10 Days in Belize Part 2

Five Islands
John & Sue
Tue 15 Jul 2014 22:33
San Ignacio

> We caught another chicken bus at 0630 from Placencia to Belmopan. This service was called Ritchie's and cost $16BLZ for the 2hr bus ride. Part of the service of the buses in Belize and Guatemala is that the conductor gets off the bus and helps to carry bags, shopping etc onto the bus or stows them at the rear of the bus. You get on the bus, then at some point the conductor comes round and collects the bus fare. The bus went to Dangriga, where we had a 15 min stop. A couple of guys came on the bus selling freshly cooked food. We had some conch fritters which were a bit oily but good flavour. We got off this bus at Belmopan, the capital of Belize. Belize City used to be the capital until it was severely damaged by Hurricane Hattie in 1961. 70% of the Government buildings were destroyed so the Belize government built Belmopan to be the countries new capital, inland and better protected. The bus to San Ignacio was full and it looked as if there would be over an hours wait for the next one. We were approached by Robert and took his taxi the 1hr journey for $40US (we were the only passengers). Robert filled us in on Belize attractions, border disputes with Guatemala, the World Cup Soccer, the drug issue and many more topics. He gave us a quick run around San Ignacio so we could get our bearings and dropped us off near the Casa Blanca, our hotel for the next 3 nights.
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> This is a great cheap, clean, air conditioned hotel that has its own travel agent attached. Very convenient for us as we had come to San Ignacio to do some cave tours.
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> Our first big adventure was ATM (Actun Tunichil Muknal) Cave. We had identified this tour as one we really wanted to do but all the sites we looked for info said you needed to be quite fit to do it. My ankles are a problem and i was a bit concerned but thought what the hell if you don't have a go, you'll never know. We booked through K'atun Ahaw Culture & Adventures at a cost of $95US each. Although all the tour companies appear to charge the same amount, this was a small group (only 3 people) and was a bit more personalised some of the larger groups with 10 or more people. Our driver Eddie and our guide Lennie picked us up from the hotel at 0800 in a 4x4 SUV. We drove along the main road then headed onto a dirt road to reach the carpark (about an 1 hrs drive). We were lucky to see and watch a river otter as we crossed over a bridge on the way. Gorgeous creature who just looked at us before continuing on up river. We arrived and had leave cameras/phones etc in the car as a tourist had dropped a camera on a skull and damaged it a couple of years ago, hence the borrowing of some images off the internet of people had been able to take photos previously. I have blanked out faces but wanted to give you an idea of our grand adventure. After a short break we were decked out with helmets fitted with a headlamp (not waterproof, so no underwater diving allowed) we headed off on the 3/4 hr walk through the jungle on a reasonably flat dirt track.
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> We followed the river and had to cross it 3 times before reaching the cave entrance. The crossings were from ankle to lower chest deep (on me 5ft2in tall). Saw a few lizards and butterflies along the trail but not much else.
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> We reached the 'base camp' and took the opportunity to go to the loo. The only reason i mention this is that the toilet was a photo opportunity but sadly no camera to show the piece of tin that came to chest height to hide you from the track and passers-bye. The toilet was a wooden box and seat and you guessed it a good old fashioned long drop, well not so long, more like a bit of a hole in the ground. Anyway after swallowing more water and leaving our water bottles behind we clambered down some rocks into the river bed.
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> The cave entry is a large pool which we had to swim through (about 30m or so). The water was a little cool initially, especially for a big wooz like me.
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> We then entered the cave and followed the Muknal Creek bed for about an hour. Sometimes climbing over dry rocks but most of the time wading through water which got as deep as up to my neck.
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> Some areas were a bit of a squeeze.
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> This one in particular required keeping your head above the ledge of rock and your body below it so your neck went through the narrow gap.
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> We filly reached the area where the pottery and skeletons were found on a ledge in 1989. To access the ledge initially we had to climb up a large, steep sided bolder and clamber onto a rock ledge where we removed our shoes and proceeded in socks. No safety rails here!!! The cave was opened to the pubic in 1998 and very few of the artefacts have been excavated as many have been covered with calcite. The Mayan Priests and Kings/Queens had visited this cave over many centuries but it appears that they moved progressively further into the cave over time and this part of the cave was used between 700 to 900AD when the offerings and sacrifices increased. Our guide posed the thought that change was happening to the Maya civilisation and to appease the Gods of the 'under world' offerings and sacrifices were made more often. The pots contained offerings of food etc and were broken when laid on the alter stones.

