The REAL Belize! // Hasta Alaska // S03E07

Morning campers, we need one of you guys to give this bus a home after we finish this epic adventure. And you can get your hands on it for just one dollar. More information coming up in this video. Hi, I'm Ben. Meet Alaska, the Caribbean explorer. And here's Capito, our Chilean buff. For the next few years, this is our house. The world is our garden. And you are our family. We don't know the time of day or where we'll wake up tomorrow. All we know is we're on the ride of our lives. Most of the time. So join us and see what unfolds on this epic adventure. Last time on Ask to Alaska, we had an action-packed adventure in Belize. Waking up in paradise. Making new friends. And exploring the stunning national parks. Wow, babe. So beautiful. Alaska managed to catch two fish. No, seriously. And we got invited to a private Caribbean island. You could almost say it was smooth sailing. I'm going to have to pay a $500 fine. And they're going to take me away now. Almost. This time, we're getting so far off the beaten path that we're actually having to make them ourselves. This one took about an hour and a half. An hour and a half of really thin. Because by myself, to myself, for myself. You cut it in little pieces where it is sturdy enough. It's not too flexible. And it just gives you the perfect one. Sharpening. That's the motor. You use that to make tattoos. That's very important for making a tattoo machine. With that, a pen, and a simple fork. When you live outside permanently, like we do, you meet interesting characters every day. On what we thought was our last morning in Belize, Eli turned up at the Kombi and invited us to follow him back to his simpler boat. We had no idea where we were going or how dangerous it could be. Ouch! Simply, curiosity got the better of us, as it tends to do most days. It was immediately obvious that Eli was a resourceful man. He wasted no time in turning our trash chair into something not only usable, but more comfortable than it ever was. Test it out. Make sure it doesn't spike your ass. Seeing families like Eli's here, living happily without material possessions that so many of us crave, or even electricity in their home, is a huge inspiration for us. There's something profoundly rewarding about surviving off your surroundings. And we, well, we were about to get a crash course. Stick them in the ground right now. About six, seven months later, you get this. This is the Martian army ants. Usually you would use chemicals to spray and get rid of bugs inside your house. But here in Belize, if you see these, just let them through. They'll get rid of all the insects for you. Ant number 13. Buddy, you're scared up there. You're scared up there. You're going to get eaten by ants. After hanging out with Eli's many brothers, we learned that they planned to go into the jungle the next day in hope of sourcing some building materials, and maybe some kind of bush meat. Not wanting to miss the adventure, and not pausing long enough to consider just how difficult that would be, we offered to lend a hand. I'm so bad at this. Like this. Ah, OK, I got my technique right. This one, this one. A sponge ball, I believe. I recognize them. Turbo tires, very appropriate. Bam! It's incredible to think that this family probably spends the same amount of money in a week as you spend in a single day. We know that the unplugged life isn't for everyone. However, there's something deeply satisfying about cooking over an open fire and using candlelight to sort the good beans from the bad. Depends on what they decide to put in it. Because they sell the chicken by weight. Oh, really? They put the body parts in to make the weight up to three kilos or whatever it is. That's crazy, man. We open our chickens and we find nothing inside. And you have feet and heads and necks and all sorts of bits. What's this? Tequila, lemongrass, whole spice, and cinnamon. Today we'll start a nice, beautiful day. Today we'll actually be traveling out to the woods cutting some thatch leaves, locally known as bay leaves. What we will use that for is making cabanas up in Concejo. So it's going to be a pretty busy day up in the woods. We're taking Alaska with us in the hope that we might find some armadillo or other animals that we can eat. Currently they're bringing their pack animals. They've got a pack of dogs which have been described to us as mangy and might cause a problem. So it's going to be quite a test for Alaska today. But we've got good training from Peru to here so we hope that it's going to be all right. Are the animals dangerous here? Yeah, I think they are. Most of them, the wild ones, they are herding. So I don't know if she can get in. She's a big one. She's still alive. Rip her to pieces. He's joking, right? This is what they mean by hunting accidents. Half his face is bitten off here. His ear as well. These animals can be pretty vicious. Best of luck, Alaska. Into the jungle we go. OK, we've just saw some underground mine ruin here on the way to cutting leaves. Are you kidding me? Someone came in and there was any treasure in here. This is the bay leaf. Placed on a house, cut on the right moon, right under the right circumstances. You can have a roof made out of patch leaves that would last anywhere from 25 to 40 years. How much do we need? 2,000. 