Christmas in Belize (Part 1 of 2)

I would be lying if I said I'd never before experienced a tropical Christmas, but I was a kid the last time I did. I do know that I have a bit more appreciation now than I did back then. Still, wearing shorts on the beach next to a palm tree decorated with Christmas lights and listening to White Christmas on the radio is a little surreal.

As the last Christmas BK ("Before Kid") and since we hadn't actually taken our annual vacation this year, Lee and I decided that a tropical Christmas would be the perfect thing. We wanted to visit inland to see the Mayan ruins and also get some beach time so we split our week and a half long visit between Cayo, in the eastern border near Guatemala, and Caye Caulker, one of the quieter tiny islands in the Caribbean.


First off, Cayo. The picture is our humble abode at Mystic River. The jungle resort is owned and run by a French and American couple, Nadeje and Tom. On our first afternoon there Tom gave us a tour on his beloved Polaris four wheeler to the top of their hill where he had some unexcavated Mayan ruins he was excited to explore. Apparently once we started recognizing unusually geometrically shaped hills or mounds, it's quite easy to spot Mayan ruins and they're everywhere. On the way back down to the resort proper, Tom put the Polaris on coast as we bumped down three sizeable plateau steps that were once Mayan terracing. As someone later dubbed it - Mayan roller coaster sans rails.

The following day, we set out for a cave adventure at Actun Tunichil Muknal or ATM with our guide Ben. We had never been cave adventuring before but Gina, Mystic River's tour coordinator, insisted that it was a must-do. So off we went with another couple from Mystic River and originally from Colorado and a Dutch pair that we picked up along the way. The last part of the ride there was once again on bumpy, dirt/gravel road that is a common theme inland. Once we parked, it was about a 40 minute easy hike to the cave entrance. The hike in was also where we acquainted ourselves with the the water via three river crossings. It was cold but not unbearably so and seemed pool-like. At the entrance, we snacked on some watermelon, donned our head lamps and left any unnecessary (read: things we'd like to keep dry) gear.

And there was the entrance:



Yes, that is a swimming pool (though a bit warmer than the river crossings) to get inside. Inside, there was more moving water, sharp rocks and bouldering over, under and through said rocks. There were a few tight squeezes and narrow tunnels but they were always short passages so it didn't trigger any claustrophobic reactions. This was definitely an athletic tour. Once we clambered up a particularly tall rock, we came upon a treasure trove of ... shoes? It turned out that we were to shed our shoes and traverse the rest of the cavern in our stockinged feet. Ben made sure to carefully position us as we moved from area to area before we could look around. As we went on, it was clear to see why: calcified pottery blending into the cavern floor was littered all throughout. He pointed out several that had already been broken by previous careless tourists. He told us that the government had limited the number of licensed guides that could make tours through ATM to cut down on the traffic, but judging by the number of souls in that cave with us, we wondered if that were enough or if they would eventually have to shut the place down for tours.

The cave itself was primarily used by the Mayans as sacrificial grounds. As we swam and crawled and scaled rocks, I tried to imagine carrying that pottery with fire-making supplies as the Mayans must have. The pottery lying about was to cook their corn offerings. The human offerings they left whole.



The skeleton above was a teen-aged Mayan girl from the elite class that was sacrificed. Dubbed the "Crystal Maiden" because her bones have been calcified and look sparkly.

The way out went much more quickly than the way in and once back at the picnic area, we really appreciated the delicious lunch Ben provided. On a side note, I think Belize has the best banana bread I have ever eaten.

The following day, we went to Caracol. A two hour bone-jarring bumpy ride towards the Guatemalan border. The site itself is about half an hour's hike to the border. We were on the tour with the same couple from Colorado as well as another couple from the far-away land of San Francisco, CA. Along the way, Lewis, our tour guide treated us to many stories about the sights we saw. The most interesting one was by way of explaining the sign that we were to have a military escort into the Caracol site.

Apparently four or five years ago, Guatemalans were crossing the border to harvest leaves from a particular tree in Belize. When they had largely decimated their chosen crop, they decided it was more lucrative to rob the guides and tourists that were coming to the area of Mountain Pine Ridge where Caracol was located. It wasn't until an American tourist wrote about their ordeal on the internet that the government took action and installed a military presence at Caracol and required that all tours entering be escorted to and fro for the last 10 miles. This also shortened the hours that the tours could go visit (9am to 2pm). On an interesting side note, the crop that the robbers were previously harvesting was the leaves that would create the green dye used in US currency; someone was paying them (rather poorly at that) in order to counterfeit US dollars.

But back to Mayan ruins. Caracol is the largest Mayan ruin site in Belize that supported approximately 140,000 people at its height. The picture below is the top part of Caana, the tallest structure on the site standing at 140ft. above the ground floor. There are less than 100 steps to the top which made climbing up there a decent workout. There are still significant portions of the site that are unexcavated, but they're easy to spot as very geometrically shaped hills.



We learned quite a bit about their elite class who liked to flatten their foreheads and induce cross-eyedness by piercing the bridge of their nose with something bright and colorful to focus on. We also learned about a brutal ball game they played that involved throwing around an 18lb. latex ball. I didn't get to hear what the rules of the game were (I suspect it isn't definitively known) but it sounds like it would hurt.

After lunch and Caracol we stopped by a much shorter cave, the Rio Frio Cave. No water scrambling needed, but we did take some nice shots towards both entrances for the nifty contrast. A little farther away were the Rio Frio Pools where we could take a swim. We didn't actually go swimming, I just wanted to see how far I could get across the river by hopping from rock to rock without getting my sundress wet. I didn't manage to make it across the river, just halfway across, but it was fun nevertheless. Then it was back to the resort through some more bumpy roads.

I don't want to leave Mystic River without mentioning their very earnest bartender, Leo. Every meal he would come to the dining room from his bar at the hut next door to check to see if we wanted anything. He also had a daily drink special that sounded like he concocted himself and was very eager to have people try. I almost felt bad that I couldn't order any of his drink specials so I ordered some fruity smoothies instead. Our last night there, I told him about my favorite Forbidden Island drink, the Banana MamaCow and in exchange he told me about a new banana flavored drink that I'll have to wait to try out - the Dirty Banana.

The following day, we took the 2 hour drive back to Belize city with Angel, our cab driver, and the other San Francisco couple, David and Amy. The local airport had apparently suffered during the last hurricane as their terminal lost a wall they were still in the middle of repairing. Our ride to Caye Caulker was a prop plane. Sadly I couldn't sit in front right behind the pilot as we did in Costa Rica since we would be the only ones getting off at Caye Caulker. Everyone else was headed to Ambergris Caye, the more popular tourist destination.

In the interest of hitting the publish button, I'll save the Caye Caulker write-up for the next post. Stay tuned!