Today we toured a citrus grove in Maya Centre. In this district of Belize Citrus production is important to the agricultural sector. We learned that the Mayans settled this area in 1976, and began planting citrus as a means to improve their quality of life. Citrus was favoured in this area due to the poor performance of other crops. Citrus groves require a large amount care and inputs during the first five years after planting, with no returns until the trees become productive, in the sixth year. When this grove first entered the market they were receiving and acceptable price for their crop based on quality. However, in recent years the price has continued to drop making it difficult to maintain and care for the groves, resulting in little to no profits. Some of the challenges with citrus crops include: the tristeza virus (affecting the rootstock), the introduction of the Mexican fruit fly, and the most problematic — which is citrus greening. All of these issues compound to make citrus farming for small enterprises a heartbreaking industry.

After the citrus grove we travelled the beautiful route to the Mayan village of San Miguel, home to Kekchi Maya. Here we received generous hospitality. After settling in, three local men: Domingo, Marcos, and Viciente, took us on a tour of their farms.  This included traditional Milpa farming and a cacao farm.  We learned that Milpa is a corn/bean rotation.  During the corn rotation a variety of bean is intercropped; this acts a natural fertilizer that contributes nitrogen to the soil and prevents erosion.  After Milpa we toured a cacao farm, cacao is where chocolate comes from!  We learned that three hundred trees can produce one hundred pounds of cocoa beans every two weeks, and harvesting lasts for eight months.

During the evening we had the privilege of entering the homes of the Mayan women: Maria, Kristina, Dolores, and Antonia.  Here they taught us how to make tortillas and we shared a traditional meal with them. They also made lunch and breakfast for us. There was much interesting conversation to be had over the tables. This experience opened our minds to the many aspects of the Mayan culture and their day to day lives. We are very grateful for the hospitality we received!

By: Kristy Flanagan , Alannah Sawatsky, and Derek Wright

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Thursday, Feb. 23.

On the way to Maya Center we stopped at Marie Sharpe’s hot sauce processing. Marie Sharpe grows her own habanero chillies and makes a variety of jams and sauces. Sadly we were unable to view the factory but we were able to do some taste tasting, then we were on our way!

We visited Mayan King Bananas in Maya Center. Mayan King produces 21% of all the bananas in Belize. The plantation was 397 acres with 830 plants per acre and 56 workers, most of whom were from Honduras and they had separate living quarters provided by the company.

The company purchases small meristem plants from Honduras and keep them in a nursery. After 5 weeks the plants are 3 feet tall and are planted in the field. Urea fertilizer is applied to help with seedling establishment. There is an irrigation system that runs throughout the plantation. Plants flower at 7 to 7.5 months and the flowers are bagged to protect developing fruits. We thought the large leathery purple flowers looked very interesting; the bananas actually develop from swollen ovaries of the flower. At about 70 days after bagging the bananas, they are harvested. They produce 60-100 pounds of bananas per flower. In the field plants are propagated by off-shoots which develop at the base of the plant but only 1 off-shoot is kept per plant for optimum growth. Even though banana plants are good for 50 years this is done every year. There are 2 crops per year, the larger one in June and July. Most bananas are shipped to Europe, only 2.5% are unacceptable for export and are sold locally.

Later in the afternoon we visited the primary school in Maya Center and brought them some art supplies. We enjoyed kicking a ball around and taking pictures with the kids.

In the evening we shared a special dinner with locals that consisted of chicken soup, sweet corn tortillas, regular corn tortillas, papaya juice, and coffee. This was as a thank you to SHARE for bringing a sewing machine for the women’s group.

By Brenda and Meghann

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The day started with a trip to the local high school. Eden High School is a Seven Day Evangelist school that S.H.A.R.E. sponsors 15 students tuition. We had a tour of the school and socialized with some students. Through SHARE, it has been made possible for the school to have a music program. They have donated an electric keyboard and music stands. We had the opportunity to hear the third form (Grade 10) students play a short number by Beethoven. It was inspiring to see the impact this program has had on these children. After this we were able to visit a science classroom where we were able to see where the school was lacking the most. They had one microscope for a classroom of 30 people, but the passion for the subject was inevitable.
After the visit at the high school we made a brief stop at the Taiwanese research plot farm. The purpose of these plots was to test for the best performing essential vegetable crops under various conditions in a tropical environment. We saw papaya, cassava, several types of lettuce, asparagus, cole crops, and a variety of others. SHARE has also helped in purchasing greenhouse nets to enable certain test conditions.
We went back to the hotel for a quick lunch and to change before a rocky ride to cave tubing. Koodos to the makers of Gravol for preventing any unwanted incidents.
We met our tour guides, George Jones and Rick, and headed up the trail with our gear – yellow tubes, lifejackets and helmets with lights on them. As we walked up the hill, Rick stopped us in various caves to share Mayan history in relation to the use of the caves. When we got to the river we had a lazy river experience floating through the dark caves and majestic landscape. We took in the power of Mother Nature’s ability to shape and form sculptures into rock.
After our meander down the river, we headed back to the hotel for dinner and to pack for our trip into the Maya Centre. See you in a few days when we have access to the internet again!