2,000, he says. I can't fully describe to you how intense this is. We're just in the middle of the jungle. We're having to smash through those vundergrowth. There's spiders and all sorts of things coming out of the leaves that we're cutting down. I've no idea where the guys are. Here comes one. Thank God for that. It's so easy to get lost out here. There's a number of approaches and techniques to this type of work. I opted for the pile in there and start wildly swinging a machete in a frantic attempt to keep up the pace technique. But all joking aside, this is a pretty dangerous job, even for those with experience. That's like half your finger hanging off, Dave. Yep. And you just want to carry on? We'll just carry on. This is something I love doing so I don't see it as work. And apart from that, I was told by someone out there that in life, don't just look for a job. Do something you love and that pays off much more. This is what I love doing. I don't look at it as a job. Just found Sian's sunglasses. No sign of Sian for about an hour. He's off wielding a machete somewhere. How many do you think we've cut so far? Roughly about 200-300. Only ten times the amount to go. What have we got ourselves into? Luckily for us, nature's finest refreshment was only a short hike away. Sugar doesn't get any better than this. It's the first time I've seen Alaska in hours. Alaska, how have you been? Seems like you've made some friends. And Sian. We lost you. Been hard at work. Oh, you found my glasses? I was hoping that would happen. Don't even show it to him. He doesn't want to see what he's got. As the afternoon pushed on, we went in search of our bushmeat. This is a trap made for the gibnuts. Where they take the coconuts, split it in half, and they just poke them with a stick to keep them attached to the ground. The hunter would be sitting on top of a branch, on top of a tree, with his 16-gauge gun ready to fire. So when he sees the animal, he just spots his flashlight in the middle of the night, he can see it clear, and he just shoots. This is what we call chit. This is used for making the walls of a house. These, you can just cut them to size, make the wall, you go back, put the chicken wire or the beer wire, nail it on, then you just plaster it. As a long day drew to a close, we pulled everything we'd gathered out of the trap. What am I doing? Just relaxing Alaska. It's been a pretty full-on day, man. Deep in the jungle, but absolutely awesome fun. Didn't feel like work at all. Alaska loved it. Time for a power nap. How's your hand, man? It's doing good. So far, so good. Sian, how much money did you make yesterday? Cutting leaves? Let's start with how much money you made yesterday. Right, I made $31. $31.50. And what did I make? $36. You cut more leaves than me. This that I got yesterday, I'm going to take the bandage off, I'm going to boil a little bit of this, Magicals, then I'm going to wash it with it. I'm going to boil a different little amount of the same plant, and I'm going to drink it. The people in England and Australia as well, there's a lot of people that have lost this culture where they don't know what plants can heal them, and we go to the store when we need medicine. This kind of knowledge, you have to make sure that you pass it on to the boys. You know, keep it alive. It's up to you, man. Of course I will. You have to keep it alive. It's time to eat, and this is their food. Throughout this trip, we try to get off the beaten track in search of the most unique and memorable moments. It's for that reason that we feel so very privileged to be able to not only experience this, but to film it and share it with you guys. We hope that you enjoy travelling with us. Until next time, happy travels. Next time on Hasta Alaska, we head from a place that sees zero tourists a year to Cancun, which sees around 4 million. Can the Kombi crew still find adventure on a budget? What will we wake up to? And what the heck are we going to do with our bus when we go to Cuba? Find out on the next episode. Oh yeah, a rare VW bus for $1. You wanted to know about that. Click here for more information.