God's Wonderful Creation as seen from Belize

I am a certified scuba diver. I learned to love diving early watching Lloyd Bridges on Sea Hunt and other shows like Flipper and The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau. As many of you know I work with a prison ministry called Kairos. One of the talks given on that three day encounter with God is given on Saturday afternoon and is called Christian Discovery. Whenever I have the opportunity to give this talk I relate discovering God to my scuba diving experience. I ask the question "how many of you have ever been to the beach and seen the ocean." Almost everyone always raises their hand. I then point out that: "Actually all you have ever seen at the beach is the surface of the ocean. There is a whole world underneath the surface just waiting to be discovered. In fact there are many places under the surface of the ocean that have never been seen by man. Such is the journey of discovering God's Kingdom. All you have seen this past three days of Kairos is the surface of God's Kingdom. There too is a whole world underneath just waiting to be discovered."

I was once again reminded of that fact during a day of snorkeling along the coral reefs of Belize. Stunning colors and shapes of coral....some hard and rigid, some fernlike and dancing with the current, some that look like sponges, some that look like basketballs complete with amazing lines and patterns. Every color in the spectrum is painted on them and every shape you can imagine is formed by God's hand. Then there are the multitudes of fish, turtles, sharks, and manatees all seen in just one afternoon of snorkeling. There were even fish that were a florescent purple. Why would any fish need to be florescent purple?




This week my oldest daughter, Landra, and I have witnessed wondrous waterfalls, caves, trees, plants, and animals that remind me that these did not occur by random chance. They were created by God's own hand all for a purpose to bring praise and glory to Him; and to teach us that we too are his creation and are to sing His praises as well.







Luke 19:39-40 says: "Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Him, "Teacher, rebuke Your disciples." ⁴⁰But Jesus answered, "I tell you, if these become silent, even the stones will cry out!"






Psalm 66:1-4 says ¹Shout joyfully to God, all the earth; ²Sing the glory of His name; Make His praise glorious. ³Say to God, "How awesome are Your works! Because of the greatness of Your power Your enemies will give feigned obedience to You. ⁴"All the earth will worship You, And will sing praises to You; They will sing praises to Your name." Selah.






Psalm 69:34 says: "Let heaven and earth praise Him, the seas and everything that moves in them."





I can honestly testify after this week in Belize that the natural wonders of the earth do sing God's praises every day. Everything I saw this past week did just that! All you have to do is look and listen, both above and under the surface, and you too will discover God's wondrous Kingdom! God's creation is truly beautiful and works exactly according to His plan. As the Psalm says, "Let heaven and earth praise Him and the seas and all that moves in them."

click the individual pics for a better view

Caracol, Rio Frio Cave, and Hidden Valley Falls

Yesterday was a truly wonderful day of exploring ancient Mayan history, witnessing God's creative beauty, and celebrating a birthday milestone. It was Landra's 23rd birthday and I believe she had a great one.

click the pics for a much better view

We left from Bull Run Farms around 8:30 AM and traveled about 45 minutes to a small village called Antoino. There we met a caravan of about a dozen other vehicles at the Military Police Headquarters and were escorted on the 22 mile trek on the sometimes rocky, sometimes paved, but mostly dirt road to Caracol. Caracol is an ancient Mayan city (circa 400 - 1200 AD) that was discovered in 1937 by a logging crew. Excavation began in the 1950's and continues to this day. It is estimated that Caracol covers an area of 177 square kilometers and has recently been aerially mapped by some new laser technology called lidar (light based radar). At the center of the city is a series of palaces where the rulers of Caracol lived and where the Mayans conducted business and worshiped their gods. Tikal is another Mayan city located about 70 kilometers to the northwest in Guatemala and was once thought to be the largest of the Mayan cities. Tikal ruled the Mayan world until the 5th century. There were constant wars between the two cities. But the records of Caracol indicate that Caracol conquered Tikal in 562AD.

