You'd Better Belize It...!

The title of this entry is one of the popular catch phrases in Belize...appears on many t-shirts. This is the first entry about our time in Belize. I'm actually typing this in San Jose Costa Rica, so we've got some catching up to do!

Sue's last entry ended up with us arriving in San Ignacio. We arrived by shuttle bus from Tikal in the early afternoon of Sunday February 18th. San Ignacio is a quiet little town a few miles from the border, and although a prime tourist destination, it has little in the way of a tourist town feel about it. A few budget hotels scattered along the two or three main streets, a smattering of cheap restaurants and a few travel agencies are the only signs that this town is anything but a typical country town where the locals go quietly about their business. On this Sunday afternoon the town was very quiet, with most shops closed and only a few taxi drivers leaning against their delapidated-looking vehicles parked in the town's main intersection, a few of them making a half-hearted effort to have us take a taxi as we walked by. But as our target hotel was only a block away, we really didn't have any interest in a taxi. And anyway, it seemed to us that they really weren't all that bothered if their Sunday afternoon relaxation went undisturbed.

Our guidebook and a couple of people we'd spoken with along the way recommended Martha's Guest House, where, as one local put it, "you could lick the bathroom walls". (A clean bathroom is a prime selling feature of hotels in this part of the world!). We pulled our luggage along the dusty street in the blazing midday sun and stepped into Martha's, only to find they there were full (word gets around) and would be so for the next week. The fellow at the desk recommended a couple of others....the Casa Blanca and Venus Hotel...the Casa Blanca being preferable. So we walked back the way we'd come and got to the White House Hotel just as someone else was approaching the closed front door. We immediately heard someone inside yell "we're full" without even opening the door. At this point we started to get a little worried as there was supposed to be no problem getting accomodation in this town. While we stood there, a man appeared from the building next door which apparently was also a hotel, and said he had rooms. Dee and I had a look after a circuitous route through the man's reception hall, living room, past his kitchen, through a utility room at the back of the house, up some winding stairs and finally along a corridor to the proferred rooms. The two rooms looked a little shabby and after a quick look and a feel of the bed (the springs poked up through the mattress) Dee and I agree'd we'd better look elsewhere. The owner immediately started to drop the price, but his obvious desperation only confirmed that we should move on.

Anyway, we ended up at the Venus Hotel and got a nice airconditioned room for $35USD with a king size bed and private bathroom, overlooking a small park, the town's only real green space. Unfortunately, it was also the town's bus stop and they started chugging through with the ubiquitous noisy diesel engines at about 4:30 a.m. Oh well, all part of the fun! We booked into the Venus for two nights though we ended up staying four as we made San Ignacio our base for sightseeing in the area.

We walked back to Martha's, which had a nice "al fresco" cafe, for a late lunch. I tried a local dish called escabiche. It was a very interesting soup-like dish with chunks of chicken in a broth liberally infused with jalapenos, allspice and cardemon. Quite tastely but once was enough.

Across the street from the Venus was the restaurant/travel agency/general hang out place called Eva's. At any time of the day or night you could find a mixture tourists and dark skinned locals with their dreadlocks and colorful head gear, languidly sitting in the dark interior or at a couple of tables placed precariously close to the narrow street and occasional passing vehicles, sipping on a Belliken (the national beer of Belize) or chowing down on a plate of rice and beans with whatever thrown in. We spoke with a women inside (Eva??) about a tour to the famous ATM caves and after the mandatory bargaining process, we arranged a tour for the next day.

The Actun Tunichil Muknal Cave (this mouthful has obviously been shortened by the travelling fraternity to the much more manageable ATM Cave) is the most popular activity in the area and again was to prove to be a most memorable experience for us all. The ATM cave is a registerd archeological site and can only be accessed with a guide in groups of 8 or less people. So with our guide and driver, and a young couple from Brooklyn we set off in the mini van for the 45 (Belizian) minutes drive to the park entrance, including the obligatory dirt road section.

