Our next port was Belize City, in the country of Belize. There is a set of Mayan ruins about 45 minutes outside the city, and, before I ever boarded, I had signed up for a ship-arranged tour. I was glad to hear that my new friends had signed up for the same tour. The ruins were amazing, but we had quite a bit of fun when we returned to the city, too.
The port in Belize is too shallow for our cruise ship, so we had to take a fifteen minute ride on a tender into port:
Just to reintroduce my shipboard friends, that’s Bobby and Joe in the lower left corner.
Our guide for the day was Peter, or, as he taught us to say in Creole, Petah (you’ll see a photo of him later in the post). He told us some say the motto of his country is “Belize It or Not”, but he doesn’t like that one. However, he gave a hearty endorsement to “I Belize”. As our tour bus pulled through Belize City, he gave us a running commentary. My impression was that it is much, much nicer than the port in Roatan:
That last photo above is the house of a former President of Belize. Peter said he comes out to walk his dog, unguarded, every morning. Peter was very proud of how stable Belize is compared to other Central American countries. Surprisingly, the Mennonites have made a significant contribution to that. There is a sizable Mennonite community in Belize and they have provided a foundation of stability.
Not so nice is a neighborhood we drove past where a contractor cut corners by not driving pilings down to anchor his houses:
Now, they’re unlivable.
On the way to the ruins, we stopped to see a strange parasitic cactus that climbs a tree and eventually kills it:
The name of the Mayan site we went to is Altun Ha, which means "rockstone water" in Mayan.. We were excited to pile off the bus and see our first ruin:
New collections of ruins are being discovered all the time in Central America, and many of them, like Altun Ha, are only partially excavated. For example, here is some ongoing excavation that was last worked on six months before we arrived:
Also, all of the clear spaces you’ll see below were initially as heavily forested as the surroundings. Many structures are substantially excavated, though. We had just to turn the corner to enter the first of two large plazas:
My friends climbed to the top of one structure while I stayed below to take their picture:
That’s Bobby and Joe again, on the ends, with Lynn and Stephanie between them. For the curious, yes, Stephanie was 4 1/2 months pregnant at this time. Didn’t slow her down a bit.
On to the next great plaza:
We all trouped up the largest structure, with great views from the top:
Directly behind me is the second plaza we visited; at the right of the photo is the first plaza.
Here’s the drop that was right behind us:
There was even an altar on top:
(Okay, pet peeve time: when someone parks themself in front of an interesting feature.)
On the back side of the second plaza were several basins, perhaps for rituals, or maybe just for water storage:
On the way out, we stopped at the vendors that we had bypassed on the way in:
The lady above was very proud of the bags she made (that's all embroidery), and also that she’d made the dress she is wearing.
When we got back to town, there was still some time before we had to board the ship, so Peter stuck with our little group, and showed us around the dockside neighborhood. First, he took us to a restaurant that offered a free drink to everyone on the tour. They were hoping we’d stay for dinner, but Peter said there was much better food down the street. He took us to a little street-side stand where we got very delicious tacos with very hot sauce. While we were eating, there was a downpour, but we all huddled under the stand’s small awning and had a great time. Then Peter took us to a street beer vendor:
The beers are dispensed through those iron bars you see at the right. I had a locally brewed stout, and it was outstanding. Peter was laughing that we were drinking our beers on the steps of City Hall. As American tourists, we were exempt from a local law against that, and by association, so was he. (To be clear, Stephanie did not join in for ether the restaurant drink or a beer.)
Sadly, it was time to go, but we we had to have a photo with Peter:
After a couple of action-packed days of touring, we were ready for a laid-back beach day, which is the topic of my next post.
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