For the last few days of Spring Break I joined the others on that ole backpacker favourite – Caye Caulker. I have to admit that when I was there back in 2002 I didn’t think much of the place because there wasn’t that much going for it – no beach (blame the recent hurricane), only a few places to eat, and a very limited range of accomodation options. I was shocked to see how much had changed since then! While there’s still no swimmable beach, they’ve done an amazing job of cleaning the place up and it definitely has a lot more going for it now.
Our flight back from Guatemala was late and Tara and I just caught the last boat over from Belize City. Arriving late, we didn’t know where to find the others and didn’t arrange accomodation – I ended up spending an uncomfortable night in a tiny hammock oustide Neal and Josh’s room!
Welcome to Caye Caulker! Thems the rules…
The next day well and truly made up for it though as we went scuba diving outside the reef near Turneffe Atoll. The water was the most ethereal and vivid colour and visibility well over 30 metres. We saw some beautiful corals as we dived along the reef wall, and the highlight was seeing a couple of small turtles and some huuuuge eels.
Check out the colour of that water!!! On the dive boat.
Much of the rest of my time on the island was spent relaxing down along the Split, the channel that separates the island into two halves.
Chilling at the Split.
The sandy main street. They start ’em early in Belize…
Local fisherman at sunset.
Our last morning in Belize – just enough time for a last dip at the Split!
Walking back to the boats. Farewell Caye Caulker!
Even though I was only in Belize for 10 days, I couldn’t resist the temptation to pop over the border into Guatemala to revisit Tikal. Ever since my first visit in 2002 with Alexa I’ve been wanting to return – I just found it such a timeless and awesome place to experience.
I took a minibus from Cayo across the border and direct to Tikal. I was amazed how much better the road was, and just how much tourism development has popped up along the highway between Flores and Tikal in just a couple of years – disappointing, but I guess inevitable. Tara Davis, a friend from business school, flew from Belize to join me. We managed to find accomodation in Tikal at the Jaguar Inn (tough to get but definitely worth it!) and then went off to explore the site.
Got the same room four years later!
We walked our legs off around the huge expanse of ruins and got to experience both sunset and sunrise on top of the temples (My recommendations are Temple IV for sunset and either the newly restored Temple V or the Pyramid for sunrise). It’s a great time of the day to visit because you avoid the daytrippers and best of all you see so much more of the fauna – spider and howler monkeys, toucans, turkeys, coatis…
I was really glad I made the effort to go back to Tikal – it didn’t dissapoint!
Temple I, as seen from the south.
Temple II – last time I was in Tikal you were allowed to walk up the steps and climb all over it. I remember sitting around the backside of it drinking a bottle of wine on one of the ledges.
The view from the top of Temple V, looking towards Temple I (R) and the North Acropolis (L) in the Gran Plaza.
That’s one hairy staircase!!
Temple IV, as seen from the Pyramid.
The temples of the Gran Plaza, from on top of the Pyramid.
Gran Plaza, from Temple IV. Pyramid, from Temple IV.
A magical and timeless sunset from the top of Temple IV, looking east towards the Gran Plaza.
This was the highlight of my trip to Belize! The Actun Tunichil Muknal (ATM) cave is a river cave that was used by the Mayans centuries ago for human sacrifices and other ceremonies and rituals. The government has limited the number of companies that can conduct the tour in order to preserve the site (in fact it may be completely closed to tourists soon), and I traveled to the town of San Ignacio (called Cayo by the locals)to get on board one of these tours.
We turned out to have a fun group of people on the tour, and our tour guide was a local guy with a voice like the British comedian Lenny Henry and a sense of humour to match. After a bumpy hour long 4WD drive into the mountains, we got changed into our bathers and hiked 45 minutes through the rainforest and across three river fords to the mouth of the cave. There, we had a quick lunch before gearing up (helmet, lamp and bathers – that’s it!). The entrance to the cave was definitely dramatic – an ice-cold rock pool leading to the dark abyss beyond!
The cave entrance!
We swam into the cave and then crawled, swam and walked about a mile deep into the cave following the river bed. We then turned off the main passage and climbed up into a side chamber. There we saw the remnants of the sacrifices – broken pottery and pots, numerous bones, skulls and even a complete skeleton that over the centuries had been coated by minerals from the cave.
(L) It can be scary in the dark! That’s me holding one of the stone tools that the Mayans used to use to kill their sacrifices. (R) Pottery shards and human bones.
The skeleton of a young girl after whom the cave is named.
Hiking back to the van.