We actually arrived more or less as scheduled and set off on a 45 minute walk through the dense jungle to the cave entrance. The walk was fascinating as we encountered a number of interesting plants and sights along the way, and had to cross the swiftly flowing 50 ft wide river three times, stepping very carefully across the rock-strewn river bed.

Just after we started our walk, Carlos, our guide and a most interesting and informative fellow, stopped to pick a leaf from a bush or small tree. He proceeded to tear this into pieces, giving one to each of us to eat. He said we would get the tour of to a mellow and enjoyable start by trying this slightly hallucinogenic substance (not sure what it was). We all complied (tasted pretty much like you'd expect a leaf to taste!) and proceeded down the trail. I didn't feel anything at all as a result and no one else appeared to by glassy-eye'd, so I'm not sure if Carlos was having us on or whether we'd had a small enough dose so as not to have any affect.

Not much further along the trail, Carlos again stopped to pick a leaf from the tree that produces quinine. This leaf actually tasted a lot like tonic water believe it or not. Natives have used this leaf throughout history for the cure of malaria. As we proceeded along the trail, Carlos pointed out many other plants used as herbal medicines; one for red eye; another for high blood pressure and a couple of others. He also pointed to the leaf cutter ants that they put on a cut....the ant apparently bites the skin hopefully closing the wound. The "patient" then snips off the body, leaving the head imbedded to keep the wound closed. (It takes many ants and even more attempts, to close a wound). We also encountered the "Chiklet tree" the sap of which was used to produce the first chewing gum, and rubber trees (you know what that's used for). At one point we came across a large termite nest attached to the trunk of a tree. Carlos quickly shoved his walking stick into the middle of the coffee-colored mass, producing a hole out of which spewed thousands of the tiny brown termites. Carlos told us termites were a great source of protein used by the natives and and he reached in and snared a few between thumb and finger, offering each of us in turn a chance to try this little forest-produced meal. All of us save pollo Susan bit down on a couple of the tiny insects and were surprised to experience a burst of flavour totally disproportionate to the size of the creature. And, as Carlos had told us, they did taste just like carrots. If someone had told me I'd be eating termites on this trip, I wouldn't have believed them, but it was quite an interesting experience and certainly we had no ill affects. And of course the jokes started immedately from Rose, about using termites in her favourite carrot cake recipe when she got home !

And as we continued along the path Carlos stopped a couple of more times. Once he poked a long twig down a one-inch diameter hole he came across. He told us it was a tarantula nest and the spider might be coaxed out by the twig...but alas the little beast would not cooperate...so no tarantula sighting this day. And then further along, Carlos pointed to some fresh tracks in a bit of mud in the path. The large cat tracks had been recently made he said and by the looks of them they were from a large jaguar. Like most tourists in this part of the world, the only jaguar we were to see was in the Belize Zoo a couple of days later, though sightings of tracks are quite common. Carlos says he's only had four sightings in the wild himself in his whole life, so it would have been something for us to see one here. The closest we were to get to a cat in the wild was having heard what we believed was a jaguar in Puerto Barrios.

So we finally arrived at the entrance to the cave, and magificent spot in the jungle. A sparkling stream ran out of the dark cave mouth, over some large boulders into a small pool dappled dark and light by the bright sun shining through the towering foliage. It was a beautiful site which added to our delight of the day so far. But we were all anxious to be on our way into the cave, so after having some fruit and cookies from our boxed lunches, we donned our hard hats and headlamps and clambered over the rocks at the entrance into the darkness beyond.

Unlike our previous cave experience at Semuc Champey, this cave tour was much better organized and there was even some attention to safety. Carlos carried a backpack which had a waterproof bag inside for our cameras. It also contained a powerful spot light which he use to light up the cave, and medical supplies incase of an injury. And of course we all had a head lamps which meant both our hands were free to help negotiate the cave tunnels.

