Where's Andrew

SAN AGNACIO, BELIZE MARCH 29 - APRIL 1

I left Placencia on the 7:00AM bus to Darnriga which is about 1.5 hours north. I transferred to an express bus heading to the capital of Belmopan. Express buses don't stop every couple of kms and they are modern coach style buses but unfortuneately there were no seats and I had to stand for 2 hours. This would not have been so bad but all the bus drivers seem to think a rep from Formula 1 Racing is there scouting them and they fly along the twisty turny highways like Mario Andretti. Brakes only seem to be used when we come to speed bumps that mark the entry and exit to every town or villlage and in front of schools. They come racing up to the speed bump and then slam on the brakes. It was amazing how strenuous it was just trying to stand in one place, it was actually a pretty good workout. I had to transfer buses again in Belmopan to San Agnacio. I missed the first bus because it was full (it seems the buses are always full) but at least it was an organized orderly line at the gate this time. 

San Ignacio is a small inland town in the foothills on the west side of Belize near the Guatemala border along the west side of the Macal River across the river from its sister city Santa Elena. The downtown core is only about 2 square blocks dominated by tour operators along with restaraunts and bars. This is the heart of outdoor jungle tours in Belize. There are numerous different tours to Mayan ruins, caves and rivers, I chose 3 day trips.

The first was to Actun Tunichil Muknal (ATM) which means "Cave of the Crystal Sepulcher." Sepulcher basically means tomb. We left town at 7:30AM with Graeme and Sarah from Toronto, our guide Martin and the driver. It took a little over an hour mostly on gravel jungle roads to get to a parking area a couple kms from the foothills where the cave is located. From there is was a 45 minute hike along a jungle trail where we saw numerous types of colourful birds and an incredible variety of flora and fauna. My favourites were the Jesus Christ Lizards (yes, they walk on water) and the Leaf Cutting Ants.

We were happy to see the entance to the cave starts with a 20 metre swim in a deep river pool which was great because its about 31 degrees and very humid. After the short swim we put our helmuts and headlamps on and enter the cave. We meander through ankle to waist deep water for about a km. In some places the cave is wide enough for us to walk 4 abreast, it other it narrows so you have to go single file and turn sideways to squeeze through a passage. In other place you have to climb over small boulders and shiney along small ledges.
There are some terrific rock formations throughout the cave with numerous stalagmites and stalactites along with a number of bat roosts. About a third of the way in we come across a large sinkhole which is the only part of the cave where the outside light is visible other than the entrance. While we are still in the light of the sinkhole, our guide gets us to turn off our headlamps and get in a line with him leading, Graeme, Sarah and I with us having one hand on the shoulder of the person in front of us and we begin slowly walking.

The daylight soon disappears and we are in complete darkness. We slowly twist and turn for a couple of hundred meters before finally stopping. The whole time Martin, who is a decendent of the Mayan Indians, is telling a story of the relegious significance of the Mayans regarding the cave. We finally come to a stop while Martin is trying to describe what it would be like for a Mayan 1200 years ago to be walking through the cave as part of a ritual. He even mentions that the Mayan would hear music coming from a far distant part of the cave and next thing I'm hearing faint music sounding like drums and flutes. I'm trying to figure out where Martin got this music from when he asks us to turn our headlamps back on and he is strumming on a group of stalactites that are right in front of him and they make sounds that vary depending on their thickness and it sounds like music.

We finally get to a part of the cave where we are leaving the undergound stream and climb up a large boulder onto a ledge that leads to some caverns a level above the water. We then have to take off our shoes and leave them behind and continue this next section in our wet socks. There are Mayan artifacts everywhere and orange tape on the cave floor shows where we are allowed to walk. All the artifacts in this area are various pieces of pottery. During the religious ceremonies, they brought some food and drink in the pottery but they then broke the containers at the end of the cermony and often placed then in very specific locations. We then have to climb up an aluminum ladder to another ledge leading to some large caverns.

We come across 3 human remains of 3 Mayan men. Only the skulls are intact and visible although 2 of them have the back of their skull smashed in. The rest of their bones are scattered in such a way that scientist think they were dismembered after death. The outline of these bones are just visible because of the build up of calcium as this area floods with water every rainy season. We make our way to the final chamber that is higher yet. It only floods during the worst hurricanes.

