March 26
Yesterday I went to the ATM (Actun Tunichil Muknal) cave near San Ignacio, Belize; it was truly amazing.
The park fee was only 100$ dollars/ person which also includes a guide, transportation and lunch.
In order to get to the cave you walk for 45 min through the jungle, crossing the stream three times so you are already wet arriving at the cave entrance. Now, in order to actually enter the ATM cave you have to swim 10 meters. Equipped with headlights and hard helmets, wearing swimsuits, shorts and water shoes you start your 2-3 hours adventure.
We were so lucky to be led by a great guide and archeologist Gonzo,who oversees all cave excavations in Belize. And we were also joined by two archeologist from USA, who are currently writing thesis on cave excavation. So we were in best company to learn and experience #1 in the world ceremonial cave.
From the cave entrance it takes about 2 hours to get to the biggest lime stone cave and from there you climb up the big rock and you can see lots of artifacts like broken pots and plates. One thing I was thinking about during the water walk/swim was "there are some big fish here and I hope they don't bite me".
For the Maya people the caves were the entrance to the 9 levels of the underworld of Xibalba.
The Maya believed that the great gods above ( the main was the soon)were the ones that were responsible for the weather and life events so whenever something ominous happened or if there was q drought ,Maya thought that the gods were not happy with what there people were doing and with their offerings. It brought on sacrifice and offering of humans. Such offerings took place in the ATM cave and there are bones of about 14 people including children. It was apparently a great nor to be sacrifice to the gods and the family of the victim would be rewarded.
At the very end of the cave , after you climb the ladder , you come upon an altar and few deformed sculls. Archeologist believe that children had 2 pieces of wood strapped to their head , front and back to create flat shape, which was symbol of nobility and served only ornamental purpose.
At the very end there is one complete skeleton of about 16 year old boy; the bones are perfectly preserved by calcium from surrounding water sipping inside the cave ;it is called " crystal maiden".
We learn a lot about Mayan culture and how they had to brake the vases or the edge of it after offerings in order to release the spirits, so that's why the pottery found in most caves is broken.
March 20
Recently I finished my PADI open water diver course and now I'm certified, at the age of 11.
Diving is like a new world,you can see so much as soon as you descent.
When you are under the water you feel so calm and relaxed;the first time it is always scary but once you start you are like WOW! Under the water there are so many colours and fish and it is truly amazing.
I love watching fish chase each other, spotting little shrimps hiding in the corals or stingray pretending they are not there, camouflaging well at the base of large corals, beautiful sponge corals and many flatworms,love swimming through passages and been waved in " washing machine" .I did not think it would be so much fun but it is AMAZING.
Diving opens the opportunity to see and understand the water world.
Some of the nicest creatures I saw : lion fish, stingray,spotted eel,vase sponges,plume worm, flamingo tongue,spotlight parrotfish,squirrel fish,fairy baslet,queen angelfish,rock beauty,French angelfish,shy hamlet,trunkfish,yellowtail damselfish,foureye butterfly,porkfish,French grunt and many more.
March 14
Our vacation is still keeping my family on Roatan island.
My dad and brother tried spear- fishing for the first time this week and they said it was fun.
Lionfish are originally from Indo-Pacific region and the Red Sea. They are a big threat to other fish because they are new to Caribbean so they have no predators and they are considered invasive species. They eat many commercial valuable fish and ecological important organisms. That threatens the balance within coastal ecosystem.
Lionfish are getting hunted by divers in order to control their invasion (trying to decrease they number) and marine parks have developed a program which educates and teaches divers how to use specific spears for hunting Lionfish.)
Facts about Lionfish :
-Specific colour with reddish brown and white vertical stripes.
-Feathery pectoral and pelvic thins making it look like wings
-Size
- 38 cm in native waters , but in Carribean they can grow up to 48 cm
-Lionfish are highly poisonous with venom in there dorsal,ventral and anal fins.
March 1
Our vacation brought us to Roatan island (Honduras)which is divers paradise!Why is it divers' paradise? I'll tell you why. The ocean around Roatan is filled with wonderful fish and plants, but one of the most beautiful is the coral. I tried diving for the first time, and I had the best time; it was like I was in a different universe. I saw lots of beautiful fish and one thing I noticed was that the coral has lots of brown spots and it was chipped in places. This is called bleaching, often caused by pollution, increase in water temperature or increase in water acidity due to high concentration of carbon dioxide in atmosphere, which in consequence is absorbed by ocean water.
Corals are building blocks of a reef ecosystem and provide food and shelter to many animals that call a reef home. Each coral is made of collection of tiny animals called polyps, that grow together in various forms. Corals are some of the simplest but also the oldest forms of life on Earth,growing for over 50 million years. Corals are nocturnal animals so their colours are best seen at night. Corals food is produced by tiny animals living within coral, called zooxanthellae.
Fun facts:
1) sea urchins are some of the longest-living creatures of Earth, they can live up to 200 years
2) nudibranchs, look like slugs, called "naked lungs", because they often keep their lung outside their bodies absorbing oxygen directly from seawater. They collect poison from their food and store it for protection.
Feb 28
Maize (corn and corn tortilla), seem to be the main part of each traditional Mexican and Guatemala's meal.
The tradition goes back to Mayan believes. According to Mayan culture humans were created from maize( corn).
No self- respecting Maya, raised in the traditional way, would consider eating a meal without maize. They treat it with the "utmost respect". Women do not let grains of maize fall on the ground or into an open fire. If it happens accidentally,they pick it up and apologize to it. They eat their meals in silence, and explain it in the way that tortillas are to them as sacramental bread to Catholics. We observed the tradition of making and eating tortillas during our travels through Mexico and Guatemala. We saw women gathering together and making tortilla dough then skilfully making small small pancakes- like flat tortillas. They are also small places called tortillerias where tortillas are made by machines in more efficient ways. On every street corner there are women sitting with large baskets selling tortillas. And every morning people make " runs" for their daily stack of tortillas. Tortillas are served basically with every meal, warm, wrapped in cloth in woven basket. There are 4 different kinds of corn there is black,white,yellow and red. The only corn that is used to make tortilla is white and black. Tortillas and beans are still considered the basic food of most Mexicans and Guatemalans.
Feb 20
Indigenous women in Mexico and Guatemala are the most vulnerable groups and face a lot of poverty. In the recent years the effort has been made to help them by creating Women 's Cooperatives. They run with involvement of volunteers.Once in Quetzaltenango of Guatemala we have found a place called TRAMA. It is a coop of 400-600 indigenous women from nearby villages. If you don't know what indigenous means it means that the women are native to their country ; they likely never went to school so they don't have an education, often leaving with continuation of their own family or village tradition. They weave fabric and tablecloths, scarfs, shawls, make clots, bags and jewellery and place it in their own store. The price tag displays also the number of hours/ days it took for each item to be made and with this tag the buyers really enjoy the displays even more when they know how much work it takes to create all the items. In TRAMA you can take weaving classes. I have picked the 5 hrs class to make a small place mat. I really enjoyed weaving because you can see and appreciate how much work they put into the designs and work, and how many hours they put into something that they sell to make a living. I had to concentrate all the time to avoid making mistakes and needed a lot of help. It was fun thought, but a lot of work for such a small piece!
