In April of 2006, Scott Neely and I (Nick Beazley) traveled to Belize to begin the process of purchasing the materials needed for the church that ROW was going to build in the village of Crique Sarco. The trip started off on the wrong foot when our flight to Belize was delayed a day, which bumped back the schedule for the entire trip. This meant that instead of getting into Belize on Friday and purchasing materials on Saturday before heading to the village, we arrived into Belize late on Saturday and had to wait until Monday morning to purchase the materials. This meant spending all Sunday in the southern town of Punta Gorda, and for those of you that have never experienced what it is like to be in a Central American town on a Sunday, my advice to you is that if you enjoy the the company of others then you should either have friends with you, or go to a church, because that is where the people are going to be.

Nevertheless, we managed just fine with each other’s company and it gave us a chance to explore Punta Gorda on Sunday, which prepared us well to purchase all of the building supplies on Monday. Then with materials and receipts in hand, it was off into the jungle to the village of Crique Sarco.

For Scott and the other two volunteers that were with us, it was first time for them to travel to Crique Sarco, so this was all new territory for them. Fortunately for us all, the people in Crique Sarco are some of the nicest people you will find, and our time in the village was a blessing. By the end of the week we had each made countless friends, helped to clear a spot for the new church, and carved a special place in our hearts for the people of Belize.

Scott Neely (left) and Nick Beazley (right) in Belize in 2006

During the trip both Nick and Scott filmed the experience and Scott put together a video of highlights from that time in Belize. It is our hope to be able to share our trip Across Belize in a similar fashion with daily updates, both video and written, to this blog, so that you can be part of the trip with us. Of course, the videos we take during the bike ride won’t be nearly as long as the one from our trip in 2006, but we will make sure that they are long enough to let you feel like you are part of the trip (just minus the sore legs from the day of riding!).

Enjoy the video from 2006 (below)

You can view the original posting of this video, and many other videos, at ROW’s YouTube Channel, or CLICK HERE.