Because It's UnBelizeAble!

Port day three, and time for us to brush up on our Indiana Jones impressions. Belize was our day to explore some Mayan ruins. We were signed up for a bus tour through Belize City and out to Altun Ha, the Mayan ruin.

The tender ride to the dock was long and bumpy, but we arrived in one piece and dry, although one passenger on the tender couldn't say that she arrived dry. Once we arrived at port, we boarded our bus and met our tour guides for the day.

They pointed out the sites around Belize City, which included a lot of different schools and, well, not a whole lot else. It was an experience to drive around the city and see how the citizens live considering that most tourists only hear about the beautiful beaches and rain forests. You could see remnants of British control:

The mahogany tree, official tree of the country:

And the "Vote Castro" sign that Alec had to get a photo of--the countryside was covered in them :-)

The road also had a lot of these signs that made us giggle, because we're both twelve years old.

Then, of course, there were the ruins themselves. Altun Ha is an archaeological park. The artifacts that were found at the site are housed at the museum in Belize City since there was not enough funding to create a museum at the site. One of those artifacts is a large jade skull, one of the largest pieces of carved jade recovered in the Mayan culture. It is a Belizean national treasure and is carted out for special national events and dignitaries, but a replica is actually on display in the museum.

"Archeological investigations show that Altun Ha was occupied by 200 BC. The bulk of construction was from the Maya Classic era, c. 200 to 900 AD, when the site may have had a population of about 10,000 people. About 900 there was some looting of elite tombs of the site, which some think is suggestive of a revolt against the site's rulers. The site remained populated for about another century after that, but with no new major ceremonial or elite architecture built during that time. After this the population dwindled, with a moderate surge of reoccupation in the 12th century before declining again to a small agricultural village (Altun Ha, Wikipedia)."


It was drizzling off and on that day, and when it rains they don't allow visitors to climb the structures. I was about to get severely bummed when they decided to go ahead and let us go up. We climbed the slippery and steep staircase to the top of the pyramid, giving us a great view of the complex, as well as a view over the canopy of the forest. So green!

Apparently no human sacrifice occurred at this site, as there is no ball court present. Instead, the residents of this site participated in the ritual of blood-letting, or running barbs over their tongues or other sensitive bodily parts and letting the blood flow as a sacrifice. Ew, and messy.

And here you can see the staircase. Our legs were very, very sore after these stairs and trying to control our legs enough to not slip on the slippery rocks. After we made it down the pyramid, we made our way toward the bus with a stop at a snack bar to pick up a real Coca-Cola and a Belikin beer, the beer of Belize. Later, at the port, we tried the Belikin stout, which was pretty good. I wasn't as big a fan of the lighter one that Alec picked up.
Then it was back to the boat to clean up for another formal night and some fun with comedians and crazy audience members. Fun times!