Expedition Leader Course in Belize

Bear Grylls in Belize

Twelve people from the UK, aged between 19 and 40, have flown out to the heart of the South American jungle to undergo a four month intensive survival training course. The trip has been organised by Trekforce, part of the Gapforce organisation responsible for bringing a group of Maasai warriors to the UK to compete in the 2009 London Marathon.

The 12 adventurers will be able to live out their dreams of following in the footsteps of celebrity adventurer Bear Grylls, known for his pursuits across some of the globes most inhospitable regions, as well as sleeping inside dead camels in the desert.

The Expedition Leader Course will put the recruits through their paces over the ensuing four months, teaching them a range of skills from surviving alone in the wilderness to navigating through raging rivers and testing terrain.

Gapforce spokesman Marcus Watts said: “Not everyone has the physical and mental power to complete this type of training. It is intense, it is tough and it pushes the human body to the extremes. The rise in the popularity of celebrity adventurers such as Bear Grylls is making this type of challenge more appealing to the everyday person.”

Recruits will take part in real time scenarios with the Army, practicing helicopter rescues, animal trapping, night navigation and river crossings. (more…)

Eric Hoffman: Barry Bowen, a rare mix of entrepreneur and environmentalist

It was with great sadness that I read of the death of Sir Barry Bowen. I remember him as a generous man, a rare mix of entrepreneur and environmentalist who helped develop his country into a worldwide ecotourism destination.

A fifth-generation Belizean, he made a fortune paving his tiny country’s few highways, selling and buying real estate, and bottling Beliken beer. His personal wealth and influence were impressive, but how he used them was even more impressive, especially to anyone interested in conservation. Here are just two examples:

I got to know Barry Bowen in the 1990s, first while working as a writer for International Wildlife magazine, and later while I was on assignment writing “Adventuring in Belize” for Sierra Club Books. I was operating on a shoestring budget, and he helped me see the most remote wild areas in his country by flying me over them, for free. He was a meticulous pilot, and once aloft he beamed with excitement pointing to Mayan ruins and river systems that peeked out of the verdant rainforest.

We passed over the Belize Zoo, located on a swath, cut out of unusable lowland rainforest, in the country’s center. The zoo probably would never have existed if it weren’t for Barry Bowen. When a young American named Sharon Matola rounded up the discarded and starving jungle animals left behind by a foreign movie company, Barry Bowen took a chance and helped fund her vision of an animal-friendly zoo.

The Belize Zoo has grown into a model for third world countries, emphasizing environmental education for school children and housing native animals in large natural looking enclosures. When I wrote a story about Matola for International Wildlife I asked Bowen why he funded someone with no experience running zoos. He replied, “She worked so hard and was so passionate I didn’t see an alternative but to help and see where it would go.” (more…)

Latin America forecasted to expand 3% or more, this year

IDB president Luis Alberto Moreno

The Latin American economy is poised to expand 3% or more in 2010, the year that will signal the beginning of recovery for the region according to the Inter American Development Bank, (IDB), President Luis Alberto Moreno.

“This year we are witnessing a recovery of the global economy, and we are hopeful that in Latinamerica overall growth will be above 3%”, said Moreno at the closing ceremony of the IDB Central American and Dominican Republic governors meeting held over the weekend in El Salvador.

However Moreno pointed out that the world’ main economies will not experience significant growth rates this year or in 2011.

“What the technical staff of the IDB are telling me is that before 2013 or 2014 we are not going to see a situation similar to those numbers the global economy was showing before the crisis”, said Moreno. He went on to praise the Salvador meeting because “governors did a full sincere immersion into what is happening in the region, and the world”.

“We obviously did a balance of what happened last year, but above all projections of the years to come, the challenges we must confront”, added the IDB president. Among those issues was increasing the working capital of the multilateral organization and issues related to “social aspects and the integration process”. (more…)

The Belize Hotel Association attended two travel shows in January – the Toronto Travel Show, and the Vakantiebeurs show in Holland

Team Belize at Travel Shows

The Dutch show is one of Europe’s major travel shows, attracting around 20,000 visitors on each of the five days. Nick Davies, Chairman of BHA’s Marketing Committee, explained that BHA’s ongoing work in Europe, and particularly Holland, had raised awareness of Belize to a level where they could now afford to target people more effectively.

“We took a booth this year in the long-haul destination area of the show, close to the Nicaragua and Panama booths, creating a “Central America” section which allowed us to concentrate on quality enquiries, and generating strong sales prospects for BHA’s Global Marketing Initiative participants.”

