Sutton Valence Visit to Belize

Belize 2010

We arrived at Sutton Valence school on the 8th July at 3 a.m in the morning, with everyone still extremely tired we said our good byes to are family and boarded the coach. Slowly everyone woke up and the mood lightened up, we have all been looking forward to the trip for so long with only the flight between Belize and us we were all excited.

We arrived in a sunny, hot Houston Texas around midday and the sweating began! Waiting for about ten minutes for a bus to take us to the hotel was hot and sweaty, but we had to get used to it as are jungle instructors informed us that the jungle was two times worse. Great! Once we arrived at the hotel we had a quick shower and change and then went to the baseball stadium. We were amazed by the size of the inside stadium, the tour was fascinating, learning about how many times the roof is opened and the size of the air condition needed to keep the air circulation around the stadium.

We stayed to watch the baseball game and it was very long and a bit hard to follow, as noone from the trip knew the rules and as baseball apparently was a tactical sport we could not get our heads round it.

Next day we arrived in Belize City airport around 3 p.m and then went straight to the army base to unpack and have our dinner. Next morning bright and breezy we went to meet our tour guide for the time we were in Belize City.

We had a tour to Belize zoo, where our tour guide took us around to every enclosure and we saw leopards and crocodiles. The next morning we started the charity work with the children’s charity “Liberty”, we started on the Monday and we helped out in moving their library to the newly built school, making a new vegetable patch for them to grow their own food, cleaning the piglets and also feeding the pigs and the hardest part of the week dredging a ditch which ran through the grounds which attracted mosquitoes, it took a group effort to clear the ditch by the end of the week, but it was worth it to help the kids out and take the pressure of the staff for one week. The trip also included a visit to a lake and a display of step dancing in the city centre.

After finishing the week with Liberty we started getting ready for the week in the jungle, including talks with the Colonel and then a snake expert to find out what snakes we may encounter in the jungle. We were all extremely excited for the next couple of hours as we all know that we had a helicopter ride into the jungle, and this was one of the big highlights of the trip. We arrived in the jungle around 3o’clock after the pilot landed on a narrow bridge. We all went to the pre designated area as they have sweeped the area for any snakes or any other creatures. In the morning we woke up to insects crawling over everone’s bags and the buzz of them fly around. That everning we found out why them call it a rain forest it did no stop raining for hours , the little stream seperating us from the camp grew to at least five times bigger, so we needed to find another way to our camp through the thick jungle and it was pitch black. It was an adventure. The next couple of days were teaching us about how to survive in the jungle and also tracking in the jungle, and navigating through the jungle with a compass and a machete. It also included how to forage for food and set up traps to capture animals.

The week in the jungle ended with a trip to the Mayan ruins at Caracol.

The third week involved us going to a Carribean Island called St Georges Caye. We were given three options - sailing, windsurfing and cannoeing. For 4 days everyone spilt up in to their groups to do all of the activities to complete the course and get a qulification. On the fifth day we went to Shark Ray Alley where we swam with Sharks and Rays it was an brillant experience.

Then it was over, the packing began to come home, everyone was looking forward to coming home, but sad that we are coming back. Both flights went quickly for everyone as we were all so tired after a busy three weeks, and I think that I can speak for everyone that it was one of the best time in our lives.

Tom Brunger
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Thinking of a similar trip for your school or college? Contact us, call Sue on 01622 608263 or email sue@medwaytravel.co.uk . We look forward to hearing from you.