Cayo

We made it to Cayo. This is the name of both the largest district and the nickname of the largest town in western Belize. Formerly known as San Ignacio, it’s smaller than Oak Ridge, but the jumping off point for our adventures in Yalbac.
We attended the Anglican (don’t call us Episcopal) church in Placencia this morning, after which we all had brunch. Ray headed for a swim, as the rest of us headed back to the guest house to pack and dispose of some water samples. So far two of the samples we collected on our first day have shown positive for biological contamination: the creek near Gales Point at the old pumping station, and the spigot in Ramon’s village of Hope Creek. The second of those, Ramon’s village, may be a good possibility for a future water site.
On our way back up Hummingbird Highway, we decided to stop at Jaguar Creek and look around. As we drove down the dirt road in a light drizzle, we came upon Matteo and his wife walking toward camp from the bus stop. Matteo was a security guard during both of our previous stays at Jaguar Creek. He remembered us after a brief puzzlement, and asked if Sarah was still playing soccer. He invited us to look around, and since not much had changed, it brought back a flood of memories as we showed it off proudly to Ray and Pat.
We continued on to Belmopan and headed down Western Highway toward Cayo town. We rolled in about 5:30 and checked into 5 little stand-alone wooden bungalows in the back near the river. A flurry of phone calls was mostly unproductive, but I was able to talk to Lucy, the young daughter of the water board president in Cristo Rey to let him know we would stop in briefly in the morning to arrange a longer visit later in the week. We also set up an early morning meeting with Victor Tut, owner of a resort south of Cristo Rey and a camp near Yalbac where we hope to stay tomorrow night. As we prepared to walk to dinner, we were surprised to see Sheree and Aki, our local Rotary contacts roll into the parking lot. We took them to dinner and had a long and productive conversation over a good meal. They are a class act, and have everything under control. I’m more confident than ever that this trip will be a success.
I hope to post this entry if I can find a wireless signal. After that it might be a couple days before I get another chance.
It’s gratifying to see the comments on the blog and know that someone’s reading this. Keep commenting. And keep praying for us. So far this trip has been blessed with few and minor glitches. I’m grateful and confident that we’ll be able to achieve our major goals.
Dan Terpstra