Its 26 days since we trekkers arrived in Belize eager to get stuck into jungle life. The time has flown by but much has been accomplished.
After half an hour to sort out our bags, get into our jungle gear and meet our fellow ninjas, we were straight into an hours walk to our first camp in Elijio Panti National Park. The first week consisted of basic jungle survival skills under the tuition of the TELs with their 2 months of knowledge and experience.
The first 2 days of our jungle adventure kicked off in style as Jack spent most of the night snoring farting and sleep talking. First thing in the morning we were paired into ‘buddies’ and played team building games which often ended in scraps between our two role models and leaders, Colin and Jade. After blindfolded obstacle courses we moved on to the advanced tests of our buddy skills. The Trekkers took on the TELs in a game of paralyzed farmer, blind dog. Needless to say the trekkers came out on top with a tremendous display of how to round up deaf dumb and blind sheep into a palapa.
Although we trekkers didn’t quite understand the novelty, the TELs were all amazed when Jasper and Harry revealed that they had managed to carry 6 eggs, unbroken, into camp. The sensible thing to do would have been enjoy the treat, but we had to have an epic egg and spoon race first, fortunately only one was broken (not naming names Frenchie!).
Putting aside the shenanigans of the first few days we rolled on into the more serious side of jungle life. Through jungle observation we learnt how to spot items of Dick’s belt kit but failed to spot Dick himself amongst them. Wendy instructed us in jungle hygiene, which turned out to be a bit futile as Jack only brought 1 pair of boxers with him. Jasper taught us which items to carry on us at all times in our belt kit. Nearly everything in his own was in some way useable to start a fire, which led nicely on to Harry’s lessons. We were excited to get our hands on our machetes, but that only meant a morning of chopping firewood for our fire lighting lesson. After about an hour of burning our fingers with lighters the pros stepped in to show us how it is done.
With all these skills we were ready for our first foray into the jungle on our own for solo night. While Jack was still setting up his basha Dave snuck round and stole most of the good fire lighting materials in his area. On the other side Frenchie and Dom set up quite quickly and were on the hunt for dry wood too to get a brew on. In the end we all got fires going, and settled in for the night.
Local guide / professional jungle ninja Antonio spent a few days with us to pass on his vast knowledge of the local flora and fauna (he knows over 200 different birds). Hopefully we won’t need most of the stuff he taught us, as it was for pretty extreme problems. Highlights included the ‘Plugyourbutt’ tree, the ‘Waitawhile’ vine and ‘Jackass Bitter’.
By the end of the initial training phase we knew which ants to use to stitch wounds up, which tree to cut down for pink cocaine and which trees would splash us with poisonous sap.
