Pat’s Wildways: Evolution Beach Gym
Bucko and I have been returning to Placencia, Belize, again and again for two-week stretches three or four times a year. The same room in a small beachside hotel is like a second home for us without the mortgage, security issues and all the rest involved with actually owning a vacation home. Perfect for us.
And over the course of these visits I’ve become friends with a number of locals of all ethnic groups. Mayans, Hispanics, Creoles, Caucasians — Placencia has them all — with Mennonites, Garifunas and other groups mixed in here too. Everyone is part of this melting pot and there seems to be no ethnic tension. People are all friendly and welcoming to us and to each other, and since English is the primary language, it is easy to communicate with everyone. It’s just one reason we love the place.
Every time we visit Placencia I head to Gayo’s deck right by the main pier, nestled in a remnant patch of mangroves, the Evolution Gym. Gayo is a champion bodybuilder and has established this seaside gym. Lots of people visit the Evolution Gym for good workouts, massages, fitness classes and the like. But not me. I visit for the ambiance and budding friendships and I’m never disappointed.
When I want to buy a live lobster or fresh conch and fish, it is Gayo, who is my fishmonger. His team of local fisherman stow their live lobsters in a floating pen and bring their fish catches to his dock every day — there is nothing fresher than this. During slow times Gayo and his daughter Alejandra (Allie) are eager to point out the seahorses foraging along the mangrove roots and visible from the deck. A few times I have jumped in this water with my mask and snorkel, and despite the low visibility near shore, I enjoy finding fish, colorful sponges, and other creatures hidden in the mangrove roots. Once a tarpon that seemed bigger than me swam by — it was an exciting event for sure, and fun once I realized it wasn’t a shark intending to eat me.
Sometimes nine-year-old Allie joins me in the water, guiding me carefully around her territory. She has happily shown off her private playground: a buoy on a rope is a swing across the mangroves and another swing is set up for her in a sheltered alcove behind the shop. On my first visit I gave Allie some early reading booklets from the Fernandina Library book sale that I was distributing around town. I was very impressed with her reading ability, her knowledge and her general brightness. So, each time I visit, I bring her something else to expand her knowledge about wildlife, usually books about marine life, since it is all right in her backyard.
This time, I brought a highly recommended coloring book, “The Wondrous Workings of Science and Nature Coloring Book,” and a set of 34 colored markers. And what a hit this was! Gayo soon chose a marker and we three set out to color a page about marine life, while I gave them information about what we were coloring, and they chimed in with their own practical knowledge. We all had fun, and learned a lot together. Over the days of this trip, Allie showed me the pages she colored, all with the right colors for the animals, plants, and illustrations presented in the book, and with a careful eye on some of the creatures camouflaged in the artwork. And she kept close tabs on all markers whenever they were used. Her friend had one such marker, she said, and now she has 34!
I have become such a regular visitor to Gayo’s deck that I blend into the background while bodybuilders lift their barbells, fishermen drop off their catches, and the family’s friendly dog and cat roam freely among us. During one of our Placencia visits, Allie’s grandfather was there, and despite Spanish being his language and English mine, we enjoyed each other’s company, too. And, if and when tourists show up on Gayo’s deck, I am the first to show them the sea horses hiding in the mangrove roots, the green iguanas on the branches and the trogon birds in the trees. There is always something interesting going on here, and I am happy to be able to watch the action. I have gone far from being a tourist. Now I am part of the family.
And this is just one local family Bucko and I have become accepted by here in Placencia and there are others. Bucko and I have found “our spot” and it keeps getting better each time we return. I am already looking forward to our next trip south.
Pat Foster-Turley, Ph.D., is a zoologist on Amelia Island. She welcomes your nature questions and observations. [email protected]