BHA representative, Sandra van Noord, also took the opportunity to attend a TUI party in Amsterdam. She said,

“TUI is Europe’s leading travel group, operating in 180 countries worldwide and with 30 million customers. We’ve met with them several times at various travel events, and their interest in Belize is steadily growing to the point where they are now ready to visit Belize with a view to expanding their range of holidays. This is a particularly exciting development for us, with the prospect of accessing the huge potential the European market offers.”

In Canada, Robin McCutcheon and Steve Christensen represented the BHA in Toronto at the Toronto Ultimate Travel Show, and enticed visitors to the booth with maps, bookmarks, and the wonderful “Hot Mama’s fudge” give-aways.

Robin commented
“Belize had a great presence at the show, and we benefitted from a prime location opposite a huge tank with non-stop diving exhibitions from a dive club which is visiting Belize in March.

We find that many Canadians still associate Belize with diving, so this was a great opportunity to educate them in the diverse range of inland activities, and our banners featuring Maya sites and fishing really helped reinforce the message that Belize offers something for everyone.”

BHA’s representatives distributed over 1100 brochures at the two shows to high quality ‘prospects’, and generated 50 sales leads for GMI members. This brings the total brochures distributed to over 4000 and over 500 travel trade sales leads for participants since the start of the Global Marketing Initiative in November 2009. Source: Portofino.bz

Archaeologist to Discuss Ancient Maya Cave Use and Conservation of Cave Sites

Dr. Jaime Awe

Dr. Jaime Awe of Belize Will Speak at McClung

NASHVILLE, TN — Exciting connections emerging between conservation of one of the world’s largest caves and archaeological relics of the ancient Maya civilization will be revealed when noted Maya archaeologist Dr. Jaime Awe speaks at the McClung Museum on the University of Tennessee campus on March 23 at 7 p.m. Titled “Ancient Maya Cave Use and the Conservation of Subterranean Sites in Western Belize,” his talk is sponsored by The Nature Conservancy’s Tennessee Chapter, the University of Tennessee’s Archaeology Research Lab and the East Tennessee Chapter of the Archaeological Institute of America.

As an international conservation organization, The Nature Conservancy has been active in the protection of the forests and caves of Belize where Dr. Awe investigates ancient Maya archaeological sites. Caves were sacred places to Native American cultures. For the Maya civilization, caves were portals to the underworld, representing both creation and death to the Maya.

Staff from the organization’s Tennessee Chapter have recently traveled to Belize to assist local officials in conservation planning and consulting there. Protecting the country’s natural resources is resulting in protection for cultural resources as well, such as Maya relics that remain in the forests and caves of Belize. Nature Conservancy staff discovered this connection when they made the acquaintance of Dr. Awe in Belize in the course of their work there. (more…)

Lemon Crush Belize featured in Islands Magazine

Lara Lennon of Lemon Crush Belize

How to Live on Ambergris Caye

This article from the February 2010 issue reveals what it’s like to live on Ambergris Caye.

Having lost her taste for corporate life and then her beloved husband, Lara Lennon found herself at a Sac O’ Subs in Atlantic City, New Jersey, asking her sparring partner, “How much money do you really need to live on a tropical island?” His answer — “less than you think” — set her new life in motion. She flew to Belize two weeks later to check it out. And two weeks after that, she was living her dream on Ambergris Caye. Now she runs an island-based business designing beach-wedding-appropriate bikinis. Four years later, do Lara and her island still get along?

Q: What was your first impression of Ambergris Caye?
A: True love. Where other people might have seen dirt roads, I saw an island that watered the streets to keep the dust down. Instead of “traffic,” I saw a charming parade of golf carts buzzing around town. I saw lots of water. I checked into my hotel and saw no TV, no phone, no clock. Then I turned around and saw why — the ocean was literally steps from my beachfront door. Why would you want a TV or a clock when you can look at the reef instead?

Q: Your husband, Tom, died in a plane crash. Can you describe how that tragedy combined with professional circumstances to make you living on Ambergris Caye make sense?
A: My final corporate job was with a company that we’d grown from 2,500 to 14,000 people. Then we got a new COO who promptly began tanking our company. I decided the next idiot I’d work for would be me! I opened an antique shop, working with my husband, who was a pilot. After he died, my heart just had nothing in it. I was done. Life had handed me lemons, and I had to ­figure out what to do with them.

Then Central America came up. It was as if I said, it would be awesome to go to the moon, and someone said, “You can do that!” I just happened to do it in Belize. I pay $65 a year for property taxes here versus $7,500 in Philadelphia. I pay $50 for golf-cart insurance versus $2,500 for car insurance. I didn’t have to work anymore. Any objection I’ve had, Belize has answered. And so when I finally wanted to do something again in the business world, my swimwear company, Lemon Crush Belize, was born. (more…)

Belize & Quintana Roo Women’s Departments to form partnership

Women’s Dept. Director Ms. Icilda Humes shares with General Director Ms. Cecilia Rosalia Loria, of Quintana Roo Women’s Institute and Ambassador H.E. Luis Manuel Lopez-Moreno.

