How We Make A Difference

Email received from my sister on Nov 15, 2010. Her and her boyfriend donated to my fundraiser as JD's Package Store & Redemption. This is regards to a presentation I did Nov 5 to second graders at Line Elementary School near Limerick Maine. My sister's daughter (my niece) is in this class.
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"Hi Wendy,I thought you would like hearing that you touched a little boy's heart with your presentation. Eli who is in Sammy's class really enjoyed the presentation and listened very closely to your every word. I ran into his mother a week later and she knew just about the whole story!!! Eli talked about it at home. It especially meant something to him because he lost his sister 4 years ago to cancer. His mother/family run a non profit organization out of Newfield, Maine (next town over) called Love Grace (named after his sister). Their website is www.lovegracesociety.org I thought you would appreciate hearing this and might want to check out what they do. She said they put together care packages for families that travel a long distance to be with their children who have cancer. Everything from gas cards to snacks to blankets, etc. They use reusable totes and fill them. ........ love ya, Amy"

Following in Michel Peissel's Footsteps: Part 3 by Mari Pintkowski

http://www.sac-be.com/walking_part_3.shtml

My National Geographic Moment

During this year's final 40 miles in Mexico, there was no place to sleep, eat or drink. So we slept in a fisherman’s shed/shack on a lawn chair with no cushion. For 36 hours, we only had 2 bottles of water, 1 bottle of soda, 2 handfuls of nuts and a fried fish, while hiking in 110 degrees F with an 18 pound backpack. At this fisherman’s home on the coast, he had a family–3 children, ages 3, 7 and 8 who did not speak any English and my father speaks no Spanish. We taught them how to play hopscotch, tic tac toe, hangman, hide the toy and we read Spanish children’s books together. I gave them all Maine post cards; when we woke up the next morning from their shed, the little girl Leslie, age 7, was waiting for me at their kitchen table in the sand with an empty chair beside her with her post cards in her hands. It was an awesome experience—my National Geographic moment.

Article written by me posted on Belize jungle lodge travel blog

http://www.chaacreek.com/belize-travel-blog/2010/06/where-did-the-adventure-walking-from-cancun-to-belize-take-you-and-your-father/

We Made it to Belize!

We made it--walking from Cancun to Belize along the beach! We entered Belize on May 25, Tuesday, with no problem crossing the border, or with customs or immigration. I have some fabulous stories and pictures--especially the last 40 miles thru Mexico, including the Rio Huach crossing. After walking Ambergris Caye Belize, we entered the Belizean jungle near the Guatemala Border and stayed at a jungle camp. We hiked the jungle too. For those who donated or anyone in general: if your company or department wish for me to present my slide show from Cancun to Belize, please contact me to schedule. wmorrill@emh.org/207-973-9300. I will be posting more blogs on this website over the next few weeks. I will also pursue writing a book. Now that we have crossed the border, I am still taking donations!

Three of My Favorite Pictures

Abandoned boat washed ashore. Dad standing on a palm tree trunk. Mayan couple in Felipe Carrillo Puerto.

Our Plans For This Year

These pictures are what the Yucatan coastline is like--a lot of points, almost like the coastline in Maine--(aren't there 3500 miles of it)? It is not straight like highway miles. The pictures are taken in segments, one after the other.
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We leave Portland Maine this Friday May21 at 6am, arrive in Cancun at 1:30pm. We will take the local ADO and Mayab buses from the airport to Felipe Carrillo Puerto, where we will stay overnight at the hotel Chan Santa Cruz. I think it is about a 2-3 hour ride from Cancun to F. Carrillo Puerto. This is my favorite Mexian pueblo. I hope the bus stops in Puerto Morelos, south of Cancun--they have awesome tamales and pina colada frozen bars at a local tienda that I would like to get for lunch!

We will meet the author Mari Pintkowski (who wrote the 2 articles about us on Sac-be.com and the owner of La Selva Mariposa, http://www.laselvamariposa.com/) for breakfast at the El Faisan Y El Venado restaurant on Saturday at 7am before we go to the coast to start hiking.

We start hiking in Punta Kanecaxh, about 10miles south of Majahual on Saturday, hopefully around 10am. There appears to be cabanas dotted along the coast for about 15 miles, then nothing for about 6 miles before we get to Rio Huach, which is one of our biggest obstacles this year (see previous post Rio Huach). We still don't know how we are going to get across. After the river, there are more cabanas, then nothing again for another 15 miles, until we reach XCalak. We will stay at Costa De Cocos where we hope to arrange a boat to take us across the MX-Belize border channel. This is our other obstacle. We need to hire a boat and hope the weather is right, check out of MX and cross the Belize border legally. The 3rd obstacle are mangroves--a lot of them; we may get around them by walking in the shallow water (there are snakes) or going thru the jungle and finding the road to bypass the mangroves. The total mileage left of Mexico is about 35-50 miles of coastline--but hard to say from looking at a map. We are hoping to hike this MX part in 2-3 days. See photos.

Once in Belize we will hike Ambergris Caye and Caye Caulker. We hope to hop from island to island using water ferries or water taxis. Ambergris Caye is about 25 miles long and in the north, from what I can tell on Google Earth, there is nothing but rock--no hotels until after about 10 miles. After hiking these 2 islands, if there is time, we want to go inland to a Belize jungle camp.