Lying there is an extremely well preserved intact skeleton of a young women who was likely sacrificed at this spot. Because of the infrequent flooding, there is very little calcification of the bones. We then return to our shoes and exit back the way we came and have lunch where we left the van. There is still 5 kms of that cave that we did not explore. We get back to SA around 4:30PM.

Next day, the 2nd tour is to the ruins of Coracol. We leave SA at 7:30AM in a beat up Jeep. I'm with a couple from the Netherlands who's names I never quite understood and Amin our guide. It's a 2.5 hour drive to the ruins mostly on a bumpy gravel road. We first drive though luscious mountain jungle but then get to a dryer flat mountain plateau full of Pine Trees that look just like Lodgepole Pines. They too had Pine beattle problems and the forrest is just starting to grow back.

We then get to the park where Coracol is located and have to wait for an army truck (it was a Unimog) to escort us the last 20kms of the way along with 3 other various tour company vehicles. The road is right along the Guatemala border and the relations between Guatemala and Belize has never been good. Coraco is awesome. It is a huge ancient city that was completely reclaimed by the jungle and lost for almost a 1000 years. It was rediscovered by a logger looking for Mohagany in 1937. He found some large stellas which is a Mayan carving that was their equivalent to a street sign, they look like a large tombstone. He also noticed many large mounds which could indicate burried ruins.

A British archiologist working for the then British Honduran government came out the next year and was able to determine that a large city was at the site but excavations did not start until the 1950s with some continuing today. So far about a dozen building and temples have been uncovered and restored, many large mounds remain where temples and building still lie awaiting excavations. The city stretches for over 10 kms and would have peaked at about 150,000 people around 850 AD which is half of the present day population of Belize. The jungle winds between all the excavated buldings with howler monkeys throughout the trees. It's a incredible setting to view the ruins.

There are several large pyramids to explore as well as an ancient ball court and merchant area. The largest pyramid is over 70m high with an upper courtyard and an upper pyramid not visible from the ground below. The altar where they did religious cerrmonies including occassional human sacrifices is still there. Unlike the Mexican ruins, vistors are allowed to climb up on all the retored buildings.

Numerous tombs have been discovered with many more likely to be found in the future. Including us there were only 10 visitors and 4 guides at the ruins that day and no venders trying to sell us trinkets. While walking through the trails in the ruins we came across a wild turkey. According to Amin, it was a young bird about half the size of an adult and looked like a blue grouse with longer legs and very small tail feathers and about the same size.

We then had a nice lunch before heading to Rio On Pools for a swim in the natural pools that have formed in a steep section of the river. It was very hot and humid so a cool dip was just what we needed. We were back in SA around 5:00PM.

The third tour was to the Cave Sytem River for a leisurely innertube float down the river through caves. We left SA around 9:00AM and drove about an hour SE with 3 young female medical students from England working a practicum in Belize and our guide Paul. The river is very slow moving this time of year and is mostly underground.

We walked about 3km up river before getting in the river and immediately entered a cave; more than 2.5 kms of the tubing is within 2 caves. It took about 3 hours to float back to the start and a thunder storm rolled through while we were in the caves so we did not even know. I have not seen rain since Playa del Carmen. We enjoyed a nice lunch before getting back to SA around 3:30PM. This was a relaxing day out of the heat but not very interesting or exciting for $60US.

Belize has been a great start to Central America, A couple of interesting facts about Belize; a typical Belizian lunch or dinner consists of a small portion of meat (chicken, beef or pork), a big portion of rice, beans, coleslaw and a fried plantine for $8 - 10Blz ($4 - 5US). Sometimes they will have fish instead of meat for about $6Blz more. Locals have a language all of their own referred to as Creole although it does not have a French influence. It is mix of slang, unrecognizable English and a bit of Spanish and I can usually understand 1 word in 4. Most locals can switch between English and the local Creole at a drop of a hat.

Well I'm off to Flores in Guatemala near the Mayan ruins of Tikal tomorrow, then south to Rio Dulce, then the Caribbean coast town of Livingston. I then will head south to Puerto Barrio before heading back west inland to Antigua and Guatemala City before making my way slowly to the Pacific coast. I expect to be in Guatemala for 2 - 3 weeks total before going to El Salvador for a week to 10 days, Honduras for 3 weeks and then Nicaragua for another 3 weeks. Still aiming to be in South America sometime in July.