The Belize Women’s Department and its counterpart from the Women’s Institute of Quintana Roo, Mexico, shared information and experiences with a view to working on joint initiatives, at their first working meeting in Belize City on Monday, February 22.

The two groups exchanged ideas on women-related issues, so that each might get to know more about the structure and the workings of the women’s institutions on both countries and to reach agreement on common ground.

Women’s Department Director Ms. Icilda Humes led the meeting along General Director Ms. Cecilia Rosalia Loria, of the Women’s Institute of Quintana Roo (Instituto Quintanarroense de la Mujer, IQM), who led the delegation of Mexican women officials and the Ambassador of Mexico, H.E. Luis Manuel Lopez-Moreno.

Ms. Humes presented the programs and policies for women which are ongoing in Belize; while Ms. Loria explained the programs which the local government is implementing in the State of Quintana Roo. Source: Reporter.bz

Earthquakes Rattle Guatemala

guatemala earthquake

GUATEMALA CITY – Two earthquakes rocked Guatemala on Tuesday, but no injuries or damage have been reported, officials said. The first, a magnitude-5.2 earthquake, occurred at 4:52 a.m. (1052 GMT) and its epicenter was located 187.5 kilometers (about 117 miles) north-northwest of the capital, near the border with the Mexican state of Chiapas.

A magnitude-5.7 temblor occurred at 9:15 a.m. (1515 GMT), a National Seismology Institute, or Insivumeh, spokesman said. The second quake’s epicenter was in Mexican territory, some 235 kilometers (146 miles) north-northwest of Guatemala City, Insivumeh spokesman Luis Arriola said.

The earthquake was felt all across Guatemalan territory and all the way to Belize City. So far in 2010, according to Insivumeh figures, 183 earthquakes have been registered, but only 12 have been strong enough to be felt.  Source: Latin American Herald Tribune

Latin American, Caribbean countries discuss creation of new bloc

Cancun, Mexico – Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Monday opened a two-day summit of Latin American and Caribbean nations that is expected to explore the creation of a new regional bloc. In the presence of 24 country leaders at the Grand Velas Hotel on the Mayan Riviera, some 60 kilometres south of Mexican resort city Cancun, Calderon called for the “union of Latin American and Caribbean nations for development, freedom, justice and democracy.”

At the beginning of his address, Calderon expressed his solidarity with Haiti over the devastating earthquake that killed at least 217,000 people on January 12. Haitian President Rene Preval was at the summit.

Members of the Rio Group met in Cancun, which also saw the second summit of Latin America and the Caribbean. Foreign ministers drafted a proposal over the weekend for the creation of a bloc of the Americas without the United States and Canada.

At the current summit, however, leaders were only expected to make a formal decision about the creation of the new organization. A taskforce was expected to be created to work on the details, with a view to actually launching it at the next regional summit, in July 2011 in Venezuela. (more…)

First Session of Belize-Chetumal Chamber of Commerce

Belize-Chetumal Chamber of Commerce

On Tuesday, October 13, 2009, the Belize Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the National Chamber of Commerce, Tourism and Services of Chetumal entered into an agreement officially establishing a joint chamber called the Chamber of Commerce of Belize and Chetumal.

On Friday, February 5, that joint Chamber held its first meeting, and since Belize holds the Presidency for 2010, the historic event took place in Belize.

According to President of the Chamber, Amparo Masson, the first order of business was to develop a working plan for the first quarter of 2010. She said that the initial discussions were geared towards improving border facilitation. One proposal is to produce a display poster that will inform Belizeans and Mexicans about the requirements for traveling into both countries. That proposal was agreed upon. A second proposal was to conduct a study on how Belize and Quintana Roo can jointly promote tourism in both countries. In addition, training in tourism for Belizeans in Mexico was offered as a benefit of the joint chamber.

The Ambassador of Mexico to Belize, His Excellency Luis Manuel Lopez Moreno, took part in the session. He said one of his personal goals is to increase trade in the region to the benefit of both countries. The Ambassador said that this was just the first step in the process. Both Chambers will meet in Quintana Roo in March of this year to begin substantive discussions on the proposals made.

The Ambassador also wished to say that he was sorry for the inconvenience caused with the bus situation at the border. He added that buses are being allowed to cross from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends. Source: Guardian.bz