The pyramids of Caracol are unique. They include living quarters on top for the ruling families and burial chambers on the bottom. The steps up to the top are about 18 inches high each so they are difficult to climb. Obviously climbing to the top of the pyramids was designed to be difficult. This was for two reasons. First the pyramids were considered temples and ascending one is like ascending toward their god. The journey was made difficult so that one could earn the right to approach their god. Second, the pyramids were a last line of defense in wars and so it was designed to make it difficult for the enemy to ascend as well. The pyramid featured in the picture above is about 300 feet tall. I find it interesting that the tallest building in the country of Belize is 1500 years old.

Being a forester I was fascinated with the trees in Caracol. To the south of the main palace was a 100 foot tall tree called a Hog Plum. It stood out because of its beautiful crown and bright green leaflets. It produces a plum like fruit that has a unique sweet but tart flavor. We saw quite a few stranglewood trees. It is an invasive tree in that it starts as a vine that grows up the trunk of another tree. The vine then spreads around the trunk of the tree over time eventually "strangling" it. It then uses the trunk of its host as support. Ss the host tree dies, the stranglewood tree begins growing up like a full tree using the host's trunk as a foundation for support. Then there is the huge Ceiba tree (click the picture to the right to see Landra). There were three at Caracol. The largest of the three had a swollen trunk about 30 feet in diameter that rose up about 15 feet to a very straight and 150 foot tall tree with 12 foot diameter trunk and a crown that spanned at least 200 feet wide. It is massive. Being the tallest and largest of trees in the forests of Central America, the Ceiba was sacred to the ancient Mayan culture. Even today Mayans do not log the Ceiba in respect for their ancestral culture.

After touring Caracol and climbing most of the pyramids, we ate lunch at the Welcome Center, bought some souvenirs, and traveled back to Antoinio. The road to Caracol and back crosses the Macal River. It is the second largest river in Belize. We crossed the river on a bridge that is rather scary looking. It is a concrete bridge about 100 yards long that has no guard rails. I looked down the river and remember watching on TV The Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin, wading the Macal River in search of Crocs and Fer de Lance, one of the most dangerous snakes in the world.

We checked back in at the police headquarters and told them we wanted to go to the Rio Frio Caves. We were given a military escort there. When asked why we were told that bandits from Guatemala had robbed a few tourists last year and since tourism is so important to the Belize economy the government felt it necessary to give escorts to all tourists. So off we went (about 1 mile away) to the Rio Frio cave escorted by a guard armed with an M-1 rifle. The Rio Frio Cave is absolutely breathtaking. The openings are over 70 feet tall. The cave is 1/4 mile long and there is a trail that allows you to walk all the way through it. The cave is carved out of limestone rock by a relatively small creek. The features include a sandy beach about 200 feet inside and lots of neatly colored rock formations. Belize has thousands of caves all over with the Rio Frio cave probably being the most beautiful. It alone makes the trip to the Mountain Pine Ridge worthwhile. We said goodbye to our military guard and drove back towards Bull Run Farm. On the way we made a brief stop at the Rion Pools. These are natural pools carved out of a tributary of the Macal River where tourists and locals can swim. We did not bring out swimsuits so we did not stay long but Landra got to take some more pictures....she seems to truly love to do that. She found a carving in a rock of an ancient Mayan head which she thought was neat. I explained it was probably a local's carving, not a real ancient carving. She took a picture of it anyway.

It was approaching 3 in the afternoon so we continued the drive back to Bull Run Farm and out to Hidden Valley Falls, aka 1000 Foot Falls. There are about a dozen waterfalls on the Bull Run Farms and Hidden Valley Inn properties. Hidden Valley Falls is the second most spectacular one in my opinion. I hope to blog about the most spectacular one tomorrow. This waterfall was once the property of Bull Headley. About 20 years ago Bull opened the Hidden Valley Falls up to the public as he was developing the Hidden Valley Resort. It gained notoriety as a great place to view not only the falls, but the mountain view and the birds who inhabit the area. Belize is a bird watcher's paradise featuring 540+ species of birds with the Mountain Pine Ridge being home to over half of them. One of the four major waterfalls on the Hidden Valley property is called King Vulture Falls, named after one of Belize's largest birds. Anyway, in 1998 the government of Belize decided that Hidden Valley Falls was a national treasure and decided to acquire it, although Bull did not really want to part with it. The Belize Constitution is based upon British Common Law and the government has the power of eminent domain so it can seize any property it wants for the public good. However, just as in the states, Belize must compensate the owner of the property at its fair market value. But just what is fair market value of a 1,600 foot waterfall and how does a government with no money pay for it? Those were the questions that kept the transfer in dispute until 2002 when Bull and the Belize Interior Dept. agreed to swap the falls and the surrounding 1,200 acres of land, which was mostly escarpment, for 6,000 acres of pine timberland plus some money to reimburse Bull for the buildings he had built on the site. The transfer was completed about a year later.

