Documenting a Web Design Project

1st draft for a Logo for the Belize Jungle Dome to be used for the side of our vehicles

Myself and Richie Simpson a friend from the UK are working on a new web design for the Belize Jungle Dome. Originally when we set the Belize Jungle Dome website up i kept the old domain name from our previous business in Belize called www.greendragonbelize.com. This site has been registered with all the appropriate Travel Associations in Belize such as the Belize Tourism Board and Belize Hotels Association and as our business developed in Belize so did the website, which is peaking at the moment with 1,500 hits a day.

But we also created the domain name www.belizejungledome.com which is more obviously connected to the Belize Jungle Dome business. I got lazy with the initial set up and just used a copy of the same template from the greendragonbelize.com site. But now Richie has landed in Belize he has agreed to help me develop this into a really great site by re-designing it from scratch.



Another 1st draft for the initial page of the website. This is a very early stage but gives you an idea of our first thoughts into the web design




Richie specializes in Animation and manipulation of Images and works alot with software such as Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop and Macromedias Flash Player. The idea for the site will be based around the Geodesic Dome Shape that is so distinctive with the Belize Jungle Dome.





Mayan Symbols





It will also lean heavily on the ancient Mayan history of Belize using many of the Mayan Symbols as hyperlinks to the other pages on the site. We offer numerous Tours in Belize discovering the rich and varied history of the Mayans who populated this area in huge numbers 1,000s of years ago.

So it's very appropriate for us to be using these symbols which have a great significance all around Belize and the Yucatan Region.

These symbols will probably make up a great part of the site providing navigational links to other pages. Richie has been finding the appropriate symbol to represent different parts of the site. For instance the symbol "na" meaning house, may be used to represent the link to the Jungle Dome itself.

I will be documenting the process of building the new site over the next few weeks and months to hopefully its conclusion and the release of a very polished new website.

Picture of the Day - Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphins in Belize

This picture was taken by the British Army flying over the tropical seas of Belize. What a fantastic photo of the Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphins cruising the Caribbean seas. We offer some great trips to the Islands. Click here for more information or visit this link : http://www.greendragonbelize.com/tropicalislandvacation.html

Googles update has been kind to us at the Belize Jungle Dome

We are preparing ourselves for the upcoming high season here in Belize with a lot of excitement as it fast approaches. Although we only have 3 rooms here at the Belize Jungle Dome we will have between 6-12 people everyday to feed and look after. We aim at the Adventure Travel Market offering exciting trips into the Jungle and to the Tropical Islands of Belize, so most of our guests have full itineraries including visits to Tikal in Guatemala, Actun Tunichil Muknal Caving and Archaeological Adventure, Black Hole Drop Rapelling Trip, Jungle Horseback Riding, Scuba Diving , and loads more trips

Although I was a professional footballer for 10 years my formal training was in the Tourism Industry. I trained for 2 years at the Norfolk College of Arts and Technology in Kings Lynn,Norfolk completing a National Diploma in Business and Tourism Management, before adding a further 2 years of training at Bournville College in Birmingham.

I didn't plan to run a Jungle Lodge in the depths of Belize but I am thankful that during my football years I managed to squeeze some extra education in so I was able to diversify after my career ended in football. I have also taught myself the basics of HTML, which has been invaluable in the development of my business here in Belize. We don't get too much passing traffic in the Jungle and so I set about creating the following Websites to increase our exposure :

www.greendragonbelize.com
www.belizejungledome.com
Belize Jungle Dome Blog
Simones Belize Blog

This last year I have also self taught myself the relatively new business of Search Engine Optimization a very useful tool for any Web Designers and business owners who want to increase the visibility of their websites on the internet. If you do not appear on the front page of Google, Yahoo or MSN search engines then you are missing out on a lot of traffic to your sites. And over the next few months I plan to develop the sites even further creating a very polished www.belizejungledome.com with the aid of a web designer staying with us Richie Simpson.

As the new Tourism season in Belize looms upon us I am happy to say that our main site www.greendragonbelize.com broke the 1,000 hits barrier yesterday and today has rocketed through this number reaching a heady 1,300 hits as I write this. I think part of the increase in traffic has been the recent "Jagger" Google Update, which in laymans terms means that Googles algorithms (the complicated mathematical formulas that they use to create their rankings) has been very kind to us and has jumped us even higher up the google rankings. We now rank very highly for the term Belize Vacation, which is fantastic for our American market. Also if you search for Belize Holidays we also rank impressively high on the front page of Google. Great for the UK Market.

With only 3 rooms to fill I think we will be having a very busy year!!

