11 miles north of San Pedro Town on a spectacular and deserted stretch of beach with white sand and palms you will find El Secreto luxury beachfront resort. I wish I could say we were going to one of the most luxurious Belize resorts on vacation, but it is volunteer work that brings us to this wonderful place.  Over the next 2 days, El Secreto is having 25 staff trained in first aid and making Ambergris Caye a little bit safer.

Jermaine, Shirlee and I headed out on the 6:30 am water taxi to the last stop which is 8 miles north. After that Ken had arranged for the El Secreto boat to pick us up and bring us to the resort. When we arrived they had us settle into our room and then we got right to the business at hand training the group.

Everyone seemed to be enjoying the course and as I watched I noticed people were asking questions but were a little bit shy to volunteer for practice sessions. Jermain did a great job of getting them involved and making sure that everyone was doing their hands on training correctly. Having attended many first aid classes, I can totally see why practice makes perfect and I do believe that it does take more than one course for some to get it right as there is so much to learn. I cannot wait till we start offering refresher courses so that everyone who has been trained can keep practicing and really be able to refine their skills.

Thanks goes out to El Secreto for having 25 staff trained and hosting the Belize Red Cross overnight, Jermaine our instructor for coming from Belize City to do the training, Banana Beach Resort for hosting Jermaine’s first night, Tropic Air Cargo for getting the first aid equipment here, Coastal Xpress water taxi for getting us as far as Blue Reef and Kenneth for arranging us to be picked up and boated the rest of the way to the resort.  Check out the rates for El Secreto.

Arriving at El Secreto Resort

Jermaine and Shirlee

Beach at El Secreto

Big lizard with a short tail

Pool at El Secreto

CPR practice dummies

First half of the staff being trained at El Secreto

Bar at El Secreto

Learning what to do if someone goes unconscious while they are choking and you were doing abdominal thrusts to dislodge the object

Doing chest compressions

Learning how to dislodge an object from a choking baby

Salad with pork and rice for staff lunch – yummy

Shirlee, Jermaine and I enjoying lunch

I am so ready for some pool hammock time

Applying a triangular sling bandage with a binder to hold it in place

Lounging and enjoying poolside service at El Secreto