Belize: Jungles & Ruins

Traveling around Belize you have a variety of options.  All international flights land in Belize City, from there the options are endless to choose your own adventure.  Several local carriers fly to half a dozen small airports across the country.  For $100-200 you can hire a private shuttle to deliver you in exactly the right spot.  Or, for $5 bucks you can hop a bus and do it with the locals.  

After a week on the coast it was time to head inland.  With a few flashbacks to Delhi, India- we deflected bogus offers for help and alternative transportation modes offered, easily finding our bus.  Belize is compared in size to Vermont or New Hampshire.  Belize City on the eastern border is only about 4 hours by bus from the Guatemala border to the west.  

Our first week of travel was planned day by day.  We knew where we were staying, how to get there and when we were diving.  Our second week wasn’t planned at all.  I had a few ideas, and briefly spoke with people in San Pedro, but really wanted to figure it out along the way.  I knew there were several options inland, and we knew we wanted to visit some Mayan ruins.  So our destination became San Ignacio.  

3.5 hours by bus brought us to San Ignacio.  San Ignacio could be called the adventure capital of interior Belize.  The main street, Burns Avenue, is littered with guide services, advertising a variety of adventures.  Caving, tubing, canoeing, hiking, zip lining, and exploring Mayan ruins are all available in the local area.  I chose Pacz Tours for two days worth of adventure.  The guide book says “when National Geographic comes to Belize, they us Pacz”.  That sold it for me.  Our first night we signed up for a Tikal tour and ATM Cave tour.

A 30 minute walk from San Ignacio brings you to Cahal Pech, site of a pre-classic Mayan civilization.  After paying $10 BZE we were free to wander the ruins.  This is one of my favorite photographs from the trip.

The Iguana Rescue Project is associated with the San Ignacio Resort Hotel.  I didn’t realize Iguanas were such a delicacy.  Throughout Central and South America people capture and eat Iguanas.  In some areas they are becoming endangered due to poaching, deforestation, and local predators.  The goal of the Iguana Project is raising baby Iguanas to be released into the wild, while also educating tourists and Belizians about protecting this special reptile.  

Inside the Iguana habitat we were able to hold a couple of the adult Iguanas.

The Iguana in Gretchens arms, Roxy, is a pregnant female.  The Iguana on her shoulder is Gomez, the alpha male of the cage.

There were hundreds of bright green baby Iguanas in the adolescent cage.  Once they grow a little bigger they will be released locally into the wild.

We stayed at two different places in San Ignacio.  Arriving just before sunset the first day we opted for an easy stay in the Tropical Hotel.  It was surprisingly clean, but the mattress was painfully old.  So, our second day we looked around for alternatives.  We found Bella’s Backpacker Hostel.  A private bedroom shared bath hostel.  It was quaint and comfortable.  There were four private rooms and one dorm room with a loft.  The second floor had a very large patio with hammocks and couches for relaxing.  I would recommend this place.  It was only $20 US per night for both of us.

Our room even had a balcony overlooking the entrance courtyard.

We spent one day at the Mayan Ruins of Tikal in Guatemala.  It was about three hours by bus from San Ignacio.  Crossing the border into Guatemala everything changed.  People spoke spanish.  The country side became a littler drier and arid as we climbed into the mountains.  A lot of land was cleared for large cattle ranches.  Guatemala made Belize look nice.  We saw a lot more poverty in Guatemala.

One day was not long enough at Tikal.  I appreciated what we saw, but wished I had at least two to three days here.  Tikal is in a very remote location.  There are one or two resorts and campgrounds onsite.  Hundreds of people visit each day, not many stay.  With our guide we saw a portion of the main temples and plazas, with extra days we could have freely explored mile upon mile of trails.  Archeologists believe 93% of Tikal is still covered with Earth and jungle- its huge.

The weather changed from cloudy, to gray and overcast, to pouring rain as we climbed Temple IV.  Giving us a nice afternoon rainforest shower.

The ruins can be very photogenic, but it was hard to capture large scale images without people climbing and lingering on the buildings. Only one of the outer pyramids allows you to climb the natural steps.  Several of them have been closed, others have wooden scaffolding built partially up.

While hiking into ATM cave we encountered these leaf cutter ants.  They were amazing.  Scaling the tree from the ground to remove leaves from the canopy.  Then carrying them back down the tree and into their ant hill, somewhere off in the jungle.  The ants are actually following a chemical trail left behind by their leader.  

Exploring the ATM cave was loads of fun.  Check out the video in a previous post.

After riding the bus back to Belize City we had several hours to kill before heading to the airport.  The Museum of Belize has several nice exhibits.  It is located in the old Jail.