We have also visited another similar place in Pajachel, near Lake Atitlan and one in Antigua Guatemala.
Each region has it's own pattern of embroidery and weaving and this is how they are recognized. In TRAMA we found a map showing various regions and also a poster with pictures of different indigenous clothes patters. We noticed mostly women wearing their traditional clothing. The skirt ( corta) is a piece of fabric about 7 m long which is wraparound and tied with large belt. They wear huipil ( long, sleeveless tunic) with many ornamental embroidery patterns. All women have long hair, often braided, sometimes with colourful ribbon tying both braids. Sometimes they cover their heads with woven piece of clothing called tocoyal,often decorated with bright tassels. The traditional clothing are worn predominantly in Maya- populated highlands.
Feb 7
Our visit to coffee plantation (Fisca) in Quatzeltenango also introduced us to some other plants including rubber,cocoa, black paper and sugar. Because of diseases affecting their coffee plants (mostly fungus) their last crop was not very big. So recently, the farmers have been grafting stronger species together. We watched the native women do it by hand, using old razor blades.
Since coffee and sugar are harvested only once a year (starting around November and December) the rubber tree is more efficient, producing a latex material year round. "Heva Brasiliensis" or "Pará" Rubber tree is the most important on the farm due to its source of natural rubber. They grow up to 30 m tall and produce rubber for about 30-32 years. The optimum growing conditions require 250cm rainfall a year, humidity of 80%, lots of sunshine hours (around 2000 per year), and minimum wind.
The Pará Rubber tree initially grew in Amazon Rain Forrest but then it was brought to South Asia, Africa and India. The rubber from the tree was used by Olmes people of Mesoamerica ancestry about 3600 years ago, mainly to make a balls used in the Mesoamerican ball game.
Today rubber is harvested mainly in the form of latex in a process called "tapping". The incision is made on the tree bark and latex is collected as a milky liquid into small containers attached to the tree. It is collected very 3 days, and incisions are changed up and down the tree trunk.
To preserve latex from coagulation and damage during the season, formic acid is added to collection cups. Latex from the cups is collected into large tins and then dried in the shops before sent to manufactures for processing. About 25 million tonnes of rubber is produced each year, 42% of this is natural rubber, and the rest is synthetic. About 70% of natural rubber is used in tires, the lower quality ends up as windshield wipers, conveyor belts, marine products etc. The top quality of latex is used to make surgical gloves, balloons and other products. Natural rubber has a large stretch ratio, high resilience and it is extremely waterproof, while synthetic rubber offers more resistance to environmental factors such as oils, temperature, ultraviolet lights and chemicals.
Next, we saw the sugar plantation. I think the sugar was the most interesting because the fields don't stop for miles. The sugarcane sticks looked like bamboo, and they grow very tall. The fields of sugar are too thick to walk through and harvest. Its also too dangerous, since sugarcane fields are filled with mice and snakes. What the workers do is they put gas all over the fields in the dry season, so the leafs harden. Then they light the fields on fire, wait for the fire to go out, and collect the sugarcane.
Jan 30
Today we started the day at 4:30 am. We drove in the darkness on a bumpy road to a trail head. We hiked by star light and my brother's phone. It was difficult to see and we stumbled over rocks on a narrow path. Finally the sun came out but we were still in winter jackets because it was SO cold. By the time we made it to the top of the lookout( at elevation of 2775 m above sea level) the tenth most dangerous volcano in the world was already erupting in front of use. When this was all happening my dad asked the guide when we should start running!( ha ha ).
The Volcano Santiaguito was so interesting because if smoke wasn't coming out of the volcano you would never think it was a volcano because of its structure. Every half and hour you could see a big cloud of ash coming out of the volcano. Fun fact: the volcano's ash is an excellent fertilizer of the fields below.The highlands of Guatemala are the most fertile agricultural lands because of all the volcanic soil. There are 30 volcanos in Guatemala and there are 3 active volcanoes. The one that I saw today was amazing because you could hear the rumbling and all the smoke was like a big fat pillow, it's colour was grey because of the ash. Santiaguito , Guatemala's youngest volcano, emerged on Volcano Santa Maria's south slope in 1902. It erupts about 15-17 times daily.
Jan 26
Today, January 26,2015, day 101 of our trip, we have entered Guatemala. Guatemala is one of the Central America countries that borders with Mexico and three other Central America countries: Belize,Honduras and El Salvador ( other countries of Central America include: Nicaragua,Costa Rica and Panama).
It's location between a Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea makes it prone to frequent hurricanes.
Population: 14 100 000
Population below poverty line:54%
40% are Maya people
Largest city: Guatemala City with population of over 4 million
Guatemala's mountainous regions are home to the majority of indigenous people as we were able to observe it travelling through Huahuatenango and San Francisco towards Quetzaltenango.
Highlands reach volcanic soil makes for some of the best farmland in the Country.
Cobán region has become a leading exporter of cardamon ,much of it is exported as far away as India and the Middle East.Many people work in agriculture tending to small plots or working on larger commercial farms.
The major industry of Guatemala includes food processing and beverage production, processing of sugar, tobacco,textile,cement, rubber and construction materials.Guatemala is the main exporter of sugar, coffee and bananas.
Jan 23
Day 98 into our trip, we visited Palenque, one of the greatest ruins of Maya City in Mexico. Palenque was first occupied around 100 BC and flourished from AD 620 to around 740 under great ruler Pakal and his son Kan B'alam II. After 900 AD, Palenque was largely abandoned and the ruins were overgrown by the jungle. The first discovery of the city was made in 1746, but it wasn't archaeologically investigated till 1837 and 1952, when Pakal's hidden crypt was found by Alberto Ruz Lhuilloer. Hundreds of ruins are spread over 15 sq km, but only 5-10% has been excavated to date. During the whole day I was thinking about how these people lived and what challenges they had. They had jungle surrounding them, which provided shade but also created incredible humidity. They build the city using rocks, some larger ones weighted 12-15 tons,and they were placed on top of some structures. The entire city was build without metal tools, pack animals or the wheel.
