San Ignacio
We spent two nights here, in the heart of the Mayan lowlands and 30 mins from the boarder of Guatemala. Our host was a sweet old lady ‘Nalida’ who has three ‘grown up’ sons and now rents out the rooms in her family home via AirBnB. Her home was just off Bullet Tree Road and when she built it some 20 years ago, hers was the only house there, now it is thriving neighbourhood and she still has some amazing views across the mountains from her terrace.
Caracol
Our first day here we booked onto a tour through MayaWalks and set off early to visit the vast ruins of Caracol. It took a couple of hours to get there so to break up the drive we stopped off at the Rio Frio Cave en route. The cave is a huge opening which you can see through to the other side, there is also a low-lying river running through it and a cooling breeze. The Maya people would’ve used this cave as protection from the elements.
We continued our drive through the Mountain Pine Ridge Reserve up to the Caracol site which is set in subtropical rainforest, home to troops of howler & spider monkey and various colourful birds. Caracol was huge, its’ population estimated at around 300,000 today the entire country of Belize is around 330,000. What’s also so amazing about these Mayan ruins (which date from 200 BC through to 900 AD) is they have only largely been uncovered since the 1980’s. Thousands of temples and ruins are still covered by nature and look like grassy hillocks dotted around the country.
ATM Cave
Our second day entailed another 6am alarm, this time towards the Tapir Mountain Reserve to an amazing prehistoric limestone cave. Actun Tunichil Muknal cave (AKA the ATM cave) is remarkable, we hiked through river crossings to reach the crystal-clear waters at the entrance to the cave. We swam into the cave and admired the cave formations, crystallisation, stalagmites and stalactites.
Towards the end of the Classic Mayan Period (around 850AD) during the long droughts and likely famine conditions, these caves witnessed human sacrifice of the upper classes including babies and children: many of whom had cranial modifications. The archaeologists have specificly decided not to remove the countless ceremonial pots and human skeletons which make this place so special. The desperation of the sacrifice to the rain god Chaac (Cha – ac) is thought provoking. The droughts most likely a result of the centuries of mass deforestation and the desperation they led to resonate with our current climate issues.
To preserve the cave and the amazing Maya history it holds cameras and electronic equipment is now forbidden but our tour guide at MayaWalks shared these pictures taken when photography was permitted at the site.
