Well it has been awhile since i have written. Not that there is a shortage of things to share and write about!

My mom was visiting for 2.5 weeks which was great! we had a lot of fun, adventured very well. It was very cool to share this place with her, to watch as she bravely jumped into caribbean waters teeming with nurse sharks (they are friendly!) flippers, goggles, snorkel and all. She loved swimming with the tropical fish and sting rays! How could you not really? After hanging on Caye Caulker for a few days

we went to Tikal in Guatemala to spend some time in the incredible Mayan ruins there. Climbed temples with my mom above the jungle canopy, above the howler monkeys, to look out onto the tops of temples popping up through the jungle and only try to imagine what Tikal was like in its prime. Only trying to imagine why these amazing cities were abandoned, only trying to imagine how they figured out such an elaborate calendar, astrological theories, etc, etc, etc. (did you hear mel gibson is making a movie about the ancient mayas right now?) It was neat to see some changes to Tikal and get a feel for guatemala again since I had been there 5 years ago (amazing how time flies!!) I have to say i realized how relaxed Belizeans and Belize in general is compared to guatemala. Probably for many reasons (no civil war and military state terror being a big one i bet). It already felt like coming home to cross that border into Belize and to finally reach PG. Although there are some really nice restaurants and the architecture in Guatemala is much more beautiful - especially in towns like Flores- then the wooden clapboard houses on stilts of belize. but the charm in belize is huge. i am loving it.

The rainy season is now in full swing- and as my mom can tell you- it rains a lot. hard. i tell you! and the thunder.loud. crazy lightening storms pretty much every night. yet, the temp does not really fall. belizeans think they need sweaters- but i have only used my sweater in ac conditions. it is still hot. the heat is on. but, i hear it is in canada too...

jim and i took mom to the beach at Placencia, which she loved and opted to stay an extra night at our seaside cabana. Besides that, we hung out in PG, played poker with our friends, biked around, visited some other ruins in the region. it was a really nice holiday for me too!

Now it is back to 'work' for me. I continue to really enjoy it. the latest on the supreme court case is that the Judge was supposed to make a final decision in July, but he postponed it until Sept 29 now. so we wait and try to keep the pressure on. the injunction continues so the oil company cannot go into the National Park. We are somewhat worried that if the Judge rules that it is illegal to explore for oil in a National Park, that the gov't may simply de-reserve the Park- so that they can explore for oil. that would really mess up SATIIM, since its whole purpose is to co-manage the park. So we continue to lobby other protected area managers (of which there are over 90 for a country with only 250,000 people!), the public, anyone we can. and slowly the support is starting to come. other NGOs are making public statements about how they too are concerned and we have also got some excellent international support through one of our partners in the states EcoLogic and now Global Response- they will be taking on our campaign, so hopefully you will all be getting emails from their networks soon about how you can take action to help protect southern Belize's protected areas from US oil developers!!!

Jim's research continues to be going well. He is also really interested in this oil issue- it fits quite nicely into what he is looking at. This morning he left at 4am for a conference in Cayo District (north west from here) on indigenous peoples, conservation and development. should be interesting.

Tonight i am going to a good bye party for an american peace corps who has been here for two years and goes home tomorrow! It should be fun- bbq and beer belizean style.

Hope everyone is enjoying their summers and taking in some good camping trips and music festivals : )

take care & peace y'all.