Welcome to the Lifestyle of a Chosen Few

Post date: Jan 29, 2015 3:18:4 PM

The University of Virginia (the illustrious university where I did my undergraduate degree) has a two week long “semester” every January. You come back early and for two weeks can focus on just taking one class.

As a proper nerd, I loved it and took a January Term class every year. My senior year a biology class was offered for January Term: Tropical Ecosystems in Belize. Yeah. So I applied and went.

While there are many wonderful memories of this trip, the one that stands out the most is how surprised I was. I had these ideas of what Belize would look like, but those were based off… my imaginary Caribbean dream? I had never been to Central America, I hadn’t even ready about Belize and what I should expect. As a result I was surprised by everything.

We started by spending 4 glorious days on a small island off the coast. We went snorkeling every day to look at the tropical reefs. I have always enjoyed traveling with biologists, but this took that enjoyment to a whole new level. I was able to see things and then promptly discuss their biodiversity with all of my traveling companions.

After a few glorious days on the beach (including a spectacular New Years Eve involving fresh coconuts, and bioluminescence) we headed back to shore to spend a week in the jungle. Two words, very painful: mosquito bites. We were bitten alive. I have never poured so much DEET on myself, and happily. If they made 200% DEET I would use it.

But while fighting off the malaria ridden flying pests, we were able to see and do some amazing things.

We saw the Mayan ruins in Tikkal, one of the great cities still standing. We met countless interesting organisms at the Belize zoo, including the Tapir and Howler Monkies. And we endured a long, cold and rainy boat ride to look at birds. It made me strongly dislike birds.

It was an awesome learning experience, an awesome travel experience and a whole new group of epic friends.