Last night you saw Alfonso Noble rappel three hundred feet down into a sinkhole at Caves branch in the Cayo District. He did so as part of a pair of media tours that started on Monday when Keith Swift headed 23 miles up the Western Highway to Gracie Rock Village and its newest attraction, Peccary Park. Keith went on a jungle survival trek where he confirmed to all that he cannot be trusted behind the wheel of any motor powered device, much less an all terrain vehicle on a rugged jungle trek.
Keith Swift Reporting, [keithkswift@gmail.com]
The home stretch to Gracie Rock took us on this dirt road off mile 23 on the Western Highway.
Raymond Brakeman, Discovery Expedition
"We will be traveling like four miles from the junction to the starting point."
That is our tour guide Raymond Brakeman and he was right. Four miles and 20 minutes later (04:30:19) we arrived at Peccary Park where Discovery Expedition Boss David Gegg greeted us. It doesn't look like much but this park covers four thousand acres including Mayan caves, one of which was discovered only months ago.
To explore that acreage we needed two things: the first was Pocono boy sticks
and the second and most important: water and lots of it. With our water and Pocono boy stick's we set off on our journey uphill, under the guidance of Mervin Reyes. He's called the ranger and dutifully he led this group of television and radio personalities on a two-hour crash course in jungle survival.
Mervin Reyes, Discovery Expeditions
"This jungle survival trekking tour entails these nine stations because they are the essentials to having you or me, or anybody else, surviving in a jungle environment."
Priority #1: There is no purified water and no faucet so the next best thing is this: nature's purified water. It is actually a plastic sheet under which the sunlight condenses and moisture rises from under the ground. Another option is to place this gutter on top of your thatch room made out of bamboo.
Priority #2: We trekked on up the hill for priority number two. That is fire. In the jungle there are two ways to make a fire. There is the hard way - which the San Pedro Run's Ron Sniffin and 7NEWS' videographer Fortunato Noble did, or at least tried. And then there was the easy way which I tried and succeeded in doing.
Priority #3: After that we trekked up another hundred feet where we met priority number three. This one is food and desperate times call for desperate measures and in the jungle that can mean snacking on termites. It actually
doesn't taste all that bad and it's a good source of protein. But if that's not your thing in the jungle there are garden varieties of fruits: anything from coconut to breadfruit to wild sugar cane.
The ranger says those are all we need to survive out here in the wilderness.
Mervin Reyes,
"Its not rigorous and its just a basic casual walk through the jungle, through the rainforest, getting the opportunity to see wildlife, experience the exquisite forest of Belize, and also learning new skills that you could take back with you and that could benefit and those you choose to pass it on to for the remainder of your life."
And as we stood near the summit of Peccary Park we got a bird's eye view of the vast expanse of the park. By midday we left the hills for Peccary Park central and lunch prepared by Gracie Rock villagers.
The best part of the day came after lunch when I got a chance to drive one
of these. Buckle up!
[Video Montage of ATV Ride]
What's unique about Gracie Rock is that tourism has become its cash crop. Ten years ago the main attraction was fishing, today its hiking and these ATVs. Two out of every ten villagers works in tourism. Our tour guide Raymond Brakeman and his brother Samuel, in addition to three of their other brothers, now work as tour guides in the village they've called home all their lives.
Raymond Brakeman,
"It has changed this village very dramatically. For example we have twenty members of staff working here at Peccary Park. We all grew up right here in the village of Gracie Rock. Tourism is giving back a whole lot to our community because most of us right here in the community used to depend on hunting or farming or extracting sand from the river to sell. But now we're all getting into this tourism industry and its giving back a whole lot to us here in Gracie Rock."
Samuel Brakeman,
"Tourism changed my life very great because all the brothers are employed directly by tourism right now so it's a very good job for us right now. We don't have to go anywhere for jobs, everything comes right here to us."
And according to Discovery Expedition boss David Gegg that is priority number one at Peccary Park. Along with the jungle trek and atv experience, Discovery will very soon start using this 6 wheeler. It looks like a Hummer but its what called an amphibious vehicle.
David Gegg,
"The vehicle behind me is here is called the beast because it actually floats as well as rides on land. There's a lot more that we can do because of the diversity of the attractions here in the Peccary Hills of Gracie Rock. The wildlife content is unbelievable. There is probably a thousand caves altogether, most of which are filled with huge Mayan pots. There's lots of Mahogany trees and lots of hardwoods indigenous to Belize and really its just a great location to conduct adventure related activity.
What's beautiful about the situation is that whereas five years ago these guys used to love hunting and shooting gibnut and peccary and living off the land, today they are all tour guide and custodians of the wildlife and the attractions exist back here in Gracie Rock."
The tour we went costs about one hundred U.S. dollars. There are special rates for Belizeans. The sixth annual National Tourism Awards are tomorrow and tourism week activities wrap up on Sunday with a triathlon.