Again we had to swim across a pool about 50 ft wide, but we were to find that that was the only swimming we would have to do. The rest of the trek into the heart of the cave was either long shallow streams or dry rock beds, so a much easier time of it, though by no means a walk in the park. We encountered several narrow passage ways that required the skills of a contortionist, and a couple of ascents that were bordering on dangerous. I actually scraped my shin at one point so left a modicum of my blood in the cave to mingle with the age-old artifacts. I think the others also had the odd scrape or bruise, but generally we survived the trip with no problem.

Along the trip we stopped often to marvel at sparkling formations, stalactites, stalagmites, rock flows, and tumbling waterfalls. We also encountered a number of bats, small cave crickets and even small fish living in pools in the total darkness. After about an hour we reached the main cavern and what sights greeted us there!

The ATM caves had been re-discovered by archeologists in the eighties. The first explorers missed the main cavern and its wonders and it was only three years after the first forays into the cave that a European archeologist took a tributary tunnel and stumbled upon a huge collection of Mayan artifacts. And the site as been left virtually undisturbed since then. Scattered everywhere on the dry cave floor are earthenware pots, plates, tools and implements. At one point there is an obsidian blade, a clear indication of human sacrifices performed here. And the most dramatic objects are the skulls and bones of natives dating back 1000 years or more, lying undisturbed for centuries. And the most fascinating of these is the complete skeleton of a young women lying at the foot of a stone wall. Carlos pointed out that her head had been fractured from a blow, here pelvis was boken as was one of her legs. A stone axe lay nearby which may have been the implement of her death. This was a very impressive and poignant sight and we all stood in the absolute quiet of the cave pondering what might have happened here so many centuries ago.

Carlos told us that only males were allowed in caves and then usually shamans as caves were mystical and potentially home to evil spirits. Whether the girl had ventured into the cave and had been killed as punishment, or deliberately taken in to be sacrificed, no one will ever know. But to see that small, broken skeleton lying on the cave floor certainly made Mayan history much more real for us.

What is so fascinating about these caves is that we are allowed in them at all. This is one of the most important archeological sights in Central America and tourists are allowed to walk freely with no barriers or prohibited areas, among the artifacts and bones. And in fact a year or so ago, a woman lost her balance and accidently stepped on one of the fragile skulls, shattering the priceless antiquity. We considered ourselves lucky to have seen this mystical place of the Mayans and wonder if we will be among the last to be able to do so.

As we were about to start the outward journey, Carlos asked us to sit down and turn off all our lamps. And then in the total darkness, he asked each of us to say what we had seen and what we felt about the experience. Each of us in turn talked about what a moving, mystical and magical experience it had been to encounter this site full of actual Mayan relics. In the total darkness it almost seemed as if the Mayans would be there in the flesh if we turned on our lamps. And letting your imagine run a little, you could almost hear the crackling of a fire and the sounds of a ceremonial Mayan chant. It was with some reluctance that we turned on our lamps for the trek back, returning from the imaginary world of the Maya we'd been experiencing in the darkness.

We carefully retraced our steps through the artifacts scattered around the huge cave and put on our soaking shoes we'd left at the entrance to this sight (stocking or bare feet only are allowed around the Mayan site). Thus equipped for the hard rocks on the way out, we made our way carefully along the stream until the light of the entrance signalled the end of our journey.

What a day we had had! A fabulous botanic tour, a challenging and spectacular cave excursion and the opportunity to experience an undisturbed ancient Mayan site where the ghosts of those who died there, are said to reside to this day.

Our walk back to the van was uneventful save for some more large cat tracks in the mud that Rose swore were not there when we'd made the inbound trek that morning. We arrived back at the park gates and were soon back in San Ignacio reflecting over our unbelievable day over a cool Belliken or two.

So that was our first full day in Belize. I'll give a summary of our remaining Belize trip in the next entry. Until then....