Disclaimer: I wrote this over a year ago and am just posting it now, I have had this idea of making a blog in the works for a long time..so here it is, the first post.
I am beyond excited to be back in the Maya Mountains. It has been 5 years since I was first here and the vistas of misty mountains rising above this amazing field station, built up from nothing by two Canadian professors (two of my soulmates) Mat and Vanessa, is beyond imagination to me. This place is heaven, besides the black flies which can be irritating at times. Seeing the incredible variety of flora and fauna around here blows my mind- unbelievable creatures and colors, any time of day or night. We are only about a 30-45 minute bus ride from Dangriga, and the same from Belmopan. Beautiful beaches, vibrant cities and more touristy locations are only a short bus ride, but here you wouldn’t know it. Here, it’s like traveling back in time, but also like going into the future. It is the jungle. The rustic beauty, sustainability and responsibility they run this place with is deserving of the utmost respect to me. Almost all of the food served (and cooked) on property for meals is also harvested directly from the land or from neighbors, or neighboring communities.. and nothing goes to waste. Everything is given back to the land and the animals. Most everything created or built here is from local materials, with local input and efforts. Within my first few days here I was helping to cook for groups of 30+ students at a time; breakfast, lunch and dinner. I have seen the inner workings of their amazing industrial kitchen and the volunteers and staff that run it and was immediately made to feel at home. Chopping huge quantities of chayote for stir fry, or cooking huge batches of farm fresh eggs harvested (by me) that morning from the chicken coop has been so fun and rewarding; not to mention drinking Stouts in the kitchen with the other volunteers and staff after the meal had been served to the guests. This place is a home away from home, an oasis, a retreat, and a magical land bundled into something palatable for someone of any experience level. My first time here was when I was studying abroad in college and it was one of my first international destinations. It has been part of my heart since then. So have these people.
I spend my days wandering through dense rainforest brush with a telemetry antennae tracking white-lipped mud turtles, rain or shine. Sometimes the days are serene and peaceful, sunny and quiet. Sometimes the days are chaotic, unexpected and eventful.. crazy floods, unexpected thunderstorms, or endless downpours causing us to all take cover and feel restless. We will drink coffee inside peering out at the hummingbirds dodging water droplets wishing we could do the same, otherwise venturing into the rain and returning ten or so minutes (or two hours) later soaked to the bone and near shivering, but with huge grins all the same. We end our days down at the swimming hole, a family of mutts, literally and figuratively. Sassy, Koka and Eva being the literal mutts of T.R.E.E.S., the rest of us the figurative ones. These people, this place, have quickly become a home that I could’ve never expected to possibly feel a closeness to so quickly, or so fully. My heart is full, my body is tired, my mind is at peace.
How could I ever leave such a place.
I wrote this poem the other day as I lay in bed, writing in my journal by headlamp, listening to the sounds of the wild and natural world outside:
The sound of raindrops on a tin roof,
Simultaneously lulling me to sleep and keeping me awake
Into the land of jungle dreams
Vibrant colors, vines crawling
Kingfishers and toucans calling my name,
Beckoning me further, deeper
Telling me not to leave
The moisture on my skin.
Opening my eyes and the reality
Is the dream
Dream is reality, awakening, woke.
How did I get here?
Why must I go?
Vines crawling up my legs
My head turning to flowers and moss
Now salamanders and snakes call me their home
And every night as the rain whispers to me
All I can hear are the secrets of the jungle
So lost in the thick of it
This densely beautiful forest
Awake and dreaming
Please let me stay.