Taking Flight in Belize
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All the air vents pointed towards her, blowing full blast. However, she was still hot and visibly unsettled as we got about 10 minutes into the first flight. I can feel that familiar feeling of ‘Oh shit,’ what can I do to try to make this better. How can I be supportive? How can I ensure that she won’t hate me for taking her on this plane? Her face is red and flushed.
I show her where the barf bag is, and she tells me the Dramamine she took was expired, but her mom thought it would be ok. Her mom is a nurse, and I’m now cursing in my head. We still have another flight after this, and then a long car ride; I realize it’s going to be a long day, even though this is a relatively short distance to fly from Nebraska to Belize. Why do plane rides have to be so hard on these niece trips?
Allie was never excited about flying. In fact, one of her criteria for this Niece Project trip was that we didn’t fly far. At the time, I didn’t understand, but after this incident, I began to understand her fear of flying.
Allie made it through the next flights in better condition, and I stopped worrying a bit. Yet I did always keep a barf bag within my reach just in case. I let Allie sit in the front seat in the hope of staving off motion sickness when our guide Mike picked us up, and we started on the 3-hour drive to the Belize jungle.
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Heading to the Belize jungle
Mike pointed out the signs for the Belize Zoo, and he said that even though the zoo was closing shortly, if we wanted to go, we could. I looked at Allie to see if she gave it the nod, and she didn’t really give me any indication of what she wanted to do.
A few weeks prior, I texted Allie about her 17th birthday to wish her a happy birthday and see what she was doing for her special day. She answered me back – “I’m at the zoo!” At the time, I thought it was odd that she’d be spending her 17th birthday at the Omaha Zoo, but then I remembered back to when we were doing Belize trip planning and looking through the Adventure Life Belize Itineraries.
At that time, she had expressed interest in seeing animals and visiting the zoo in Belize, too. In fact, the animals seemed like the one thing that she really showed excitement about at all. So, thinking back on her interest in it, I made an executive decision and told Mike to stop at the zoo.
The best little zoo in the world
The first animal we encountered swooped around us in a stealthy fashion, barely detectible in flight – mosquitoes! We lathered up with repellent before going in, upon Mike’s advice, or else we may have been eaten alive. We went on the abbreviated tour, seeing colorful birds, toucans, vultures, parakeets, and parrots up close.
We also saw monkeys swinging and flying from trees and were introduced to Belize’s national animal – the tapir. A 300 to 500-pound forest dweller is referred to as a “mountain cow”. I watched Allie’s expression; she was clearly excited about seeing new animals.
This was a great, albeit quick, introduction into Belize’s wildlife and jungle species. The rest of the trip when people referred to various animals, we already knew what they were. Totally worth a stop, even if you only have an hour!
Butterfly compound
I was skeptical when we decided to visit a butterfly ‘farm’ in the jungle. I thought it was going to be pretty simple and more gimmick than anything. But with a cloudy, rainy day in the jungle it seemed like the perfect rainy day thing to do. And when we stepped through the double set of doors into the Green Hills Butterfly compound I was in shock and amazement.
So. Many. Butterflies.
They were all over – colorfully flitting around, landing on twigs, leaves, and us. I felt like I had walked into the pages of a fairy tale, a princess wandering around a magical forest of butterflies. Our guide led us through the butterfly life cycle from egg to caterpillar to pupa to butterfly.
Sure, I probably learned this in 5th grade at one time, but it has since been moved to the far reaches of my brain behind more valuable stuff like how to make gin and tonics. But it all came back pretty quickly as they physically showed us each stage and explained how they bred butterflies, which is a very hands-on, intensive process.
Most of all, I enjoyed watching Allie walk around the butterfly compound in awe, asking me to take pictures; this was one type of flying she clearly loved.
Hummingbird hover
You could hear a weird buzz in the air in Belize. A mix between a bird and a giant bumblebee, they would zip through the air, more hovering than flying. They were like fighter pilots at times, dive-bombing my ear so close that my hair would blow in their wake. And then sometimes they were just curious, hovering around you, staring, trying to figure out if you were sweet or not.
At these curious times, they reminded me of Tinkerbell, and I’m now convinced that she was crafted after a hummingbird. I’ve never seen so many hummingbirds in my life, nor have I been so close to them. But it was easy to get close to them as most establishments around the Belize jungle had feeders out, and wherever there were feeders, there were many hummingbirds.
Watching them mesmerized me. The feeders full of sugar water were like a crack house for hummingbirds. Once you focused on a feeder and watched for a while, it was easy to see which bird was the dominant one. Defending the feeder, fending everyone else off, and not letting others drink; a bully bird. Eventually, though, the others would gang up on the bully and take over for a bit. And sometimes, there were quite the turf battles for the sugar crack.
I’m not sure if it was all of the animals we watched flying around us or if it was just that the initial travel jitters were gone, but Allie’s flight home was much smoother. No flushed face, no hot flashes, no motion sickness – even in the smallest of planes! I can only hope that Allie’s annoyance and fear of flying diminished a little bit on this trip. And next time she gets the opportunity to go out of the country, she’ll fly even further!
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Nice post! Sorry that she was nervous about flying at first, but it looks like the beauty and wildlife of Belize was worth it, and good thing she seemed to improve! The butterflies and humming birds are beautiful.