Sitting on the bank of the Moho River in the Toledo District, Senida a thirteen year old Mayan girl, relates wanting to go to high school but instead her father has found a man for her to marry. Senida asks the high school students I am traveling with what school is like in the US and they ask her about life in Belize. We are all richer from the experience.

One interesting project we’ve recently heard about is Sea Base 1, a permanent underwater research station and habitat planned to be located in the Caribbean Sea just off Ambergris Caye. Said to be the first-of-its- kind underwater facility combining coral reef research, education and eco-tourism, Sea Base 1 would house up to 25 aquanauts to live and work over extended periods of time in a submerged environment. Sea Base 1 is a non-profit company established by the late Dr Richard Cooper, a former marine biology professor, veteran underwater researcher and explorer who stressed that such research is imperative because coral reefs are “considered to be the ocean equivalent of a canary in the coal mine.”