We arrived at the falls and were greeted by Pedro who has been the caretaker of the Hidden Valley Falls overlook since well before I first came to Belize in 1997. He remembered me and we talked for a moment. Then I took Landra down a long flight of stairs to a concrete platform built over the escarpment that gives the spectacular view shown above. She was amazed at how beautiful it looked. I pointed to a trail along the top of the ridge that runs from Bull Run property that would take you to the top of the falls. But there isn't much to see except for creek rapids because the water drops straight down. We took lots of pictures and a video and watched God's handiwork on display for a long while. I don't think Landra was expecting what she saw as she kept saying "This is amazing". She had asked about treking to the bottom and I told her the story about how several years ago the British military planned an exercise to repel down to the bottom and travel down river to Georgetown, about 18 miles away. Bull Headley found out about it. Since the falls were on Bull Headley's property at the time, Bull went to the group on the morning of the descent where he reminded them they were on private land. A Colonel met with Bull explained their plans to hike from the bottom to Georgetown. Bull said clearly "are you sure you want to try that?" The Colonel said "yes" and assured Bull that they would not hold him liable or accountable in any way. Bull agreed. Three days later the platoon radioed for help. The British sent in a helicopter to pull them out. In three days they had made it only 3 miles of the 18 mile trek. That is how treacherous the Roaring Creek bottom of Hidden Valley Falls is.

Around 4:30 we started back to the farm where Melina was preparing supper. George joined us shortly afterward. Then we sat and enjoyed a meal of baked chicken, home fires, salad, and key lime pie for dessert. It was a truly wonderful day filled with exploring ancient history and God's beautiful creation and celebrating Landra's birthday.

Today I will spend the day training some of George's men on how to properly do a pre-commercial thinning in the pines. Landra and Melina will probably go for a swim in Peter's pool. Later this afternoon we hope to make a trip to Hidden Valley's most spectacular waterfall, Butterfly Falls. I will report on it tomorrow.

Peter's House - the most amazing house I have ever seen!

Peter is an Austrian born, Bermuda raised 67 year old man who can charm the oink out of a pig. He is just over 5 feet tall, but has a handshake that tells you he could crush your hand if he wanted to. He was a champion water skier in his youth. He reminds me of a colonial English explorer. His accent is thick, like Arnold Schwarzenegger's. And he can tell some fascinating stories. He met Bull Headley, my client's father, in the middle 1990's in Bermuda. In 1997 Bull hired him to run Hidden Valley Inn. When Bull sold Hidden Valley Inn in 2002 Peter semi-retired but continued to help with the property maintenance on Hidden Valley and on Bull Run Farms. He designed this amazing house and got permission to build it on an overlook on the Headley property. It is similar to a house he and his father built in Bermuda which was featured in several architectural and travel magazines. He and a master carpenter named Tullio built it over about 18 months. The house is relatively small, only 1,700 square feet. It has a master bedroom, a guest bedroom, a master bath, a guest bath, an open air living room/family room and kitchen with a vaulted ceiling and an upstairs study. There is a spiral staircase going up to the study supported by a hand hewn Sapodilla tree trunk. The interior walls are plaster and the exterior is stucco. The front of the house is covered with native orchids and other flowering plants. The back of the house is a long series of picture windows with two sliding glass doors that lead out to long but narrow pool with a waterfall (manmade) pouring into it. An arch bridge over the pool takes you to a gazebo Peter somehow built over the escarpment that makes you feel suspended in the air with 500 feet below and a view that spans all of northern Belize.




