Day 5--Xunantunich & Belizean Birthday (reported on Day 7)

Right now, it is Day 7, and we have just crossed the Guatemalan border on our way to Tikal. On a bumpy bus and without my keyboard, I will attempt to thumb the events of Day 5.

Our group, lead by Ernesto, walked into the centre of San Ignacio to have lunch at a little hut barbecuing chicken. Very inexpensive, very delicious and served with the usual suspects - beans, rice or tortillas.

Then we waited quite a while at a bus stop for a “chicken bus” to a Mayan Ruin called Xunantunich about 40 minutes out.

The bus let us out at a ferry dock where a teensy hand-cranked ferry took us and about two cars across a teensy river—five minutes at most Then we set off on foot UP HILL and more uphill and even more uphill, (les pouffes les pants) . Oh good! Downhill! Oh damn! More uphill.  

But finally we dragged ourselves  Rob and I—as the youngsters didn’t seem to be puffing) to the site of Xunantunich. It is so amazing to see one of these Mayan structures in person after reading about them for so long.

There was a residential building (you could still see the stone beds—no roofs) and some buildings not excavated, but the best was the castle.

Tall steps galore going up to the top—a real thigh workout even if I had two good knees—but at this structure, only one small section of the climb had any handrails. So, about 3/4 way to the top, I quit (afraid of falling ) and Rob, with his fear of heights, carried on to the top. Stoic, or crazy?

Our walk back to the ferry was MUCH less rigorous, and we arrived just in time for the last crossing. A tree trunk overhanging the river was festooned with tiny little brown bats—fluttering like moths and so camouflaged that they were barely noticeable.

How many tiny bats do you see in this photo?
That evening our group walked to Hanna’s Restaurant in town for dinner. Everyone was making a big deal of the fact it was my birthday, and encouraged me to celebrate with a frozen Pina Colada. It was mammoth! A piece of cheesecake with a lit candle was brought to me as we finished up. My first Belizean birthday!




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 9--All-Day Snorkel Tour

Image
Yesterday most of our tour wanted the All Day Snorkel Tour. The weather held—the trip was a GO, so we had to book at 8 am to get fitted with fins and masks. (For the 10 am sail). I discovered that they had prescription masks. I tried one and LIKED it. (Deposit required). We were in a big sail boat which held the 14 snorklers and 5 crew. Sun came out—sunscreen came out as motored along toward the reef and against the wind for about 45 minutes. At the first stop, we geared up and went over the side (some of us much less gracefully than others, I’m afraid) and once I got the knack of breathing through my mouth, I was ok. The sea was rough though, so waves sometimes got into my tube/mouth, and I had to remind myself that I probably wouldn’t drown. We saw big nurse sharks, stingrays, and sea turtles feeding on the bottom. WOW. One turtle came up for a gulp of air right under Marina and she petted it. Back on the boat, we moved on to the second stop—a channel right at the...
Read more

Day 6-- Walk Through Town

Image
I will get back to Day 5, but first I want to offload some pictures of our walk through town today on Day 6. We are having a relaxing, non-tour day after our exhausting jaunt yesterday.  We had a late-ish brekkie in our hotel and then set off for downtown with camera and binos. Right away, we spotted a pair of woodpeckers on a pole - yet to be identified - but after that, it was primarily beautiful flowering plants, people and places. This house was clearly under construction and not nearly done, but this fellow was lovingly cleaning the glass of this china cupboard. This  was an “everything” store AND hotel.  How handy! Convenient shoe repair around the corner from the hotel. Hansi This is the woodpecker I mentioned earlier. He is Velasquez’s Woodpecker. Velasquez’s Woodpecker. From where we bought an apple turnover - yet to be eaten. From where we bought a slice of pizza. Eaten! Do I hear you sayi...
Read more