Ruins and Caves

We've had an awesome few days doing some tours around San Igancio. Tuesday we went to the Mayan ruin site of Caracol. The site was nicely spread out through the jungle, so we had a nice walk (in the shade) as well as seeing the ruins. We were able to climb up and around the buildings and got a great view of the jungle canopy at the top of the 50 meter high temple. We had to have armed guards with machine guns escort us for the drive out there, it was an hour and a half down a bumpy dirt road that came close to the Guatemalan border. Apprently some tourists were kidnapped and held for ransom a few years ago. The guards and their machine guns were also dotted throughout the site. Nice to know safety comes first. After a sweaty day, we stopped at a waterfall for a swim on the way home.

Our tour yesterday was pretty much the most amazing tour we have ever been on to Actun Tunichil Muknal. We drove down a crazy potholed dirt road for about an hour where we left the truck. Then we walked 45 mins through the jungle, crossing rivers and listening to the birds until we got to the entrance to the cave, which was at the mouth of a little river. With helmets and headlamps, we swam/crawled/srambled/climbed/hiked through the cave, seeing all sorts of cool geological formations like stalagmites and stalatites and crystals and such. At one point we had to leave the river and climb up a steep little cliff where the cave opened up into a huge cavern. This is where we saw old mayan clay pots that were about 1000 years old, maybe even older. The mayans belived caves were sacred and part of the underworld and they would bring in offerings to the gods. Since the caves fill with water, a lot of the pots had lime stone crystals covering them. Then we had to climb up a rickety ladder and that's when we saw the skelletons. One was of a 10 yr old boy and the other of a 13 yr old girl, with the same crust of limestone as the pots. The one of the girl was completely intack. Amazing!!! It is believed that these were also sacrifices to the gods, namely the rain god. Some speculate that the mayans died out because of a drought which would explain why they were desperate enough to sacrifice children. Since the archealogical site was so fragile, we had to take off our shoes and walk around in our socks. I can't say the word "Amazing" enough to describe this tour.

Today we took it easy. Slept in, watched TV (in english for the last time until we get home). We made a new friend, Andrew from Nova Scotia (he was on both tours with us) and we've been hanging out with him alot. The 3 of us went to the little ruin site Cahal Pech, right in San Igancio and walked around for a bit. We're getting our gear together to camp at Tikal for a few nights. We've got our kerosine for the camp stove and some grits. I also sent off some postcards today. Finally!! I've been carting some around with me since our first week in Mexico. The Moscow Circus is in town and it's openning night tonight, so we might go there if it's not too expensive. Our shuttle to Tikal leaves at 7:30am tomorrow, so we might want to lay low tonight. Tomorrow we head back into adventures in Spanish for the rest of our trip. I hope we haven't forgotten too much in the last few weeks.

Belize is a beautiful country. I can't believe how much we have seen in 2 and a half weeks. We are definitly coming back here for more adventures one day.