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> 14 skeletal remains have been found in this area of the cave. To access the second level required climbing an aluminium ladder that had been lashed at the to but required a step sideways onto another rock ledge - no safety rails here either!
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> The most famous of the skeletons is a complete skeleton of a 17 to 20 year old most sites say it was a young female but our guide said a male. It is not known whether this person died as a sacrifice or as a result of an accident. We spent about 1/2 hour or so walking around constantly looking where we placed our feet as the artefacts were lying around with only some red tape to alert you to a small piece of crockery or a babies skull. I'm not sure there are too many places you can get this close to artefacts without being behind a barrier of some sort.
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> So we now had to turn around and make our way back down the ladder, put our wet shoes back on, reverse over the ledge and climb down the boulder back into the underground creek and make our back out the way we had come in. At some stage Lennie asked the 3 of us if we were claustrophobic as he wanted to take us through another passage which would take about 5 mins. To be honest if i was claustrophobic i would not have made it this far so after assuring him we were fine we headed off to a cleft in the rock which we had to negotiate sideways with water up to my neck then turn and over a rock under an over hang lying on our stomach and side crabbing to get underneath it. Great fun.
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> We negotiated the rest of the journey out passing the magnificent stalactites and stalagmites turning our lights off at one point to listen to the absolute silence and experience the true darkness of the under world.
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> Finally coming to the mouth of the cave and the swim out. It was just beautiful and as per normal the little fish nibble my legs and arms. Not sure why I attract the wildlife. We walked back to the car, had lunch under a shady tree and then were delivered safely back to our hotel.
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> This was one of the best things we have done and if you get to Belize put it on your list of must do's.
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> We discovered an amazing Restaurant that night called 'Fuego Bar & Grill' which means 'Fire' in English. The food was amazing and different e.g. the Chef had bought a local plant like Spinach at the market that day, fried it with soy sauce, garlic, other secret ingredients and added something to give it a little bit heat. It was crunchy. May not sound great but it was really tasty especially when it accompanied the Pork Belly, rice and veg. John had 'Fuego' Chicken on a bed of smashed Plantains. We returned the next night for more great food and the best customer service we have had for a very long time.
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> The next day with slightly stiff muscles, we opted for a more relaxed tour and did a canoe paddle through the Barton Creek Cave ($75US each). Eddie picked us up from our hotel, this time in a near new Prado. We drove to 'Teakettle' village, turned off the main road and proceeded through Orange orchards and Mahogany and Teak plantations for about 1/2 hour. It is a short walk from the car park to the canoe landing.
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> After donning a life jacket we climbed into the canoe and headed for the cave entrance.
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> We had to paddle to the rock in the centre. Really pretty.
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> Not sure what type of bird built this nest hanging from tree root over the water.
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> We glided through high ceilinged caverns, narrow bottle necks
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> and under suspended rock and calcite arches. Eddie is in the lead canoe with Autumn & Rosie, our tour companions.
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> We saw bats, catfish, white/translucent spiders and tucked up at the end of this crevice is a crab.
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> We gently paddled glided for for about 1/2 hour then when the ceiling became too low we turned around and came back out. Maya pottery and skeletons have been found in the cave as well but they are up on ledges and hard to see. This was a different way of seeing a of the spectacular caves that this region of Belize is famous for. There are also a number of Maya temples and structures nearby but we didn't visit these (we visited Tikal last year).
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> Bronze bananas. We bought some of these in the San Blas Islands in Panama a few years ago but had not seen them since.
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> Saturday is market day in San Ignacio. We headed down to have a look. Stalls of handicrafts (wood carvings, jade necklaces, beads and purses/bags made from 'tipica' fabric - all just like Guatemala), clothes, utensils and toys. We had lunch at a stall run by some Mennonite women. There is a large population of Mennonites in this area who have large farms and produce all the dairy products (milk, cheese, yoghurt etc) and a lot of the citrus and all the eggs and chickens for Belize. They are called the 'Modernites' by the locals as they use all the mod cons (tractors, headers etc). Their are also traditional Mennonites living here. It is not uncommon to see them on their horse drawn cart. We passed a sawmill that is all horse drawn - no electricity for these folk. The traditional Mennonites still wear the old fashioned dresses with the head scarf and the men have the trousers with the braces, the beards and the broad brimmed straw hats, while the Modernites have adopted slightly more trendy looks. The food was maize/corn based. One was marinated vegetables covered with a maize mixture like a dumpling/mash consistency, wrapped in a corn leaf and grilled on the B-B-Que. The other was a type of maize soft pastry (like a wrap) with spiced chicken inside, also B-B-Qued. We also had rice water and watermelon juice that had been put into re-used water and juice bottles. The whole meal cost us $3AU. Sooo good!
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> Did I mention the fresh fruit and veg.
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> The town square where the Fifa World Cup Soccer games were being shown. The beer tent was just to the left.
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> And they had a kick a soccer ball competion which the boys were pretty excited about.
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> We returned to the boat via a taxi ride from San Ignacio to the border (13kms for $30BLZ & $37.50BLZ each departure tax), a private taxi/car(Prado) ride from the border to Santa Elena/Flores (1.5hrs for $60US), a 3.5hr Fuente Del Norte bus from Santa Elena bus terminal to Fronteras and a Q10 Tuk Tuk ride (our friend Yovany) back to RAM Marina.
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> All in all we had a good time.
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