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We began our third day by the visiting the iguana hatchery run by the San Ignacio Hotel.  The hatchery’s goal is to provide education and help conserve the green iguana population in Belize.  They take an interactive approach by allowing visitors to hold both young and tame adult iguanas (Gomez, Bradford, and Roxie). We learned during the mating season the males changed colour from green to red/orange and became more territorial.  The hatchery raises the baby iguanas, and releases them when they are about 1 meter in length (3 years old).  This is to give them a better chance of survival in the wild.

After the iguana hatchery, we made a brief stop at the Running W Ranch.  This is one of two HACCP certified plants in the country.  The ranch is run by the Bedran family.  They have approximately 1,000 head of cattle, on a rotational grazing system.  The cattle are regularly moved between paddocks, and little supplemental feed is provided.  The pastures are full of vigorous Bombassa grass, which is high in nutrients.  They began with Brahma cattle, but are now crossbreeding with British breeds such as Angus, Hereford and Simmental.  This improves carcass yield and marbling, while maintaining parasite resistance and heat tolerance in the cattle.  The farm is very vertically integrated, starting from their breeding program to their abattoir, and their hotel restaurant contracts.

Our final stop of the day was Spanish Lookout, the Mennonite community north of San Ignacio.  This provided a major contrast to the rest of Belize.  We were able to tour Reimer’s Feed Mill, where we learned about the many different livestock feeds that were mixed at the facility.  The mill is one of the largest feed mills in Belize, producing calf starter, dairy, beef, horse and poultry rations.  We toured the grain storage bins, and learned that in Belize the corn is dried to 13% moisture (in contrast to 15.5% in Canada).  This is because of the humidity and high temperatures.

We were also able to tour the farm of Frank Friesen, and chat with him about the Mennonite farming systems, culture and daily life in Spanish Lookout.  Frank wears many different hats within the community, including being the unofficial vet of Belize, both an artificial insemination technician and teacher, as well as working at the feed mill, running his own farm and pastoral work.      Some of the highlights of their farming systems were being able to grow 2 crops each year, the upcoming issues with aerial pesticide application and spray drift and difficulty with GMOs.

After our talk with Frank, we headed to Western Dairy for ice cream (yum!) and finally back to the San Ignacio Hotel before supper at the pizzeria in town.

By: Derek Wright, Amanda Henderson & Meghann Sandham

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We started our day adventuring to the Mayan Ruins of Xunantunich, which was named from the village legend of  “the Stone Lady”. We had an excellent tour guide named Amin who even showed us the less commonly traveled parts of the ruins (which were still uncovered!). We were impressed by how much has actually been uncovered and preserved. This includes the residential areas, dormitories, temples, an offering alter and a ball court. Other interesting facts included that the Mayans considered 13 and 9 to be important numbers spiritually. They also believed in reincarnation and the circle of life. The view from the top of the main temple was breath taking. On our climb down Amin gave us the opportunity to taste some real lively termites (to our surprise they tasted pretty good – like minty wood!). This was one his “survival tips” on top of some medicinal plants we passed.

In the afternoon we travelled a very rocky road to DuPlooy’s for a delicious lunch and exceptional scenery. We then had a great tour of the botanical gardens by a local named Joe. Highlights of the botanical garden were the medicinal plants, the orchids (including the black orchid which is their national flower), a variety of domestic and foreign fruit and flowering trees. Our favourites were the Panama Flame, the Jackfruit Tree, the Cannonball tree, and the Bayleaf and Cahun palm trees (used to make thatched roofs). The botanical gardens have a lovely nursery where they sell some of their plants, we were disappointed that we could not buy any to take back to Canada.

We returned to our hotel in San Ignacio to a refreshing jump in the pool. A perfect end to a beautiful and very hot Belizean day.

By: Kristy Flanagan, Alannah Sawatsky, and Brenda Boonzaijer

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