A hundred feet or so in front of the house is a creek that falls over the escarpment where Peter has installed a water driven generator that gives the house electricity independent of any power grid. There is a backup diesel generator for the dry season.







But probably the coolest feature in the house is the master bathroom. It is like most large bathrooms in any house except there is a bath tub and a separate walk in shower that each have a picture window looking out over the escarpment. The view from inside the shower is spectacular. Peter says he can take a shower while watching falcons fly by. How cool is that?




The aerial view of Peter's house shown in the picture above (click the pic for a larger view) is featured in a book of photos of Belize called Heavenly Belize by Marius Jovaiša: http://www.heavenlybelize.com

Tiger Fern and Dumb Cane

The Mountain Pine Ridge of Belize looks very similar to the pine forests of South Georgia. The pines are mostly Caribbean Pine which is a yellow pine just like slash, loblolly, and longleaf pine in Georgia. There are very few briars in the woods here, which is nice. However there is tiger fern....a bright green innocent looking fern at first glance until you try to walk through it. It can grow up to ten feet high, although most just gets waist to head high. Trying to walk through it is like trying to walk through a wall. It will wear you out. There are patches of tiger fern all over the woods here. Caribbean Pine seedlings however seem to find their way to germinate and grow through the tiger fern and eventually pokes out above it.

Then there is dumb cane. It looks like a corn stalk and grows thicker than planted corn. It is actually related to sugar cane. It isn't quite as bad as tiger fern but is a close second in difficulty of trying to penetrate. My client, George, asked me which I prefer to work in....the blackberry and smilax of South Georgia or tiger fern and dumb cane in Belize. I told him without hesitation, "I will take the blackberry and smilax of Georgia".

When I first came to Belize in 1997 I was leading a crew of 7 foresters to do an inventory of this property. George's father, Bull, asked before we began our timber cruise if we wanted some men with machetes to cut a path for our cruise lines. We confidently told Bull...."nah, we have been in much worse than this stuff". Well by lunch time I had to sheepishly go to Bull and report...."uhh we would like some of your machete men to help cut through this tiger fern please". Bull laughed. We had gotten only half as far as we had planned because every time we came across a patch of tiger fern it would take 20 minutes to go 200 feet.

Yesterday we inspected the pre-commercially thinned stands of pines. The picture shown above is a 9 year old pine stand that was pre-commercially thinned in 2006. They are now about 30 feet tall and growing great. George says that even the Belize government forestry department is taking notice as they are just letting nature take its course with the pines on government property. There are areas of un-thinned pines that we are using as control plots where the pines are just as tall, but the average diameter growth is only about 1/3 as much.

We also inspected an area that had a 1,600 acre wildfire back in March. Most of the pines are recovering nicely. It looks as though only about two hundred acres or so was scorched to the point of probably not recovering. But Caribbean Pine is good about regenerating after a fire. Apparently there is plenty of seed left in the duff which germinate after a fire. Wildfires are fairly common in the Pine Ridge, particularly in the dry season of March, April, and May. Most are caused by man being careless. Some are caused by lightning. The British military have maneuvers on the Pine Ridge and often their mortars or equipment start a fire. Other times either tourists or locals carelessly throw out a lit cigarette. Arson is rare, but that happens too. This fire George thinks was caused by a local discarding a cigarette. I recommended that George install a firebreak along any public roads through his property.

Landra and Melina yesterday went to Blacaneaux Lodge for lunch. Blacaneaux and Hidden Valley Inn are the two main resorts operating on the Mountain Pine Ridge. Blacano was developed by Francis Ford Coppola. Hidden Valley Inn was, of course, developed by Bull Headley, my client's father. Landra also got a tour of Peter's house. As I stated in an earlier blog, Peter has been the main caretaker of the Headley and Hidden Valley Inn properties for the past seven years. He is now semi-retired and is leaving today to go visit his son in Bermuda. But Landra got him to give her a tour of this house which I maintain is the coolest house I have ever seen. Landra was impressed and said she did not want to leave. I will give more details on this house in a later blog.

