Snorkeling, hiking, parasailing, exploring Mayan ruins and cave tubing are just a small number of the activities in which Northwood students participated in Belize over spring break. Seven Northwood students departed for Belize March 25. Northwood teacher Jacqueline Sculli and chaperone Tom Krebs traveled to Belize with the students.
Science Club organized the trip to Belize and many of the students who traveled to Belize are in Science Club. A variety of the activities in which the students participated involved science.
The student travelers experienced different cultures and food. Senior Evie Hoffman identified the most exotic food that she encountered while in Belize.
“I ate a termite; you can actually eat them,” Hoffman said. “They eat green iguanas in Belize, and they call them bamboo chicken.”
Junior Rose Krebs described her experience traveling to another country.
“I liked going to a different country and seeing the different cultures and eating the food,” Krebs said.
Junior Graham Cleven shared his experience with eating food that is different than the food in America.
“They had pancakes, and they don’t process all the flavor out of everything there, so the sugar was cane sugar that was not perfectly white,” Cleven said.
The students were able to learn about jungle survival training while on a hike in the mountains of Belize. They also had the opportunity to explore the Mayan ruins of Lamanai and Xunantunich. Krebs, Hoffman and Cleven all agreed that their favorite activity was snorkeling. The students were able to swim around the second largest barrier reef in the world while snorkeling in Belize.
Cleven described his experience snorkeling.
“Snorkeling was really cool, because the water was clear, and we could see various types of fish and sharks,” Cleven said.
Cleven says that all the activities that they participated in involved science.
“There was biology, we looked at the coral reef and we went to some historical sights,” Cleven said.
Krebs and Cleven concurred that they saw the most fascinating things while snorkeling in the Caribbean Sea.
“The coolest thing that I experienced was when we were snorkeling,” Krebs said. “We got to snorkel with sea turtles.”
All the students would agree that traveling to Belize was worthwhile, and other students should try to travel to other countries. Hoffman described why she would recommend the trip to other students.
“I would definitely recommend this trip to other Northwood students,” Hoffman said. “It was so much fun, and we met local people.”
Cleven agrees with Hoffman but has a different point of view because he was the only male student that ventured to Belize.
“I would totally recommend this trip to other students; if you have the opportunity to travel you should do it, especially if you are a guy, because I was the only guy there,” Cleven said.
– By Sarah Helen Shepherd