The most challenging part of my day was climbing all the stairs.There was at least 30-90 stairs to each building, and they were steep and narrow, which made descend even more difficult. My favourite part was seeing temples and houses and structures that were built so differently then nowadays. All the structures are so big and beautiful; it is amazing what ancient people were able to do without the help of many tools and animals that are used nowadays. My second favourite part of today's adventure was visit to local museum. One of the greatest exhibit in the museum is a replica of The Great Pakal 's tomb. The tomb was found in the Templo de las Inscripiones . It contained lots of jewels and jades, including jade mosaic death masks. The real tomb is in the Mexico City museum. The structure of Templo de las Inscriptiones has the second longest hieroglyphic text know from the Maya world,describing about 180 years do the city history.
Jan 14
Mexican families usually do not exchange gifts during Christmas. The presents come at different time. They celebrate January 6th, the Three Kings Day (Dia de Reyes) showering their children with gifts. This celebration takes place 12 days after Christmas (the height of Christmas season) when Three Kings (Los Reyes Magos) presented baby Jesus with gifts. On the days proceeding the Kings Day, children write letters to Magi requesting a toy or a gift and place the Three Kings in the Nativity Scene. On January 6th, in the morning children find their present or presents near the nativity scene or under Christmas Tree. I like this tradition, cause it makes Christmas time less focused on gifts and more on traditions and celebrations .
Jan 13
In the state of Oaxaca, located in southern Mexico, hammocks seem to be everywhere. You can find them in houses, on balconies, porches, palapas, on the beach, and being sold by venders on the street and along the beaches. They come in many colours and sizes, and they are made out of rope or cotton fabric. So why are they so popular? Il tell you why. First of all, they are easy to carry, they serve as a cheap and easily folding bed that saves space. Also, they can be put up anywhere, for example between 2 poles or trees. It is cooler to sleep in a hammock during hot Mexican nights and they keep you off of the ground so you are not with the "creepy-crawlies".
Quite often during our trip, we have noticed no furniture in poor Mexican houses, but there are always plenty of hammocks.
So where do hammocks originate from? Most Central America countries have rich and ancient heritage associated with hammocks that pre-date North Americans by 800-900 years. It is widely accepted that the origins of hammocks began approximately 1000 years ago in Central America from Mayan Indians. The earliest hammocks were woven from the bark of the Hamak tree. It was later replaced by the Sisal plant (resembling aloe Vera) which was more abundant and it's fibres could be softened by rubbing them against the thigh. The use of cotton dates back only 40-50 years ago. Because of trade routes, hammocks became popular all over Central and South America. Indigenous people used a variety of materials, styles and colours, for making hammocks. Hammocks were later introduced to Europe by traders from Columbus's travels.
World wide over 100 million people use hammocks as beds or furniture everyday , including Africa, China, Philippines, South Pacific and, of course, Central and South America.
Dec 29
Today we found a turtle sanctuary. The beach was covered with holes, it looked like I was on the moon. There was a closed off section that had sticks with dates on them and holes beside them. The holes are filed with 50-80 turtle eggs. The dates tell you when the eggs were brought in, and when they might hatch. This area is called the turtle garden. When we were walking on the beach, we saw two family's of baby turtles hatching; they were Negra (black) turtles. During the night we went walking down the beach looking for mother turtles laying their
eggs, we saw about 13 mother turtles. Mother turtles can keep their eggs in their womb for 2 years but after that they need to be fertilized.
Here are the steps that the mother has to do when lying her eggs:
1-Mother turtle has to find a comfortable spot and away from any predators
2-She digs a hole using her front fins and her back fins
3-Using her back legs she does a swiping movement with her back fins
4-She digs a smaller hole just the size of one fin and picks the sand up and throws it at the back of her
5-She gets comfortable and when the eggs start coming out she will not stop until her job is done
6-She will cover the hole so nothing can find the eggs and she leaves,back to the ocean
Watching all of this was like nothing I have ever seen .The sad thing about it is that when the eggs hatch they have no mother to help them out and they have to try not to get killed by birds, bigger fish and poachers.
Capturing and killing turtles is illegal. Turtles and their eggs are used for food, medicine, and decoration. Their shell is used for jewelry, glasses, and other decorations. The turtle skin is used to make shoes, belts, and purses. The problem in Mexico is that there are a lot of poachers who steal the turtle eggs. When the eggs are stolen they get sent off to a black market were are sold for about $58 per egg. Most of the poachers are local fisherman, who make about $78 per week. In Baja California, about 35 000 turtles are being stollen every year. In Mexico, about 65% of stollen turtles are Green sea turtles, and 10% are the endangered Loggerhead sea turtle. If you are caught stealing a turtle in Mexico, the maximum punishment is 9 years in jail or you pay $11 000.
Dec 25
A day in Mexico
After a long night of listening to the Mexican music played on the other side of the campsite wall, we awoke to a quiet Sunday.
We drove to the nearby small town. The little buildings were very colourful and the steep street led us to an old church and town plaza. The church, which seemed to be very old, was already empty after morning service, but there were few ladies arranging flowers.
As we stepped outside the elderly man started talking to us. Understanding him was somewhat hard and we picked up the story from a few words. The lush green fields in front of us was all sugar cane and there is limited machines to harvest it, so it is still mainly people labor involved. However there is not a lot of work in town and many people have travelled to the USA looking for work.
The mountains visible in the distance are volcanos, that spread along the west coast of Mexico. Driving in this part of Mexico, there is so much contrast to the desert of Baja, which is dry and impenetrable due to very dry and prickly vegetation. As we continued our journey on windy road, we stopped to take photos of the enormous sugar cane plants and also of the big trucks, bigger than the buses, filled with sugar canes to their very tops. Soon we arrived at our destination, tiny fishing village of Chacala, located 96 km north of Puerto Vallarta. It sits pretty along a beautiful little cove backed by dark green slopes and edged by rugged black rock formations. It is a very typical Mexican village, where Mexicans come in many buses to spend the day on the beautiful, sandy beach and play in warm water of Pacific Ocean. Few cobbled streets are lined up with souvenir stores and many restaurant there and along the beach. As we sat down to eat we were entertained by few groups of local troubadours. We picked our fresh fish from the cooler and soon it was cleaned out and on the grill. Lunch was delicious, it included fish, rice, beans, tortillas and freshly squeezed lemonade. I finally built a sand castle, though it was quickly washed away by big waves crashing on the shore. While I was trying to save it my dad called me to come and see baby turtles. They just hatched and there was 86 of them. Finally they were ready to be released. The conservation officer gave us turtles to hold and to release them later on with everybody. We all lined up, each of us (many children) holding the tiny turtle smaller than my hand, and .......we let them go! We watched them trying to swim but many of them were washed back by strong waves. Finally they were all gone. We hope their journey to the ocean is safe and that Lucky (that's how we name out turtle) will survive.
