Two days after we said a goodbye to each other in Wales, we were stood outside Belize international airport together. Well, almost together. The boys nearly left without Sara after airport staff told Colin her plane had been and gone without her on it, when in fact it was just late leaving Miami, she made it to the vans just in time though, unlike Dan's bags, which didn't make it to Belize at all - perhaps no surprise as he had 4 stopovers on the way and also cursed it himself, saying to the baggage handlers in South Carolina "they're not coming to Belize are they". Rhona and Elise were on later planes, so the rest of us bundled in to the back of a sweltering hire van, our spirits were gloriously lifted thanks to Josh's ipod speakers and Sam's phone playing the sounds of "You're the Best Around" from the Karate Kid. We drove down to Hummingbird Haven aka Mike's Farm, where we would be stationed for our Basic Jungle Training. Somewhat of a culture shock after Whales - cold showers, outside toilets and rationed food, gone forever the glory days of being able to walk across the road to Spar for some kinder bueno and Max's pitchers' of coffee!! At Mike's Farm, Josh from the Trekkers group (who had met Sam and John from the TELs at check in in London) was reunited with his group as Jade's gang of Trekkers arrived later in the day, fresh from their first Spanish trip to Guatemala, along with Rhona and Elise from the TELs. 
Our first day on the farm was spent being blindfolded by Colin and Jade and set a number of tasks, like making animal noises to locate our buddy pairs and then playing football with one half of all the buddy pairs blindfolded. Much hilarity and some minor injuries ensued. Safely buddied up, the TELs then set about teaching the Trekkers everything they knew, up first were Henry and Sara teaching them CPR and moving casualties, getting all the TELs involved for a refresher too. Rhona & Elise took on more First Aid, while Sam, Dan, Max and John taught Navigation and Jamie, Dom, Adam and Nick took on River Crossings. Both the TELs and the Trekkers were let loose on some Machetes, the following day we were all let loose on some line clearing, getting to know our Machetes and Belt Kits better. After some hard days hacking through the jungle, we all took a dip in the creek, where Nick and Henry saw a Green Vine Snake on the bank. More wildlife appeared later on, as a Scorpion wandered in to the house, it quickly drew a crowd of curious TELs and Trekkers and resorted to playing dead to be left alone. TELs/Trekkers 1, Scorpion 0. The TELs and Colin also introduced Mafia to the Trekkers, Jade and Dr Anya, Jamie's catchphrase still in full force as the villagers cruelly killed him off in the first round three times in a row. After a crash course in Basha set up, we all set off for our first night in the Jungle. We walked for an hour, found a suitable place for a campsite and then set up our Bashas and Hammocks, before taking on Jade's jungle observation course - 15 items hidden in the jungle, we all failed massively on the first try, getting an average of 3! 3 more attempts and we all had it nailed, though some people still missed Dr Anya hidden in the bushes!! While having a 5 minute break we heard 6 whistle blasts and immediately flew in to action - running to the location of the whistles, hacking down stretcher poles, waking u
p Kent at fieldbase with the Sat Phone and then transporting Jade through the jungle and a river on the stretcher. Turned out she was faking it and the whole thing was just an elaborate (and exciting) exercise to give us our first taste of Casevacs, so we left her there. Henry and Dom did a brilliant job with the Jungle rations though and we had one of the best meals of the trip so far with our noodles on the campfire (a sachet of flavouring! Amazing!). The first night in Hammocks and we had 3 fall out straight away - Sara, Max and Jamie, all TELs too, leading from the front.
The next day Max and John taught everyone Navigation 2, which was to include some 100m boxing exercises and trail finding, however, shortly after the first group finished and Gavin and Colin set off to mark the first trail, they saw 6 Peccary bottoms crossing the path in front of them, over in the jungle minutes before, Sara, Elise and Dom had heard some squeaking and were trying to work out what animal it could have been, question answered. Not wanting to take a risk, the whistle was blown and Nav 2 was cut short, we all hiked back to camp Machetes at the ready for the Peccary (they were wise to not come back and take on the Jungle Ninjas and Pirates). We cleared away the last few signs of the camp and Rhona and Sam led us all back to Mike's Farm for a well earned break, before the TELs teaching River Crossings took over. The remaining TELs packed up our gear and got a bus in to San Ignacio with Jade, an adventure in itself, complete with ice cream stops and our first
taste of Belikin. By the time we'd changed buses and found our way back from the supermarket, the remaining TELs had arrived at Fieldbase in San Ignacio too. Reunited again, we had some well deserved Belikins whilst playing with Flapjack the kitten, ready to take on our training for La Ruta Maya.