Today Landra and Melina will take Peter to the airport in Belize City and then go shopping in Belmopan and San Ignatio. George and I will spend the day developing management priorities for the pines on his property. Tomorrow I get a day off to take Landra to Caracol and the Rio Frio Cave. Tomorrow is also Landra's birthday. I think it will be a good one.

And The Fun Begins....

Monday morning.

It is only 5:00 AM here but I was awakened by a variety of bird calls. Belize is a paradise for bird watchers and has more variety of birds for a country its size anywhere. Seriously it sounds like I am in an old Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan movie.

This begins our third day in Belize. The first day was mostly travel oriented. 3 hour flight and two hour trip in a Land Rover from Belize City into the mountain pine ridge. Landra and I were greeted at the airport by my client, George Headley. This is my tenth trip to Belize but Landra's first. Driving on the western highway, we pass the entrance to world famous Belize Zoo and I tell Landra a little about it and promise to take her there. About halfway to San Ignatio we stop at a local restaurant called Cheers. The weather is hot and muggy and Cheers has an outdoor pavillion where the shade makes it comfortable. Here I order a tamale and a coke. You may think that the Coca-cola we drink in the states is genuine. It isn't. Belize has REAL Coca-cola that I remember from my youth sweetened with sucrose, not high fructose corn syrup and served in a 10 ounce glass bottle! I am convinced God intended Coke to be bottled in glass, not packaged in a can or in plastic. It tastes just like I remembered from my teen-aged years.

After lunch we travel to Bull Run Farms - so named after George's father, Julian "Bull" Headley, who was a unique character in his own right. Bull was born in Pearl Mississippi. His family owned several sawmills. Bull made his money timbering in the US and then later in Belize. He once owned most of the Dismal Swamp in Virginia. In the early 1960's Bull came to Belize after Hurricane Hattie devastated most of the timber on the Mountain Pine Ridge. Bull began salvaging timber and acquired much of the concession to log the timber on the Pine Ridge and did so until the late 1970s. He wound up buying over 100,000 acres of land in Belize including 22,000 acres of the Pine Ridge most of which now belongs to his youngest son, George.

At the farm we are greeted by George's wife, Melina. Melina is originally from Wisconsin and was George's stock broker. They fell in love and got married in 2007. They spend about half of the year in the states and half in Belize. Once we settle into the guest house we visit George and Melina and catch up on the activities going on here at the farm and over the whole Mountain Pine Ridge. At supper we are joined by two guests, Eric Wolf and Verl Emerick who are graduate students from Virginia Tech working on their doctorates and doing research here for George. They just returned from a swim at Orchid falls - which I will describe later. We chat for an hour or two and then retire for the night.

Sunday morning I wake up about 4:30 AM but it is 6:30 according to my biological clock. It is central standard time here and daylight comes early. Unfortunately, most everyone doesn't wake up until after 6 AM. I have some quiet time in God's Word and world (quiet except for the birds) and then fix some breakfast....sausage and eggs. Now I do not usually eat eggs, but there is something different about eggs in Belize. They taste better here. Maybe it is just my imagination, but I like eggs in Belize where I can just take them or leave them in the US.

Verl wakes up next. He comes in and notices my Auburn hat and asks if I went to college there. I reply "of course". He then says he is the only member of his family going back four generations that did not go to college there. I told him that including Landra my family has five generations who went to Auburn from my great-grandfather on. I told him my father was born in Auburn and my grandmother was a well known kindergarten teacher there. He looked at me kind of funny and asked was your grandmother Luckie Meagher? I said yes, how did you know. He then said something I did not expect..."Cuzin Luckie"? I said huh? He said, his grandparents were great friends of my grandparents. I thought and said....."your grandparents are Verl and Elanor Emerick? He said yes. I then told him well howdy cuz! My grandparents and Verl's were either first or second cousins so that make us.....hmmm forth cousins??? Or second cousins twice removed??? I am not sure. But anyway, how cool is that! At breakfast I introduce Landra and George and Melina to Verl as my cousin and they all get a kick out of that.