Dec 7
At the end November we have arrived in Mexico and spent the first week in Mission of Vicente Guerrero. The mission tries to support itself and part of it is having large orchards. Among others they grow macadamia nuts trees. Those trees originate from Australia and 3 different variety are grown in Vicente Guerrero. They have about 3000 trees. The nuts vary in size and grow in grapes-like structure. They have outer green husk and hard brown shell underneath, that an be crushed only by pigs and machines. The nuts are picked from the ground by hands and the green husk get cracked in special machines. Then all nuts go to silos for 2 weeks of drying, still in brown shells. This drying process decreases water content from 30% down to 3% and this is when oil and sugar concentrate in the nut. Then the nuts require another drying for 2 hrs in special dehydrators. Then the nuts get weight (with brown shell still on) then they are packed in big dry black bags till processing time.The true processing time starts with cracking the nuts very hard shell, after which they need to be separated from the shell, and this part of job is often offered to visitors volunteers. Once shells are removed the nuts are washed in water; the ones that float have higher oil content and the ones that sink-are considered 2nd quality ,as they are high in sugar and used mostly for baking. After nuts are wanes they return to dryer for 18 hrs. Harvest season lasts from beginning of Oct until mid July. Lately the orchards not seen very high crops due to larger salt concentration in the water, also they have an "enemy" in form moth and of a navel orange warm. The latter had originated in New Mexico and Arizona and migrated through the Mexico, affecting various nuts trees. They oil form nuts is used mostly in cosmetics. They are 3 main buyers for the nuts from the Mission and money is donated back to the mission.
November 19
Today we arrived in Zion National Park and we went for a hike. On the way we saw 2 tarantulas and one unusually looking bug, which we were told was the sand cricket. We learnt form the Park Ranger that it is a mating season for tarantulas so the males are out looking for a female. We did some research on found out few facts about the spiders. The females are larger than males, than can reach 12 cm in length. They leave mostly underground and feed on small insects, but can also eat toads and mice. There's is also tarantula that pray on birds. They do not in webs to catch they prey but inject they paralyzingly venom and digestive enzymes into the prey. They can live up to 30 yrs of age. They occasionally shed they skin and often internal organs such as stomach lining, they can also grow a leg if lost. Female guards they eggs in a cocoon and after 6-8 weeks 500-1000 tarantulas hatch. They are not dangerous to humans, as they sting is less powerful than a bee sting. The sand cricket is actually a Jerusalem cricket, when we compared our photo with the internet picture. They are flightless insects native to western part of USA and part of Mexico. Thought they are called crickets they belong to different family the crickets. They area nocturnal. They feed on dead organic matter but also on insects. They area or venomous but can inflict painful bite.
November 12
We went on a 15k hike with lots of climbing on rocks in Arches National park, Utah. It was really fun and very adventures. On our way down we came upon large rocks with old Indian arts that have been there for thousands and thousands of years.There are 2 types of rock art: Petroglyphs and Pictographs. Petroglyphs are motifs that are pecked, grounded or scratched on the rock surface. Pictographs are paintings and drawings in more then one colour using mineral pigments and plant dyes on the rocks surface.The one we have seen show various figures , that look like little stick people, snakes, sheep, families and water. Scientists think that the art has been a mixture of petroglyphs and pictographs ,but now appear only as a petroglyph because the paint material has faded or washed away over many years. Scientists know that rock art was produced by number of prehistoric and historic people.A big game hunting people,known as Paleo-Indians, are considered to be the first human users in the area. A later culture called Archaic, probably used central bas camps. There are other cultures like Anasazi and Fremont , whose life was based on harvesting wild resources, that live close to Moab. They all left different arts on the rock ,which represented either hunting or different scenes of their life.
November 3
When we entered Arches National Park we learned about the sand stone formation that the park area is built from.Today arches fins and other rock shapes began about 3 hundred million years ago when seas periodically covered this area.
The seas became trapped in low-lying areas and evaporate ,leaving salt beds up to five thousand feet thick in some places.Over millions of years,sand,silt and clay accumulated on top of the salt deposits. This top layer of sandstone is called Entrada and is what makes up the arches. The layer of salt is eroded away by water and wind leaving the Entrada rock.
Over 2,000 arches are located within the park ,also other formations like colossal sandstone fins ,pinnacles,spires .One of the worlds largest arch is the Landscape Arch , that stretches 93 meters yet it's only 3.3 meters in the center.
Definition of arch : 1 meter by 1meter and the sun can can shine through.
October 23
BC borders with 3 USA states that are Washington, Idaho and Montana. We crossed into Montana and we are in Bozeman right know. We drove through the state capital Helena and saw the state building. Today we went to see the buffalo jump. The buffalo jump is when native people would herd all the buffalo by making a grass fire and that would scare them to jump of the cliff and that would kill all of the 200 to 300 buffalo. All of the Indians would come to help one another for the winter to stay alive. Another way the Indians would make the buffalo fall to there death would be when 2 Indians would pretend to be wolf and scare them off the cliff. Buffalo was very essential to Indians: they used their bones as tools, leather for bags and clothes, horns for spoons and ladles, and there fur to make some clothes and tepees and, one of my favourite, was there tail for a fly swatter. Did you know that what the Indians were hunting is not actually buffalo, it is bison because they look like the bison from Asia and Africa.
October 18
Yesterday morning we went for an hour and a half hike up a big mountain. On the way up we saw a large set of bones from some sort of animal (I could identify spine and ribs). We also saw lots of rock claiming hooks. When we got to the top it was so windy that I felt like I could have been blown away, but when we started to go back into the forest, it started to get warmer again. After we entered Jasper we went to the village for a little bit to walk around. We still wanted to do another hike, so my dad said "why don't we go to Maligne Canyon?". Maligne Canyon was beautiful, and I found it amazing that it was just a little river over 1000 years ago. However, now it is now the size of 2 football fields and it measures to about 30 feet in width, wow. Maligne Canyon is made from limestone. Limestone comes from the ocean. The ocean was been here before all these mountains were here. Limestone is a very soft rock, which is easily carved by dirt, salt and small rocks, that act like powerful drill under water, often creating potholes (it's like trying to drill a hole in a diamond). Also power of flowing water and ice in winter, that expands in cracks of the rocks, add to creating a river bed.
Today we went to Athabasca falls, it was really pretty. It's amazing that what looks like just a little river, can make such a big waterfall.
Over thousand and thousands of years it made such a big river, it just blows my mind.
October 13
The first part of our journey will take us through Alberta and over to the USA. Then we will pass through Idaho, Arizona, Nevada, California, then Baja California. Then we will cross over to mainland Mexico via a ferry. Then continue through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and finally Panama. Our trip, one way, will take 10,436 Km. This is an estimated 122 hours of non-stop driving with no traffic. If we were to try and walk this distance, it would take 1,691 hours. If we were to drive the same distance in Canada, it would be like driving from Vancouver to Fort St John, then to Whitehorse and all the way over to St Johns NL. This distance would equal to 10,844 Km.
