soccer that has been played everyday at 5pm that has been put together behind the Blue Ventures house has grown into a huge get together for all staff, volunteers, and locals.  Each day the game has grown as word has spread and yesterday we had over 20 people and it made for great fun.  The rest of today will be spent packing up as we are headed for our dive camp on the beach of Bacalar Chico for 4 weeks!  I’ve only heard about it so far but if it’s half as beautiful as everyone says its sure to be an amazing time.

From Manchester to Mexico and Mangroves

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by Christiana Hayward

Leaving the cold, grey persistent drizzle of Manchester was not difficult; my flight to the States uneventful and then a few short flights and I landed in Cancun at about half nine at night. There was a bus to Cancun city bus terminal almost immediately and from there I took the eleven o’clock, overnight, bus down to the Mexico Belize border.

Had I been paying more attention to my fellow travellers I would have noticed that they all had blankets and pillows with them, I was soon to find out why.  The bus was extremely new, fast and had the most fierce air conditioning system I have ever come across! Once I had put on all the clothes in my hand luggage and my coat I was able to sleep on the very clean comfortable reclining seats.  The bus arrived in Chetumal at 05.00 and from there I took a taxi to the Mexican border and then across a little bit of no-man’s land to the border of Belize.  From Belize it was another short taxi ride to Corozal where I was dropped off at the Thunderbolt water taxi jetty.

The sun was just rising like red molten lava over the horizon of the sea, there was perfect calm as other passengers slowly arrived, stretching and waking. Nothing was hurried.

After a twenty minute ride across the bay the water taxi arrived in Sarteneja and I was greeted by the ever smiling JJ; the suave Jon; the happiest diver in the world – Al and, later, Nick, our field scientist, who defies description except to say he is a whirlwind!

Well fed volunteers on the first Belize expedition

Arriving at the sleepy fishing village of Sarteneja one immediately felt welcomed by the BV staff and the villagers, this became even more apparent as I met my homestay family.  I have a lovely room very close to the sea overlooking a beautiful garden.  I settled in and then we met the other two volunteers who have arrived for the trip. They are two fantastic guys who are enthusiastic knowledgeable and great fun to be with.

We all feel so privileged to be here at the beginning of a new BV venture, we know it will be hard work but we have so much to look forward to.  We have started learning our fish and our benthic ID with Taco (Nick) and we discussed at length with all of the staff what we want to get out of this experience.

We have met various amazing people from other conservation groups and have met people from the village who have such hopes of BV and what we can give to the community.

It is now up to us to deliver, just as the people in the Wildtracks Manatee Rescue Centre have made a difference to the manatees we are starting on an adventure where so much is expected of us, we need to start our science; we need to work with this community and with their help we need to deliver what they want of us.

We start tomorrow when we make our way by sailboat to the Mangroves near Bacalar Chico then travel through the mangroves to our camp and start diving.

We will be on a 20km beach of pristine white sand and unexplored reefs. We are incredibly lucky to be the first to work in this area and we get to dive the most beautiful barrier reef with the most brilliant people.  It’s going to be wonderful!

Blue Ventures in Belize

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by Jon Slayer (written in February before the first Blue Ventures expedition)

Belize has been a fantastic experience so far, JJ and I arrived mid-December and have been working non-stop to get an experience worthy of Blue Ventures ready for volunteers. In Sarteneja we have found a welcoming community to add to BV’s locations worldwide. The majority of the village families rely on fishing for their livelihood and there is an interesting culture that has grown around these industrious fisherfolk. Lobster and conch fishing dominate their trade which is carried out from wooden fishing boats. These boats are built and repaired by carpenters in the village who craft them in their backyards. The villagers are warm and friendly to outsiders and we have made many friends already, even though there is sometimes a little difficulty communicating. The official language of Belize is English but this village is dominated by Spanish. Fortunately for all of us our boat Captain, Hilmar Salazar, is fluent in English and is a great tutor in his native Spanish. We have just hired him, so our staff team for expeditions is now complete! Nick, our field scientist, and Al, our dive instructor, arrived from the UK this last week and have rapidly acclimatized to the ‘winter’ weather in the tropics. For all in the Northern Hemisphere, migrate south and join us, we have been amused by the pictures of snow and ice, particularly in the last few afternoons which have been quite warm and humid.

In a break at the end of the day we have had a bit of a knock around with a football in an empty plot next to the Blue Ventures House. Within a few minutes we have several kids from the neighbourhood join us and get a great game going. The kids and schools seem receptive to conservation messages and the local conservation organization, Sarteneja Alliance for Conservation and Development (SACD) has already opened an education branch run by a chap called Abisai. We look forward to tying in with their efforts to help with environmental education and English lessons for all the youngsters who are already showing an interest in our presence. SACD have some great staff, whom will be helping us in other areas. Joel is the principal employee of SACD and he is instrumental in coordinating all of our monitoring, research and community work around Sarteneja and the Corozal Bay Wildlife Sanctuary. This is the bay area out to the front of Sarteneja. It is a haven for a wealth of marine life.

Belize Staff do The Beatles

Out and about in Sarteneja (not Abbey Road)

Just a few weeks ago I was fortunate to go for a boat patrol around the Corozal Bay to the west of Sarteneja. We motored with a pod of 15 dolphins along the way and disturbed Manatee wallowing in a submerged hot spring. The coastline was unbroken mangrove forest with a couple of islands separated from the shore providing a haven for a wealth of birds including frigates and giant herons. This wilderness experience is complimented inland by the Shipstern Nature Reserve. The manager for this area, Heron, has gone out of his way to help Blue Ventures and is keen to provide us with conservation work and adventures inland. The reserve encompasses shallow mangrove lagoons, mangrove forests, savannah and jungle. The main road out of Sarteneja passes by this protected area and we’ve heard several stories of jaguar, peccary and antelope sightings. Should make for interesting jungle walks and patrols with the rangers…

Another place that offers a great experience is Wildtracks. This environmental organization is run by Paul and Zoe from their house on the edge of a mangrove lagoon beside the Shipstern Nature Reserve. The walk to their home is along a 2 mile track through the jungle so keep your eyes open for wildlife. When there the lagoon offers the opportunity to see lots of small puffer fish and larger stingrays and best of all, a juvenile Manatee. Christened Twiggy for her finicky eating habits, this little manatee was stranded several miles away from Belize City and transported here for rehabilitation. She is a cutey. Wildtracks may need extra hands to help if any other distressed manatees in need of rehab are found along the Belize coast. We may be called upon to help. From the experience of helping with Twiggy this will be a great opportunity for us.

So that is a brief glimpse of our life and connections so far in Sarteneja. We’re thoroughly enjoying ourselves out here and look forward to sharing the experience with volunteers soon!