Today we arrived at Belize, and it was another early morning for the class. We all met together to get for ready for our excursion of today, a classic cultural cooking experience. However we weren't able to simply walk off the boat the time. Belize is home to one of the largest coral reef systems in the world. Due to the extensive reef system the cruise ships aren't allowed to pull all the way up to the mainland. So in order to reach the port, we had to catch a ride from a tender boat. That ride from the ship to the port was probably a 15-20 minute boat ride. On the boat it was a very bumpy with a few of us getting very stressed out over the ride. However, even with it being bumpy we were all able to safely make it to port.
Now that we were in port it was time for us the get our chef on. We got on our bus and our tour guide set us off. As we drove through Belize our guide spoke about life in Belize. Even though it's a small country, nobody is able to escape inflation. Our guide told us able how gas can run usually $6+ and that's at the low end. Combining the high price of gas and the host cost of living in Belize, our guide told that he had to hitch a two hour ride to make it to work on time. Once we arrived we were greeted with live music. They were playing traditional Belize music on the drums. As we all starting to get into the music another man came out dancing. The dancer grab Andrew, and I still you what, Andrew started getting jiggy with it.
After our Music we went and began cooking a traditional Belize dish. While we cooked our guides taught us about the significance of the instruments and articles of clothing our performers were wearing. Each element was a culturally relevance dated back to the colonial times. We then prepared our dish call Hudut. It was a dish that contained fished basted in a coconut soup, with a type of mashed plantains on the side. It was a very unique tasting dish, much different then the fast food us Americans are used to. Once we finished we headed back to port. A few of us decided to go around the port and explore, while the rest decided to head back to the ship.
Later we all met for dinner where we debriefed on the day. As a class we spoke about portrayed culture and actual culture. Portrayed culture is what is shown to tourist in the ports and actual culture is what their culture is actually like when you take away tourist. I thought the Mexico and Belize were drastically different in the means they used to portray their cultures. In Costa, Maya the port was very flashing and made to catch your eye. Their didn't feel like much of any culture was being shared, but rather felt like a show being put on for us. However, Belize had a different feel. It felt like the entire city was teaming with life and vibrant colors. The surrounding house used all sorts of colors and vendors were everywhere selling different foods. We even passed by several schools and our guide spoke about how the students uniforms are used to distinguish them. Belize portrayed their culture in port in a more authentic way and hadn't been overtaken by tourism.
Tomorrow we travel to the Roatan, where we will go through the nature of the Island. We are splitting up as a group tomorrow and some of us our going to an eco-park while the rest are heading to a sloth and monkey encounter. When we get back together tomorrow some of us plan to meet together and go snorkeling. Each and every day of the trip has proved to be unique and loads of fun while learning about how tourism transforms every nation.
-Brayden Millick
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