Susanne in Belmopan: Meeting Indy

The Curse of Belize

Belize is a stunningly beautiful country, but it has one curse. Can you guess?

◘ Mosquitos

◘ Humidity

◘ Traffic Jams

◘ Greenhouse gasses

◘ Botlas

The answer is 5) botlas, which is Creol for bottle-ass (don't ask me why). They are mega tiny little flies, you can't see, hear or feel them at the time. Only a day later you will notice the spots. They itch like the devil and only very slowly recede (between 7 and 10 days). They're everywhere in Belize; in sand, grass, near water and even the most hard-core repellents (Deep Woods) and long pants and sleeves will not fully protect. I use Benadryl gel to relieve the itch but mostly just wait and sit it out.

Pinky House

As any 4-year old, Soleine gets pretty bored when we travel long hours in the car. But now we have a game. The first one to spot a specific object gets points. As follows:
- a pink house = 10 points
- a horse = 5 points
- a tractor = 10 points
- a pair of shoes hanging from power line = 20 points

A regular trip from Belmopan to Belize can score about 100 points, to San Ignacio 150 points because more horses and tractors. Soleine usually wins. When we'll be in Belgium or Holland this summer we'll have to change the rules, There aren't many pinky houses (as Soleine calls them) there, right?

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Meeting Indy

When I was young my family used to play a board game called Wildlife Adventure. Players would go on global expeditions on the board to locate rare and endangered species of animals. To rescue them you could buy them, like monopoly but with animals. Each continent had its own amazing creatures. In North-America you could locate the Californian condor, in Africa the ring-tailed lemur, in Australia the hairy-nosed wombat, Asia had the Arabian oryx and in Latin America there was the mountain tapir.

I reckon th

at while playing this game sometime in the eighties I first heard the word 'Belize'. Because that's where the mountain tapir was located and it was one of the most valuable beasts on the board! As a child I was fascinated by its picture on the game card... I could not imagine that a creature like that really exists.

But it does! His name is Indy and he lives at the Belize Zoo. He is a handsome little tapir. In Belize they also call them ‘mountain cows’, but to me he looks more like a cross between a pig and an elephant (sorry Indy!). My daughter Soleine got to feed him his bottle...how cool is that.

The zoo in Belize is a gem. It was set up and is run by Sharon, an American lady who came to Belize some years ago to shoot a wildlife documentary. Something happened and the project had to be canceled, leaving her with a troop of rescued, semi-tame animals. What to do? Set up a zoo. Sharon is now the proud 'mother' of about twenty different species, all endemic to Belize.

We met Indy the Tapir, Brutus the Crocodile, Junior Buddy the

Jaguar, the only jaguar in the world who can do somersaults, Panama the Harpy Eagle who likes to fly up close o you just to say hi (and scare the shit out of you), Polly the speaking Parrot who says in his squeaky voice: 'I am a parrot, my girlfriend works in a bar’ (seriously!!!) and many more.

They have all been rescued from the illegal pet trade or captivity as this zoo has never taken any animal from the wild. It is an impressive conservation achievement and a great educational opportunity to meet Indy and his friends. It’s like killing two birds with one stone…but that would not be an appropriate expression in this animal-friendly story, would it now?