Welcome to the Jungle

Today, I made my first trip into the Belizean jungle.  Just down the road from Belmopan is the the Gunancaste National Park.  The name comes from a species of large tree that can be found in the park.  I went with Aaron and Brianne, as well as Samantha our new intern.  My dog Bailey and Aaron and Brianne's dog Bella also came.

You could tell I was new to the country because we were only two minutes into the park when I saw a trail of leaf-cutter ants.  I got all super excited and even got down and took a picture (see left).  As I might have figured when I saw the lack of enthusiasm from Brianne and Aaron (who have been here for eighteen months), we saw tons of these ants on our hike.

While the hike was pretty cool, the highlight was the swimming hole.  The river slows to a nice calm current as it passes over some rocks.  The water is welcoming and cool.  There were several families of locals playing in the water.  There was even a child less than two wandering around in the diaper.  It made me a bit nervous, but the child was clearly comfortable in the water.

I tried to get Bailey to come out in the water with me, but he is petrified of the water.  A few years ago, I tried to get him to go into a lake and he was so scared.  Clearly has not gotten over his phobia.