As I sit here at a Starbucks in Old San Juan, I'm thinking about the question everyone keeps asking me- Why Belize?
To be honest, I am not entirely certain of the answer. I think the answer to that question is actually a composite of several smaller answers to several smaller questions. It is not as if I am suffering from a dearth of rain forest- I live at a sustainable forestry project in Patillas, Puerto Rico, where I study anoles and frogs. Some have joked with me "isn't one rain forest enough"?
But truth be told- no, it isn't. Don't get me wrong, I have fallen in love with the island and the people of Puerto Rico, the forests, and specifically, the project were I live and work. For the forseeable future, Puerto Rico is my home, a realization that hit home when I went through the arduous task of packing up all of my belongings into tupperware cases in the event that my house is damaged by a hurricane while I am away. So I'm certainly not going to Belize because I'm tired of our own forests.
No, as alluded to earlier, my reasons for going are multifold. First, there is the fact that two and a half years ago, when I first came to Puerto Rico, my stay was supposed to be a three month stint, but again, I fell in love with the island and stayed. But that travel bug has bitten me again, so I have to find a way to balance my love of living in Puerto Rico with my desire to see all of the neo-tropics.
I would be lying if I said that opportunity and chance didn't have anything to do with it. The place I will be staying- Maya Mountain Research Farm has, to my knowledge, never had a herpetological survey completed for it before. Now, I am completing a survey for the project in Puerto Rico, but that is a several year, long term study. I'm looking forward to the challenge of honing my skills to allow me to produce a short-term "here's what you have" kind of survey.
Lastly, I am going for spiritual/religious reasons. You see, I am what one might call a "modern pagan" (because I hate the term neo-pagan; it sounds like Keanu Reeves in involved somehow). Such a religious outlook on the world tends to lend itself to an interest in those cultures deemed "paleo-pagan" (Old school, pre-Christian paganism) and "meso-pagan" (cultures that have met, and perhaps been influenced by the Religions of the Book, but have managed to preserve their customs). I feel that these cultures have more to teach us than a book from the New Age section of Borders ever could. If all goes well, I will spend a day or two with the local Mayan village, discussing their use of plants. While I don't think they will reveal any guarded secrets to me during my visit, as an exercise in my own edification, my time there should be very rewarding.
And so this morning, I lit candles on my altar, asked for a safe trip, and put the bars up on my house to keep everything shut in the event of a hurricane.
28 days in Belize. Here I come.
Vaya con los dioses.
