Belize: Marine & Manatee Conservation Program

I CANNOT talk about this experience enough! I heard about GLA from a friend of a friend who went on a trip a year before me and absolutely loved it. I was looking for something service based that involved some marine bio/ policy/ leadership and gla fit my needs exactly! I’ve gone on some trips before but I had yet to experience true friendships before this trip! I’ve never felt so close to a group of people in my whole life, which was so wholesome to experience. The locals were so kind and the views were impeccable!

My 15-year-old daughter embarked on a 2-week trip to Belize alone (as in traveling without friends or family) and returned having gained wonderful friends all across the continent, a sense of responsibility for our environment, and a variety of new information about various animals (her favorites being the manatee and tapir, I think, while she wasn’t a huge fan of the extremely loud howler monkeys :)). The teens spent so much time on boats, she is now convinced that she is destined for the sea. How could she not be? Who wouldn’t love snorkeling with fish, sharks, manatees; learning about local fishing communities; planting mangroves; tubing down rivers; and swimming in turquoise waters with friends? According to her it wasn’t just fun and games, though. The kids sat through several informative presentations on animals and plants, followed by hands-on service projects, like beach clean-ups, volunteering at a local school, assisting at the local zoo (my kid was tasked with painting a fence), seeding, bird netting, collecting ocean grass for manatee feedings, etc. Learning about the local culture by making tamales, visiting Mayan ruins, and playing local games was just icing on the cake! And she is very clear about this program being about seeing the bigger picture, wanting to make a change, and living life with an eye on service to the world. The accommodations were anything but fancy, the boats were not luxurious, and the group spent much of their time getting up very early and moving all day; "It was an adventure, not a vacation", she says and she loved every minute of it!
Thanks @glateens for making this a memorable experience!

I have been on 2 GLA trips, and last summer I went to Belize. I had an amazing time there and the experience was unforgettable. We stayed in the town of Sarteneja, a fishing village. Staying there we developed an awareness of the world around us and knowledge of the sustainable fishing going on there. As a group we got to connect and support the community, we made jewelry with Lionfish fins which are invasive, and got several presentations about the diversity of the animals. While learning was exciting we also got to go on excursions, such as ziplining and cave tubing. My favorite part was when we got to stay on an island for a night called Bacalar Chico National Park and Marine Reserve, it was such a unique experience to be right on the ocean. Later in the day, we got to snorkel and we ended up seeing a Nurse shark. Overall my program was life-changing and definitely opened my eyes up to the world around me. Would totally recommend it!

I was under privileged compared to the other girls on the trip and they formed their own cliques within the first day. Some of the were really nice and included me in activities but if I was around some of the other girls it felt like they didn't want me there. The volunteer made me feel less alone but it would have been nice if I would have felt more welcomed by everyone throughout the trip. I also asked the girls to send me some pictures once we had service but none of them did. I feel like I missed out on a lot of memories and inside jokes. I don't have a lot of pictures from the trip because they were not sent to me after they agreed to send them.

Thank you for providing a wonderful experience for the students. I loved that the culture of GLA is real cultural exchange -- not wealthy Americans showering help on poorer communities -- but learning on both sides. The housing and food were excellent. I at first thought the cost was high, but when you consider the entirety of the experience, which included a weekend away in a hotel, all of the meals and excoursions, it actually was a very fair price. We will look into future trips in summers to come. Thank you!

This past summer I traveled to Belize through GLA and it was one of the best experiences of my life. I found the program through a friend who had done a program two years before. She said it was be a life changing experience and she was not wrong. Not only did I make friends within the group I was volunteering, but I also made strong connections with some of children we worked with. One girl from my class emails me weekly to stay in touch! The program allows you to immerse yourself in another culture- nothing touristy. From cooking classes with our cook to shopping in the city markets, I truly felt like a native while in Belize. The housing was wonderful and had various hiking paths and a water hole for swimming. Overall it was a wonderful experience that I would recommend to anyone who wants to broader their understanding of our world and the people in it.

I went to Belize two summers ago and it was the most amazing thing I've ever done. Everything about it was so incredible - the safety, the service, the excursions, the staff, etc. I went on the three week trip and it was everything I could have asked for and more. We taught a three week summer camp for kids at a local primary school. I really liked how we stayed in the same classroom each day, so we could make meaningful relationships with the students. After 10 days of camp, my class was like a family. It's crazy how close you can become with someone in that short amount of time. It's been a year and a half since my trip, and I still talk to the kids through Facebook. I even got to go back to Belize with my family for spring break and visit all the kids I taught at. Although the trip eventually ends, the relationships and memories are lifelong. The service was definitely my favorite part of the trip.
In the afternoons, we would go on excursions! My favorite was the weekend trip to Caye Caulker - one of the many beautiful islands of Belize. We went snorkeling, swimming and got to relax on the beach and reflect on all the amazing memories we made. Some of the other excursions we did were cave tubing, orange picking, going to the zoo and many more!
Safety is definitely GLA's main priority. The homebase is super safe and the staff makes it feel like home. I can't speak highly enough about GLA. I had such an amazing time in Belize that I went on another GLA trip this past summer!

Over the past summer, I went on this program and I was pretty nervous to travel alone and not know anybody. Little did I know that I was going to have the time of my life! This program helped me meet people that I can call my long lost bestfriends! I developed relationships with people who amazed me everyday with their kindness and generosity! I developed myself as a person through many different aspects. First, this trip helped grow my love for community work and missionaries. It makes me feel better about myself when I am helping others and this program was all about that. Second, I went out of my comfort zone and was able to have a fun time without having to worry! There is so much more I could include but I reccomend that everyone goes on a trip with Global Leadership Adventures and sees for themselves. The staff who accompanied me on this trip was awesome. I couldn't of asked for better people to lead my way to bettering myself as a human and bettering the people of Belize. The housing of this trip was awesome and the beds were comfy. The food was out of this world! I’m currently missing the abnormously large amount of plantains that would be accessible to us at all moments. This program has influenced me to want to be more involved with my community at home and the world around me! I will be going on another missions trip just because of how awesome this one was. My favorite memory about this trip was working with the kids. I worked with the younger age group and they were all so adorable and excited to learn. What I really took out of this experience is the fact that kids in Belize wanted to learn so bad while people at my home complain about going to school everyday. The kids in Belize would showup to the school we taught at running up to the friends I made and I hugging us! They would say thank you as much as possible just because we taught them the alphabet or some numbers. This really amazed me and made me realize that I need to be more grateful about how lucky I am to be able to go to school everyday. I reccomend that everyone who can goes on this trip and makes a memory close to this one. A memory that can change their outlook on life and make an extraordinary impact just like Belize; The Iniative for Children did for me :)