Yesterday I went to the ATM (Actun Tunichil Muknal) cave near San Ignacio, Belize; it was truly amazing.
The park fee was only 100$ dollars/ person which also includes a guide, transportation and lunch.
In order to get to the cave you walk for 45 min through the jungle, crossing the stream three times so you are already wet arriving at the cave entrance. Now, in order to actually enter the ATM cave you have to swim 10 meters. Equipped with headlights and hard helmets, wearing swimsuits, shorts and water shoes you start your 2-3 hours adventure.
We were so lucky to be led by a great guide and archeologist Gonzo,who oversees all cave excavations in Belize. And we were also joined by two archeologist from USA, who are currently writing thesis on cave excavation. So we were in best company to learn and experience #1 in the world ceremonial cave.
From the cave entrance it takes about 2 hours to get to the biggest lime stone cave and from there you climb up the big rock and you can see lots of artifacts like broken pots and plates. One thing I was thinking about during the water walk/swim was "there are some big fish here and I hope they don't bite me".
For the Maya people the caves were the entrance to the 9 levels of the underworld of Xibalba.
The Maya believed that the great gods above ( the main was the soon)were the ones that were responsible for the weather and life events so whenever something ominous happened or if there was q drought ,Maya thought that the gods were not happy with what there people were doing and with their offerings. It brought on sacrifice and offering of humans. Such offerings took place in the ATM cave and there are bones of about 14 people including children. It was apparently a great nor to be sacrifice to the gods and the family of the victim would be rewarded.
At the very end of the cave , after you climb the ladder , you come upon an altar and few deformed sculls. Archeologist believe that children had 2 pieces of wood strapped to their head , front and back to create flat shape, which was symbol of nobility and served only ornamental purpose.
At the very end there is one complete skeleton of about 16 year old boy; the bones are perfectly preserved by calcium from surrounding water sipping inside the cave ;it is called " crystal maiden".
We learn a lot about Mayan culture and how they had to brake the vases or the edge of it after offerings in order to release the spirits, so that's why the pottery found in most caves is broken.
March 20
Recently I finished my PADI open water diver course and now I'm certified, at the age of 11.
Diving is like a new world,you can see so much as soon as you descent.
When you are under the water you feel so calm and relaxed;the first time it is always scary but once you start you are like WOW! Under the water there are so many colours and fish and it is truly amazing.
I love watching fish chase each other, spotting little shrimps hiding in the corals or stingray pretending they are not there, camouflaging well at the base of large corals, beautiful sponge corals and many flatworms,love swimming through passages and been waved in " washing machine" .I did not think it would be so much fun but it is AMAZING.
Diving opens the opportunity to see and understand the water world.
Some of the nicest creatures I saw : lion fish, stingray,spotted eel,vase sponges,plume worm, flamingo tongue,spotlight parrotfish,squirrel fish,fairy baslet,queen angelfish,rock beauty,French angelfish,shy hamlet,trunkfish,yellowtail damselfish,foureye butterfly,porkfish,French grunt and many more.
March 14
Our vacation is still keeping my family on Roatan island.
My dad and brother tried spear- fishing for the first time this week and they said it was fun.
Lionfish are originally from Indo-Pacific region and the Red Sea. They are a big threat to other fish because they are new to Caribbean so they have no predators and they are considered invasive species. They eat many commercial valuable fish and ecological important organisms. That threatens the balance within coastal ecosystem.
Lionfish are getting hunted by divers in order to control their invasion (trying to decrease they number) and marine parks have developed a program which educates and teaches divers how to use specific spears for hunting Lionfish.)
Facts about Lionfish :
-Specific colour with reddish brown and white vertical stripes.
-Feathery pectoral and pelvic thins making it look like wings
-Size
- 38 cm in native waters , but in Carribean they can grow up to 48 cm
-Lionfish are highly poisonous with venom in there dorsal,ventral and anal fins.
March 1
Our vacation brought us to Roatan island (Honduras)which is divers paradise!Why is it divers' paradise? I'll tell you why. The ocean around Roatan is filled with wonderful fish and plants, but one of the most beautiful is the coral. I tried diving for the first time, and I had the best time; it was like I was in a different universe. I saw lots of beautiful fish and one thing I noticed was that the coral has lots of brown spots and it was chipped in places. This is called bleaching, often caused by pollution, increase in water temperature or increase in water acidity due to high concentration of carbon dioxide in atmosphere, which in consequence is absorbed by ocean water.
Corals are building blocks of a reef ecosystem and provide food and shelter to many animals that call a reef home. Each coral is made of collection of tiny animals called polyps, that grow together in various forms. Corals are some of the simplest but also the oldest forms of life on Earth,growing for over 50 million years. Corals are nocturnal animals so their colours are best seen at night. Corals food is produced by tiny animals living within coral, called zooxanthellae.
Fun facts:
1) sea urchins are some of the longest-living creatures of Earth, they can live up to 200 years
2) nudibranchs, look like slugs, called "naked lungs", because they often keep their lung outside their bodies absorbing oxygen directly from seawater. They collect poison from their food and store it for protection.
Feb 28
Maize (corn and corn tortilla), seem to be the main part of each traditional Mexican and Guatemala's meal.
The tradition goes back to Mayan believes. According to Mayan culture humans were created from maize( corn).
No self- respecting Maya, raised in the traditional way, would consider eating a meal without maize. They treat it with the "utmost respect". Women do not let grains of maize fall on the ground or into an open fire. If it happens accidentally,they pick it up and apologize to it. They eat their meals in silence, and explain it in the way that tortillas are to them as sacramental bread to Catholics. We observed the tradition of making and eating tortillas during our travels through Mexico and Guatemala. We saw women gathering together and making tortilla dough then skilfully making small small pancakes- like flat tortillas. They are also small places called tortillerias where tortillas are made by machines in more efficient ways. On every street corner there are women sitting with large baskets selling tortillas. And every morning people make " runs" for their daily stack of tortillas. Tortillas are served basically with every meal, warm, wrapped in cloth in woven basket. There are 4 different kinds of corn there is black,white,yellow and red. The only corn that is used to make tortilla is white and black. Tortillas and beans are still considered the basic food of most Mexicans and Guatemalans.
Feb 20
Indigenous women in Mexico and Guatemala are the most vulnerable groups and face a lot of poverty. In the recent years the effort has been made to help them by creating Women 's Cooperatives. They run with involvement of volunteers.Once in Quetzaltenango of Guatemala we have found a place called TRAMA. It is a coop of 400-600 indigenous women from nearby villages. If you don't know what indigenous means it means that the women are native to their country ; they likely never went to school so they don't have an education, often leaving with continuation of their own family or village tradition. They weave fabric and tablecloths, scarfs, shawls, make clots, bags and jewellery and place it in their own store. The price tag displays also the number of hours/ days it took for each item to be made and with this tag the buyers really enjoy the displays even more when they know how much work it takes to create all the items. In TRAMA you can take weaving classes. I have picked the 5 hrs class to make a small place mat. I really enjoyed weaving because you can see and appreciate how much work they put into the designs and work, and how many hours they put into something that they sell to make a living. I had to concentrate all the time to avoid making mistakes and needed a lot of help. It was fun thought, but a lot of work for such a small piece!
