AALP's Blog – March 2011 Archive (5)

March 4, 2011 - The second last day of our AALP class’s International Study Tour began with a farewell to Chaa Creek and a hello again to Tropic Air. A fantastic day for flying enabled our three planes to take the scenic route from Central Farm to Orange Walk, passing over the famous Routa Maya, a 175 mile, 3 day canoe race through Belize and to loop around a couple more Mayan… Continue

Imagine – you arrive in a foreign country with the promise of land… if you are willing to clear and farm it. You and your family work day by day, year by year, clearing trees, learning what the land will produce and growing a community. This may sound like the challenges that the pioneers faced coming to Upper Canada in the 1800’s; however, deep in the jungle of Belize in 1958,… Continue

Today we had an amazing opportunity to tour Chaa Creek with its owner Mick Flemming. Chaa Creek is a leading eco destination in Belize that has strong roots in agriculture (www.chaacreek.com) Mick arrived with his wife, Lucy, in 1977 with $300 in his pocket, which was just the beginning of their story here in Belize.

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Power to Women. We had a very unique cultural experience this morning when we visited the Garifuna School and Museum in Dangriga. The Garifuna are a people of African-Caribbean descent and while the Garifuna make up 30% of the population of Belize, the culture, music and language are being lost to English and North American culture. Phyllis Taremaro, the founder of the school…

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A man of the land ! Our morning started with a walk to the Dandriga airport, that's right... Walk! Our class divided into three groups and we flew on small planes to Punta Guarda - but this was more than just transportation. We flew along the coastline, seeing shrimp farms, plantations and fields from 5000 feet. Due to limited seating, some of us were able to ride in the… Continue