After breakfast, Geoge gives me a tour of the farm and shows the progress made since my last visit in February 2006. The pines on about 4,000 acres are now about 9 years old and between 15 and 20 feet tall. George has precommercially thinned (at my recommendation) about 500 acres so far and those pines are doing excellent. The coffee plantation that George started in 2004 has since been abandoned do to cost overruns and the fact that Tapir love coffee plants. The coffee plantation now has pines seedlings growing up in it that are about 5 feet tall - they must be about 3 years old. We check out some of Eric and Verl's research plots and by then it is lunch time. We eat lunch at an overlook with a great view of Thousand Foot Falls - so named because Roaring Creek literally drops over an escarpment that is 1,600 feet down into a broadleaf jungle. After lunch we look at some areas that were burned by a wildfire....about 900 acres. Wildfires are common during the dry season in the Mountain Pine Ridge - in March, April, and especially in May. Fortunately there isn't much pine regeneration growing over much of the area, at least nothing like the regeneration on the previous 4,000 acres we looked at before lunch. We pass by George's D-6 Caterpillar Dozier which caught on fire on the way to fight this wildfire. It was burned pretty bad. George says yep and to top it all off, his hands tried to put the fire out with water which cracked the engine block. George says he doesn't know when he will get it fixed, but certainly before next years fire season.

We return back to the farmhouse at about 3:30 where Landra has been helping Melina fix supper. An old friend Peter is coming for dinner along with another research scientist, Marcela, who is studying jaguar on the Pine Ridge. Landra, having heard all about Orchid falls by now, wants to go swimming. So I grab some towels and off we go. After George built his house in 2004 he then proceeded to clear a trail to Orchid Falls....a relatively small but gorgeous waterfall on Privassion Creek, I think. It has about a quarter acre pool at the bottom which is perfect for swimming. George built a gazebo and a dock so that family and friends could enjoy it more comfortably. I posted a picture of it yesterday on my facebook page. I would post pictures here now but George's bandwidth through Hugh's satellite is limited so I will do that later.

We get back to George and Melina's house at 6 where dinner is almost ready. Tonight it is ribs, corn bread, cold slaw (which strangely I also like in Belize but not in the states) and a really really chocolate chocolate cake Melina has cooked for dessert. Peter arrives and we sit on the porch and catch up. Peter is a unique guy. He is a 68 years old Austrian born and Bermuda raised chap. He was hired by George's father in 1997 to manage the Hidden Valley Inn which Bull used to own until he sold it in 2002. Peter is now semi-retired and works for both George and for Hidden Valley part time. He is only about 5 feet tall, but is solid muscle. He has a thick English accent and was once a champion water skier in Bermuda. He has built the most amazing house I have ever seen on the escarpment of George's property overlooking all of northern Belize and southern Mexico. I will write more on his house in a later blog. Peter reminds me of what a British explorer like William Perry or Henry Hudson must of looked and been like. He has been over most all of Bull's/George's property at one time or another and I am talking about some rough country - places where if you slipped at the wrong time you would fall over 1,000 feet into broadleaf jungle that even a forester like me would not venture into too deeply. We have a wonderful night of sharing old stories. At about 10 I walk outside with Landra to show her the Southern Cross constellation which you can see just over the southern horizon. The view of the stars from the Pine Ridge is incredible because there are no city lights to obscure the view. The Milky Way looks truly milky here. Landra gets excited because several meteors shoot across the sky. A perfect way to end a day with God's glory on display.

Today Cuzin Verl and Eric leave for the states while George and I will be taking some plots of our own in the precommercially thinned pines and discussing future management strategies for the rest of the pine forest. I will get to see some of the areas that Don Lewis and I marked to be cut back in 2005. Landra and Melina may go into San Ignatio for some shopping or they may go to Peter's house for a swim. We will see.