We have also visited another similar place in Pajachel, near Lake Atitlan and one in Antigua Guatemala.
Each region has it's own pattern of embroidery and weaving and this is how they are recognized. In TRAMA we found a map showing various regions and also a poster with pictures of different indigenous clothes patters. We noticed mostly women wearing their traditional clothing. The skirt ( corta) is a piece of fabric about 7 m long which is wraparound and tied with large belt. They wear huipil ( long, sleeveless tunic) with many ornamental embroidery patterns. All women have long hair, often braided, sometimes with colourful ribbon tying both braids. Sometimes they cover their heads with woven piece of clothing called tocoyal,often decorated with bright tassels. The traditional clothing are worn predominantly in Maya- populated highlands.
Feb 7
Our visit to coffee plantation (Fisca) in Quatzeltenango also introduced us to some other plants including rubber,cocoa, black paper and sugar. Because of diseases affecting their coffee plants (mostly fungus) their last crop was not very big. So recently, the farmers have been grafting stronger species together. We watched the native women do it by hand, using old razor blades.
Since coffee and sugar are harvested only once a year (starting around November and December) the rubber tree is more efficient, producing a latex material year round. "Heva Brasiliensis" or "Pará" Rubber tree is the most important on the farm due to its source of natural rubber. They grow up to 30 m tall and produce rubber for about 30-32 years. The optimum growing conditions require 250cm rainfall a year, humidity of 80%, lots of sunshine hours (around 2000 per year), and minimum wind.
The Pará Rubber tree initially grew in Amazon Rain Forrest but then it was brought to South Asia, Africa and India. The rubber from the tree was used by Olmes people of Mesoamerica ancestry about 3600 years ago, mainly to make a balls used in the Mesoamerican ball game.
Today rubber is harvested mainly in the form of latex in a process called "tapping". The incision is made on the tree bark and latex is collected as a milky liquid into small containers attached to the tree. It is collected very 3 days, and incisions are changed up and down the tree trunk.
To preserve latex from coagulation and damage during the season, formic acid is added to collection cups. Latex from the cups is collected into large tins and then dried in the shops before sent to manufactures for processing. About 25 million tonnes of rubber is produced each year, 42% of this is natural rubber, and the rest is synthetic. About 70% of natural rubber is used in tires, the lower quality ends up as windshield wipers, conveyor belts, marine products etc. The top quality of latex is used to make surgical gloves, balloons and other products. Natural rubber has a large stretch ratio, high resilience and it is extremely waterproof, while synthetic rubber offers more resistance to environmental factors such as oils, temperature, ultraviolet lights and chemicals.
Next, we saw the sugar plantation. I think the sugar was the most interesting because the fields don't stop for miles. The sugarcane sticks looked like bamboo, and they grow very tall. The fields of sugar are too thick to walk through and harvest. Its also too dangerous, since sugarcane fields are filled with mice and snakes. What the workers do is they put gas all over the fields in the dry season, so the leafs harden. Then they light the fields on fire, wait for the fire to go out, and collect the sugarcane.
Jan 30
Today we started the day at 4:30 am. We drove in the darkness on a bumpy road to a trail head. We hiked by star light and my brother's phone. It was difficult to see and we stumbled over rocks on a narrow path. Finally the sun came out but we were still in winter jackets because it was SO cold. By the time we made it to the top of the lookout( at elevation of 2775 m above sea level) the tenth most dangerous volcano in the world was already erupting in front of use. When this was all happening my dad asked the guide when we should start running!( ha ha ).
The Volcano Santiaguito was so interesting because if smoke wasn't coming out of the volcano you would never think it was a volcano because of its structure. Every half and hour you could see a big cloud of ash coming out of the volcano. Fun fact: the volcano's ash is an excellent fertilizer of the fields below.The highlands of Guatemala are the most fertile agricultural lands because of all the volcanic soil. There are 30 volcanos in Guatemala and there are 3 active volcanoes. The one that I saw today was amazing because you could hear the rumbling and all the smoke was like a big fat pillow, it's colour was grey because of the ash. Santiaguito , Guatemala's youngest volcano, emerged on Volcano Santa Maria's south slope in 1902. It erupts about 15-17 times daily.
Jan 26
Today, January 26,2015, day 101 of our trip, we have entered Guatemala. Guatemala is one of the Central America countries that borders with Mexico and three other Central America countries: Belize,Honduras and El Salvador ( other countries of Central America include: Nicaragua,Costa Rica and Panama).
It's location between a Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea makes it prone to frequent hurricanes.
Population: 14 100 000
Population below poverty line:54%
40% are Maya people
Largest city: Guatemala City with population of over 4 million
Guatemala's mountainous regions are home to the majority of indigenous people as we were able to observe it travelling through Huahuatenango and San Francisco towards Quetzaltenango.
Highlands reach volcanic soil makes for some of the best farmland in the Country.
Cobán region has become a leading exporter of cardamon ,much of it is exported as far away as India and the Middle East.Many people work in agriculture tending to small plots or working on larger commercial farms.
The major industry of Guatemala includes food processing and beverage production, processing of sugar, tobacco,textile,cement, rubber and construction materials.Guatemala is the main exporter of sugar, coffee and bananas.
Jan 23
Day 98 into our trip, we visited Palenque, one of the greatest ruins of Maya City in Mexico. Palenque was first occupied around 100 BC and flourished from AD 620 to around 740 under great ruler Pakal and his son Kan B'alam II. After 900 AD, Palenque was largely abandoned and the ruins were overgrown by the jungle. The first discovery of the city was made in 1746, but it wasn't archaeologically investigated till 1837 and 1952, when Pakal's hidden crypt was found by Alberto Ruz Lhuilloer. Hundreds of ruins are spread over 15 sq km, but only 5-10% has been excavated to date. During the whole day I was thinking about how these people lived and what challenges they had. They had jungle surrounding them, which provided shade but also created incredible humidity. They build the city using rocks, some larger ones weighted 12-15 tons,and they were placed on top of some structures. The entire city was build without metal tools, pack animals or the wheel.
