Today featured a new adventure that many of us had never experienced before. After having a delicious breakfast at our accommodation, we started our day with a boat ride to Bacalar Chico National Park and Marine Reserve, which works alongside the Sarteneja Alliance for Conservation and Development (SACD) staff and many other fishermen in order to guarantee the health and conservation of Belizean ecosystems. Upon our arrival at the reserve, we were greeted by Darling, who is the site manager. We were then shown around the reserve and we saw how it was so starkly different from the conditions we were used to in Sarteneja or even Canada. It goes to show the work that locals in Belize put into conservation and how serious a matter it truly is. It’s a change of perspective to see all the efforts up close that go into collecting fish data, preserving Mayan culture, and monitoring marine ecosystems. We also had the amazing opportunity to go near the Belize Barrier Reef, which is the second largest barrier reef in the world. Seeing the unique fish species and different coral structures firsthand truly puts the importance of the SACD staff’s preservation work into perspective. It’s also important that we, as a community, learn about the preservation and conservation of ecosystems like the ones that exist in Belize because its economy and national identity depend directly on safeguarding natural resources like the reef and other wildlife. It’s important to remember that this culture is central to their identity.
After our morning learning about these efforts and getting to see it up close by the reef, we took a lunch break to refuel with a lunch that featured an amazing traditional meal consisting of nachos and chicken with queso sauce. Afterwards, we were given several options on how we wished to spend the afternoon in the marine reserve in order to truly experience how rangers and fishermen spent their typical days carrying out their jobs. One of the very popular options was to go out on the reef and to go fishing. Our wonderful guide, Jema, took us out and showed us step by step how to catch many native species like Groupers, Snappers, and many variations of Grunts. It was very enjoyable to see the diversity present in ocean ecosystems and it was really fun that we were allowed to explore our interests further as well. After being able to fish, we came back as a collective and began discussing the different number of species that we were able to see both from our snorkel experience by the reef and also while fishing – we actually counted a total of 68 different fish species! That just goes to show the beauty of all the different kinds of fish here in native waters and also how the efforts of organizations like the SACD actually present themselves in valid and wonderful results.
Following our evaluation of fish and different marine life species, we sat down for a wonderful dinner at the reserve that consisted of rice, tortillas, coleslaw, and chicken. It was extremely delicious and we, as a group, had an engaging time together during our meal. We also decided to light a bonfire towards the end of the night, and we had marshmallows as a treat to go along with it.
Overall, we had a great time during our first day on the out trip and we were able to see the hard work and effort that the Belizean community exerts in order to properly maintain and preserve the wonderfully diverse and beautiful land that we want to cherish.