Some other interesting Belize Websites :

Belize Tourism Board
Francis Ford Coppollas Blancaneaux Lodge

On another note is was a very sad day to see that the US forces have now surpassed 2,000 deaths in Iraq. Whatever can justify this kind of fatalities is beyond me. And we are not even taking into account the innocent Iraqi deaths, British and other forces out in Iraq. I ridicule Bush constantly in this Blog and would love the chance to meet him or more importantly his puppet masters Bush senior, Rumsfeld or Cheney.

These guys are sitting safe and sound in their ivory towers making decisions of huge global consequences, misleading and deceiving the public of America as the UK public is being deceived by an overwhelming propaganda machine which is struggling to paper over the cracks of an ill-conceived war without any end in sight. I cannot remember the last time i saw George Bush on TV delivering a speech from anywhere other than an Army Base, War Boat, or to his own Army of Cronies who politely applaud his efforts.

Full credit to Tony Blair for being available for comment and criticism even though he must be finding it harder and harder to justify his countries efforts in Iraq. Bush will surely be condemned to a large chapter in history as the man who rocked the world with his Monkey smirk, justifying his actions with a fanatical Christian and patriotic belief to the detriment of all who fall outside his sphere of understanding. I just have this image of him shutting the doors of the whitehouse behind him and laughing with a big fat cigar and a cognac, wondering what he has done wrong. Everyone has a conscience, lets hope dubya finds his one day.

Iraqi Constitution from our friend in Iraq

"They keep talking about drafting a constitution for Iraq. Why don't we just give them ours? It was written by a lot of really smart guys, it's worked for over 200 years, and we're not using it anymore."

George Carlin

Two Chinese Students

I am privileged to have a set of friends who trawl the web for exciting websites!!!! This clip of 2 Chinese Students came from Sasha Ilich, the former Charlton Athletic Goalkeeper. Thanks Sash.

Click Here or paste this code into your browser : http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6739710473912337648

Watch them Bees!!

A few Bees started to check out a gap in the wooden boards in the outside of the Belize Jungle Dome. We didn't really think much about it and a few weeks passed by and the Bee colony seemed to grow. A month passed and we still didn't do anything. Eventually Simone nagged me enough to sort the Bees out so we arranged to have them removed. And this is what we found above the ceiling in our Pool-Side Junior Suite. Thats alot of Honeycomb and too many bees for comfort!!

Hurricane Wilma and Iris

Our thoughts go out to the people of the North East Yucatan Region of Mexico as they receive the full force of Hurricane Wilma which has spent 2 days churning over Cozumel and Cancun. They were in the way of a previous Hurricane earlier this season as Playa Del Carmen and Tulum were badly damaged and I hope it hasn't caused too much long term damage. Fortunately for us here in Belize we have avoided all the effects of the hurricane and long may that continue.

And it seems that this storm is heading back across the Gulf to Florida, which always seems to get hit. I really don't know how people can live in Florida. It constantly gets battered by high winds and storms. The people who live on the Florida Keys, which looks so vulnerable must dread this time of year.

We were caught by one in 2001 (Hurricane Iris) when we had just arrived in Belize. 2 months after landing in the tropics, Iris was bearing down on us heading directly for the middle of the country. We were under huge amounts of rain and some high winds so we moved to the bottom of the Jungle Dome to sit it out. Just as it was about to make landfall the Hurricane moved south and blew across Placencia destroying the local community, resorts and the Banana Plantations.

When we were looking for property in Belize we had visited Placencia, a beautiful Beach Front peninsula on the South East coast of Belize and seen a small resort for sale. It was a few months from completion, with 3 beach front rooms, bar, restaurant and a small parcel of beach property. We loved it but were wary of the effects a storm might have on this area. Fortunately our decision was correct and we chose the Belize Jungle Dome instead. The Belize Jungle Dome is a Geodesic Dome, which should be able to withstand high winds, although i hope we never have to test this.

We later found out that the Placencia property was completely destroyed, with the owner sat in the Princess Hotel in Belize City waiting to move into his dream home.

Today i am hoping to get a game of golf in at the Roaring River Golf Course(near Belmopan), which is just 20 minutes from us. Its only a 9 hole course but it's quite "tight" making for some tricky play. We have no game in the Cauwich Cup (football) this weekend as we have already qualified for the next round so some Golf seems the perfect Sunday afternoon entertainment.

And tomorrow we welcome back Karen Turner who has been on Holiday in Canada for the last 3 weeks. Karen is a Yoga and Pilates Teacher plus she is also a Fitness Instructor. She moved to Belize last year and runs the Jungle Dome with me and Simone. Karen returns in time to get ready for the high season in Belize, which for us starts in 2 weeks.

Links

Hurrican Wilma
Property in Belize
Belize Jungle Dome
Geodesic Domes
Princess Hotel Belize City
Karens Belize Blog
Simones Belize Blog
Yoga Retreats