A Photographer Of Lonely Planet Todd Lawson Return To Belize

Todd has invested more than 20 years photographing and celebrating the diversity between Sport

, Travel and Nature. He just made a comeback to the central American nation of Belize. This is his story.

2011 March

It's usually great to flee the dead of winter in Canada, and head to the sun and sand and third-world awesomeness, where you're still permitted to ride at the back of the pick-up truck. We decided on Belize for 3 reasons.

One, Christina stumbled upon a sweet yoga teaching gig out on Half Moon Caye with Island Expeditions, an adventure-travel company based in nearby D'Arcy, BC. She actually left a week early, while I had an incredibly tough (wink, wink) magazine assignment, heli-skiing in the Chilcotins with TLH.

Two, we were willing to take number of children on another Young Travellers Foundation adventure. We had visited Belize before, in 2005, when we finally camped at the front side lawn of our now-dear-friend Claudette Mejia and her family. Claudette is a single mother of ten, (four out of the house now, six between the ages of 2 and 12) who is one of the most incredible women we've ever met. They ALL live in a 256 sq. foot wooden house, and not any of her children have EVER been to the hospital. They live in a little village called Crooked Tree (about an hour from Belize City), where one dirt road and many little walking paths link the little homes all built on substantial lots. It's a place of rustic, barbed-wire fences, big grassy yards and a fresh-water lagoon that surrounds the whole village. We contacted the school principal with our plan and informed her the mandate of our foundation, and that is primarily to grant completely unique, multi-day educational experiences outside of the classroom. Two weeks later we packed 10 kids, a teacher and person of legal age chaperone, a cook, many food and Christina and I into a 15-passenger van - and left the school with only us knowing exactly where all of us were going.

During the entire span of the actual 4 days we visited Lamanai, the oldest ruins in the Mayan world accessed only by an hour-long riverboat trip, we examined the Belize Zoo (very humane and well-managed), went cave-tubing through a massive limestone cave on a clean, clear river, and ventured out on the Caribbean Sea to Billy Hawk Caye - A tiny mangrove island where the kids were introduced to snorkelling, kayaking, fishing for never-before-see-with-their-little-eyes tropical fish. We played volleyball, had water balloon fights, an obstacle course race, helped cook and clean, and learned every single day. All of this had been reached making use of the money we raise by means of a variety of slideshows and other local fundraisers. We would like to thank all those who have donated to the Young Travellers Foundation. We're not transforming the world, however , we have been confidently hitting the lives of young students.

And three, we believed that Belize had some very nice rivers, and all of us were excited for some serious adventure. A terrific company from Hawaii called C4 Waterman provided us with 2 inflatable Stand-Up paddleboards to undertake a multi-day journey on the Belize River. The excursion was fantastic, as we paddled on it's own with hundres associated with tropical birds supplying the actual soundtrack for our 4 full-on days on the river.

If anyone is advancing towards Belize, provide all of us a shout and we'll hook you up.

Many thanks,

Todd & Christina

by: imagesandprints

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