mainland belize and i got off to a shaky start but i think we're friends now. yesterday i hopped in the truck with john and linda and we covered a couple hundred miles of sites. it was a long day but totally worth it. our first stop was caracol, mayan ruins, about 50ish miles away, mostly on unpaved roads. it took somewhere around 3 hours to get there. the ruins were fascinating, lots of fun things to climb, unsafe holes to fall into, good stuff. i keep saying that i'm done with ruins, i've been to too many, i can't possibly take another, but honestly they are so awe inspiring that i'm always glad i've gone to see one more. but now i'm done. seriously.
after caracol, which is really the end of the road, we backtracked to the mountain pine ridge forest reserve and stopped at the rio on pools. john wanted to stop at the rio on caves but we couldn't seem to find them. to go through the reserve you are normally required to get a military escort but when we checked in their truck had broken down. so when checking out we were supposed to ask for the secret road (apparently) to the caves but we didn't learn that until much later. oh well.
the rio on pools were super nice, lots of waterfalls and pools to swim in. instead of swimming we hiked to the bottom then back to the top. saw the biggest grasshopper i've ever seen, it was half the size of my foot.
after the pools we stopped at any trail on the side of the road that looked interesting and hiked a bit into the jungle. we found an old army training center rotting and falling apart, made out of tree branches and rough cut benches, the frame was still standing with laminated jungle rules attached. "don't antagonize the scorpions and snakes." i guess you do have to tell boys that. we also found a homemade snare, an intricately handwoven palm frond cage with a small opening on one side and spikes inside, baited with a chicken bone.
not alot in the way of wildlife sightings beside the giant grasshopper. i was almost planning on getting bitten by a snake in the jungle. no snakes, no jaguars, no monkeys (but we could hear them howling). i'm sure i'll find plenty in guatemala.
maybe the coolest wildlife i've seen here are the leaf cutter ants. they walk up and down their trails with their triangle shaped leaf parts, busy busy busy. they spend so much time walking from trees to their nest that they carve their trails into the dirt, you can see them from far away, maybe an inch deep and 2 inches wide. they must be walking the same path for months.
as we were driving we saw a giant sign on the side of the road that said 'look', with a giant smiley face. so we stopped to look, of course. peeking into the trees i saw a cave at the bottom of a small hill, straight down. i was the first to go down the trail, which turned out to be some mud and slimy wet rocks. which made me start sliding right towards the hole in the ground. slightly out of control, i grabbed the first tree i could find so i wouldn't slide into the seemingly bottomless cave and hurray, its covered in 2 inch spikey thorns. thankfully many other people had fallen into this same situation so most of the spikes at the sliding-on-your-ass level were broken off.
what would make someone put up a sign that would lead you to accidentally slide down over rocks into a black hole in the ground? after regaining footing and inspecting the cave with a headlamp john decided that since we didn't have any rope we shouldn't climb down.
back in the truck we took the road leading to the 1000 foot falls. there was a nice smooth dirt road leading up to a resort (which had a sign saying that their bathrooms, restaurant, bar, and waterfalls were for their guests only and we were not welcome. linda thinks its where the stars go to get their nose and boob jobs). after the resort it was back to pot holes and gullies.
1000 foot falls is beautiful. and actually 1600 feet. the valley is immense, tree covered mountains all the way into guatemala. john and i hiked around a bit and it reminded me of the kalalau trail, its perfectly ok to hike but you have to be ok with heights. big heights.
there is an old mayan couple that lives above the viewing platform and collected our $2bz to see the falls. they had a little store with no electricity selling handcrafted jewelry and clothing and luke warm drinks. they've lived there for 23 years, in almost total isolation, taking care of the grounds and charging the tourists. they go to town for a couple hours every other month to buy supplies. town is a very bumpy 2 hour ride, if you're in a hurry.
between the atm cave, caves branch tubing, caracol, rio on, 1000 foot falls and ambergris caye i've covered an immense portion of belize in 2 weeks. the maya mountains are vast bunches of adventure that i've barely seen, though. maybe some day.
so to wrap up belize, gorgeous scenery, endless activities, but culture wise it lacks a bit. someone who lives here said that they've gotten their cultures so mixed up that they don't have anything that particularly represents belizean people. they copy things from mexico and guatemala since they've forgotten their own roots. the only representative food i could find was baked beans and rice, or stew beans and rice, just a different kind of beans, really. but everyone speaks english and that makes it really easy to attract tourists. i think i'll come back some day.
now its time to shake all the ants out of my keyboard and move on.
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| a little warning, please |
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