The most challenging part of my day was climbing all the stairs.There was at least 30-90 stairs to each building, and they were steep and narrow, which made descend even more difficult. My favourite part was seeing temples and houses and structures that were built so differently then nowadays. All the structures are so big and beautiful; it is amazing what ancient people were able to do without the help of many tools and animals that are used nowadays. My second favourite part of today's adventure was visit to local museum. One of the greatest exhibit in the museum is a replica of The Great Pakal 's tomb. The tomb was found in the Templo de las Inscripiones . It contained lots of jewels and jades, including jade mosaic death masks. The real tomb is in the Mexico City museum. The structure of Templo de las Inscriptiones has the second longest hieroglyphic text know from the Maya world,describing about 180 years do the city history.
Jan 14
Mexican families usually do not exchange gifts during Christmas. The presents come at different time. They celebrate January 6th, the Three Kings Day (Dia de Reyes) showering their children with gifts. This celebration takes place 12 days after Christmas (the height of Christmas season) when Three Kings (Los Reyes Magos) presented baby Jesus with gifts. On the days proceeding the Kings Day, children write letters to Magi requesting a toy or a gift and place the Three Kings in the Nativity Scene. On January 6th, in the morning children find their present or presents near the nativity scene or under Christmas Tree. I like this tradition, cause it makes Christmas time less focused on gifts and more on traditions and celebrations .
Jan 13
In the state of Oaxaca, located in southern Mexico, hammocks seem to be everywhere. You can find them in houses, on balconies, porches, palapas, on the beach, and being sold by venders on the street and along the beaches. They come in many colours and sizes, and they are made out of rope or cotton fabric. So why are they so popular? Il tell you why. First of all, they are easy to carry, they serve as a cheap and easily folding bed that saves space. Also, they can be put up anywhere, for example between 2 poles or trees. It is cooler to sleep in a hammock during hot Mexican nights and they keep you off of the ground so you are not with the "creepy-crawlies".
Quite often during our trip, we have noticed no furniture in poor Mexican houses, but there are always plenty of hammocks.
So where do hammocks originate from? Most Central America countries have rich and ancient heritage associated with hammocks that pre-date North Americans by 800-900 years. It is widely accepted that the origins of hammocks began approximately 1000 years ago in Central America from Mayan Indians. The earliest hammocks were woven from the bark of the Hamak tree. It was later replaced by the Sisal plant (resembling aloe Vera) which was more abundant and it's fibres could be softened by rubbing them against the thigh. The use of cotton dates back only 40-50 years ago. Because of trade routes, hammocks became popular all over Central and South America. Indigenous people used a variety of materials, styles and colours, for making hammocks. Hammocks were later introduced to Europe by traders from Columbus's travels.
World wide over 100 million people use hammocks as beds or furniture everyday , including Africa, China, Philippines, South Pacific and, of course, Central and South America.
Dec 29
Today we found a turtle sanctuary. The beach was covered with holes, it looked like I was on the moon. There was a closed off section that had sticks with dates on them and holes beside them. The holes are filed with 50-80 turtle eggs. The dates tell you when the eggs were brought in, and when they might hatch. This area is called the turtle garden. When we were walking on the beach, we saw two family's of baby turtles hatching; they were Negra (black) turtles. During the night we went walking down the beach looking for mother turtles laying their
eggs, we saw about 13 mother turtles. Mother turtles can keep their eggs in their womb for 2 years but after that they need to be fertilized.
Here are the steps that the mother has to do when lying her eggs:
1-Mother turtle has to find a comfortable spot and away from any predators
2-She digs a hole using her front fins and her back fins
3-Using her back legs she does a swiping movement with her back fins
4-She digs a smaller hole just the size of one fin and picks the sand up and throws it at the back of her
5-She gets comfortable and when the eggs start coming out she will not stop until her job is done
6-She will cover the hole so nothing can find the eggs and she leaves,back to the ocean
Watching all of this was like nothing I have ever seen .The sad thing about it is that when the eggs hatch they have no mother to help them out and they have to try not to get killed by birds, bigger fish and poachers.
Capturing and killing turtles is illegal. Turtles and their eggs are used for food, medicine, and decoration. Their shell is used for jewelry, glasses, and other decorations. The turtle skin is used to make shoes, belts, and purses. The problem in Mexico is that there are a lot of poachers who steal the turtle eggs. When the eggs are stolen they get sent off to a black market were are sold for about $58 per egg. Most of the poachers are local fisherman, who make about $78 per week. In Baja California, about 35 000 turtles are being stollen every year. In Mexico, about 65% of stollen turtles are Green sea turtles, and 10% are the endangered Loggerhead sea turtle. If you are caught stealing a turtle in Mexico, the maximum punishment is 9 years in jail or you pay $11 000.
Dec 25
A day in Mexico
After a long night of listening to the Mexican music played on the other side of the campsite wall, we awoke to a quiet Sunday.
We drove to the nearby small town. The little buildings were very colourful and the steep street led us to an old church and town plaza. The church, which seemed to be very old, was already empty after morning service, but there were few ladies arranging flowers.
As we stepped outside the elderly man started talking to us. Understanding him was somewhat hard and we picked up the story from a few words. The lush green fields in front of us was all sugar cane and there is limited machines to harvest it, so it is still mainly people labor involved. However there is not a lot of work in town and many people have travelled to the USA looking for work.
The mountains visible in the distance are volcanos, that spread along the west coast of Mexico. Driving in this part of Mexico, there is so much contrast to the desert of Baja, which is dry and impenetrable due to very dry and prickly vegetation. As we continued our journey on windy road, we stopped to take photos of the enormous sugar cane plants and also of the big trucks, bigger than the buses, filled with sugar canes to their very tops. Soon we arrived at our destination, tiny fishing village of Chacala, located 96 km north of Puerto Vallarta. It sits pretty along a beautiful little cove backed by dark green slopes and edged by rugged black rock formations. It is a very typical Mexican village, where Mexicans come in many buses to spend the day on the beautiful, sandy beach and play in warm water of Pacific Ocean. Few cobbled streets are lined up with souvenir stores and many restaurant there and along the beach. As we sat down to eat we were entertained by few groups of local troubadours. We picked our fresh fish from the cooler and soon it was cleaned out and on the grill. Lunch was delicious, it included fish, rice, beans, tortillas and freshly squeezed lemonade. I finally built a sand castle, though it was quickly washed away by big waves crashing on the shore. While I was trying to save it my dad called me to come and see baby turtles. They just hatched and there was 86 of them. Finally they were ready to be released. The conservation officer gave us turtles to hold and to release them later on with everybody. We all lined up, each of us (many children) holding the tiny turtle smaller than my hand, and .......we let them go! We watched them trying to swim but many of them were washed back by strong waves. Finally they were all gone. We hope their journey to the ocean is safe and that Lucky (that's how we name out turtle) will survive.
