PROJECT BELIZE
From its Caribbean coastline to its western border and from north to south, the Belizian terrain is broken, rough, and riddled with caves. In a series of Proyecto efforts, the immense systems of the interior - Petroglyph, Saint Hermann's, the Blue Hole, and the Boiling Hole were connected with dives made by Bowden and his team [1986-1991]. This vast system of river caves is located in the pristine rain forest of Belize's interior, home to the Maya who used the caves for ceremonial purposes. During even casual excursions into Petroglyph and Mountain Cow Caves, an explorer finds pot shards, carved glyphs, and sacred burial sites. The intense rainfall in this tropical region limits meaningful exploration to the few months of the "dry season," a time during which the rainfall is less, not absent. The dense jungle landscape is forbidding, and at times frightening. It imposes physical challenges in the transportation of equipment, and menaces the health of the team - malaria is rampant, and parasites in the forms of the bot fly and intestinal invaders are prevalent. The world's largest and perhaps most dangerous cat, the jaguar, made his home in our encampment.
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