Dec 7
At the end November we have arrived in Mexico and spent the first week in Mission of Vicente Guerrero. The mission tries to support itself and part of it is having large orchards. Among others they grow macadamia nuts trees. Those trees originate from Australia and 3 different variety are grown in Vicente Guerrero. They have about 3000 trees. The nuts vary in size and grow in grapes-like structure. They have outer green husk and hard brown shell underneath, that an be crushed only by pigs and machines. The nuts are picked from the ground by hands and the green husk get cracked in special machines. Then all nuts go to silos for 2 weeks of drying, still in brown shells. This drying process decreases water content from 30% down to 3% and this is when oil and sugar concentrate in the nut. Then the nuts require another drying for 2 hrs in special dehydrators. Then the nuts get weight (with brown shell still on) then they are packed in big dry black bags till processing time.The true processing time starts with cracking the nuts very hard shell, after which they need to be separated from the shell, and this part of job is often offered to visitors volunteers. Once shells are removed the nuts are washed in water; the ones that float have higher oil content and the ones that sink-are considered 2nd quality ,as they are high in sugar and used mostly for baking. After nuts are wanes they return to dryer for 18 hrs. Harvest season lasts from beginning of Oct until mid July. Lately the orchards not seen very high crops due to larger salt concentration in the water, also they have an "enemy" in form moth and of a navel orange warm. The latter had originated in New Mexico and Arizona and migrated through the Mexico, affecting various nuts trees. They oil form nuts is used mostly in cosmetics. They are 3 main buyers for the nuts from the Mission and money is donated back to the mission.
November 19
Today we arrived in Zion National Park and we went for a hike. On the way we saw 2 tarantulas and one unusually looking bug, which we were told was the sand cricket. We learnt form the Park Ranger that it is a mating season for tarantulas so the males are out looking for a female. We did some research on found out few facts about the spiders. The females are larger than males, than can reach 12 cm in length. They leave mostly underground and feed on small insects, but can also eat toads and mice. There's is also tarantula that pray on birds. They do not in webs to catch they prey but inject they paralyzingly venom and digestive enzymes into the prey. They can live up to 30 yrs of age. They occasionally shed they skin and often internal organs such as stomach lining, they can also grow a leg if lost. Female guards they eggs in a cocoon and after 6-8 weeks 500-1000 tarantulas hatch. They are not dangerous to humans, as they sting is less powerful than a bee sting. The sand cricket is actually a Jerusalem cricket, when we compared our photo with the internet picture. They are flightless insects native to western part of USA and part of Mexico. Thought they are called crickets they belong to different family the crickets. They area nocturnal. They feed on dead organic matter but also on insects. They area or venomous but can inflict painful bite.
November 12
We went on a 15k hike with lots of climbing on rocks in Arches National park, Utah. It was really fun and very adventures. On our way down we came upon large rocks with old Indian arts that have been there for thousands and thousands of years.There are 2 types of rock art: Petroglyphs and Pictographs. Petroglyphs are motifs that are pecked, grounded or scratched on the rock surface. Pictographs are paintings and drawings in more then one colour using mineral pigments and plant dyes on the rocks surface.The one we have seen show various figures , that look like little stick people, snakes, sheep, families and water. Scientists think that the art has been a mixture of petroglyphs and pictographs ,but now appear only as a petroglyph because the paint material has faded or washed away over many years. Scientists know that rock art was produced by number of prehistoric and historic people.A big game hunting people,known as Paleo-Indians, are considered to be the first human users in the area. A later culture called Archaic, probably used central bas camps. There are other cultures like Anasazi and Fremont , whose life was based on harvesting wild resources, that live close to Moab. They all left different arts on the rock ,which represented either hunting or different scenes of their life.
November 3
When we entered Arches National Park we learned about the sand stone formation that the park area is built from.Today arches fins and other rock shapes began about 3 hundred million years ago when seas periodically covered this area.
The seas became trapped in low-lying areas and evaporate ,leaving salt beds up to five thousand feet thick in some places.Over millions of years,sand,silt and clay accumulated on top of the salt deposits. This top layer of sandstone is called Entrada and is what makes up the arches. The layer of salt is eroded away by water and wind leaving the Entrada rock.
Over 2,000 arches are located within the park ,also other formations like colossal sandstone fins ,pinnacles,spires .One of the worlds largest arch is the Landscape Arch , that stretches 93 meters yet it's only 3.3 meters in the center.
Definition of arch : 1 meter by 1meter and the sun can can shine through.
October 23
BC borders with 3 USA states that are Washington, Idaho and Montana. We crossed into Montana and we are in Bozeman right know. We drove through the state capital Helena and saw the state building. Today we went to see the buffalo jump. The buffalo jump is when native people would herd all the buffalo by making a grass fire and that would scare them to jump of the cliff and that would kill all of the 200 to 300 buffalo. All of the Indians would come to help one another for the winter to stay alive. Another way the Indians would make the buffalo fall to there death would be when 2 Indians would pretend to be wolf and scare them off the cliff. Buffalo was very essential to Indians: they used their bones as tools, leather for bags and clothes, horns for spoons and ladles, and there fur to make some clothes and tepees and, one of my favourite, was there tail for a fly swatter. Did you know that what the Indians were hunting is not actually buffalo, it is bison because they look like the bison from Asia and Africa.
October 18
Yesterday morning we went for an hour and a half hike up a big mountain. On the way up we saw a large set of bones from some sort of animal (I could identify spine and ribs). We also saw lots of rock claiming hooks. When we got to the top it was so windy that I felt like I could have been blown away, but when we started to go back into the forest, it started to get warmer again. After we entered Jasper we went to the village for a little bit to walk around. We still wanted to do another hike, so my dad said "why don't we go to Maligne Canyon?". Maligne Canyon was beautiful, and I found it amazing that it was just a little river over 1000 years ago. However, now it is now the size of 2 football fields and it measures to about 30 feet in width, wow. Maligne Canyon is made from limestone. Limestone comes from the ocean. The ocean was been here before all these mountains were here. Limestone is a very soft rock, which is easily carved by dirt, salt and small rocks, that act like powerful drill under water, often creating potholes (it's like trying to drill a hole in a diamond). Also power of flowing water and ice in winter, that expands in cracks of the rocks, add to creating a river bed.
Today we went to Athabasca falls, it was really pretty. It's amazing that what looks like just a little river, can make such a big waterfall.
Over thousand and thousands of years it made such a big river, it just blows my mind.
October 13
The first part of our journey will take us through Alberta and over to the USA. Then we will pass through Idaho, Arizona, Nevada, California, then Baja California. Then we will cross over to mainland Mexico via a ferry. Then continue through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and finally Panama. Our trip, one way, will take 10,436 Km. This is an estimated 122 hours of non-stop driving with no traffic. If we were to try and walk this distance, it would take 1,691 hours. If we were to drive the same distance in Canada, it would be like driving from Vancouver to Fort St John, then to Whitehorse and all the way over to St Johns NL. This distance would equal to 10,844 Km.