April 9 - April 13, 2012

Last week we went inland to San Ignacio and it was great! We traveled all day Monday to get there and our methods of traveling were a serious culture shock for me. First we left San Pedro by water taxi which is a boast PACKED with people, and we rode that for about 2 hours.  We arrived in Belize City were we ate lunch and waited for a taxi.  We found a van that we can all fit in and it look extremely sketchy.  The van took us to to the bus station.  This is where it go crazy! The bus station was full of old school buses, and they are known as "chicken buses".  We had to wait in the station for about an hour until our bus was ready to leave.  When it was time to get on the bus one of the Grad Students Mike that is with us told us to RUN to the back that way we could trick the crowd and get on from the back.  We were squished up against the door and they opened it and there was a mad rush to the bus.  I sprinted to the back but so did half of the other people.  They were having to lift us into the bus where we had to fight for seats.  There was about 100 people on the bus.  I was really worried about it being stinky, but all the windows were open and it was fine.  We rode that bus for another 2 hours stopping every 100 yards to let people off and on.  That was exhausting.  

We finally made it to San Ignacio and we stayed at Rosa's.  San Ignacio looked more like what I was expecting a Central American town to look like. We were in the mountains and it was gorgeous.  You could see the houses going up the hills and there were little shops and houses everywhere. 

Monday was a very tiring day but it was totally worth it!  When will I ever get to say again the I rode a chicken bus through Central America again!?

For the rest of this entry I am going to just talk about the different excursions we did instead of going by days.

Caracol

Caracol is a Mayan ruin that was a huge city.  It was really cool to walk around and see all the different ruins and temples that had pasted the test of time.  Our guide Diego was awesome and very passionate about Mayan history.  I learned a lot about the meaning behind a lot of their temples.  The Ruler was the "meteorologist" and would  predict when the rain was coming.  He was able to do this because of the was they built one of the temples.  Depending on where the sun rose over this temple was similar to a calendar and would let him know when summer and winter solstice was coming. We also learned about their different beliefs.  When a child was born into a royal family they would tie a board to the child's forehead so the child would have a tall, flat forehead.  They would also tie a jewel to this bored that would hang in front of the child's eyes and would make the child be cross-eyed. Something else that I found really interesting was that the archeologists didnt uncover all the temples.  They left a lot of them covered with grass, trees, flowers and all sorts of wildlife because they didnt want to disturb the nature that was there.

After this LONG day at Caracol we went to the most gorgeous waterfall ever and went swimming!  We were able to jump off different ledges into the water.  I was too big of a chicken to do any of the super high ones because you had to climb up really slippery rocks and I was not about to do that.  I did jump off a medium one that was not as intimidating.  The water was really refreshing and was a nice change to go to fresh water after being in salt water for so long.

 

ATM Tour

This tour was through an underwater cave where many of the Mayan rituals were performed.  It was the second coolest thing I have ever done.  It was pitch black and we had head lamps on but for a long period of that the guide had us turn them off and walk through holding on to each others shoulders.  He was carrying mint leaves and it was amazing how strong the smell was in the huge cave.  There were some parts of the caves where you had to squeeze your neck through this really skinny part, and that was really scarey.  After about an hour of walking, climbing and crawling we make it to the main room where things were happening.  We learned about blood letting and that is where men and women would cut themselves and bleed on a piece of paper and then the Ruler would burn the paper in the cave, this apparently was a very popular method of giving back to the Gods.  The part that got me the most was this fully intact skeleton was laying in the back, and she was a human sacrifice.  I asked if this would be something that people volunteered for or was it a decision the Ruler made.  Martin, our guide, told me that it was always a volunteer and it was an honor for those volunteers. He also said that she was left in a way that made her look like she was dancing so she was not only giving herself but her talents.  That gave me goose bumps.  We hung out for about an hour looking at all the cool stuff and then traveled back for an hour.  The water in the cave was freezing!! I was ready to get dried off.

Crystal Cave

This was by far the coolest thing I have ever done! It was only Colin, Tony, Elizabeth, Diego and myself.  We had to hike through the jungle for about an hour to get to the entrance of the cave.  Then once we got there we had to REPEL down into the cave! Never in my life did I ever think I would do anything like this!  We went straight down for about 10 feet and then stayed on the line and walked backwards for another 15 feet.  People rarely take this tour because it is so intense.  Once in the cave we were in there for four hours.  The Crystal Cave is a dry cave so there was no walking through water but there was slick clay all over and some unsteady rocks.  We crawling up and down to get to the back of the cave which is a place called "Wonderland".  This cave was truly amazing.  Everything was pure white and sparkly.  There was stalagmites hanging everywhere and the walls were covered in minerals.  We could only touch what had been touched before and that was the brown spots because the oils from our hands would kill the minerals and keep them from growing.  It was the most physically challenging activity I have ever done!  Ok, back to Wonderland!  This place was the farthest back in the cave you can go, and the air was much thinner and that was what made it so beautiful.  I wish I could tell you more about this cave but until you see it in person you will never understand how beautiful it was. 
After the Crystal Cave we went to a Blue Hole which is a really, really deep hole that people can go swimming in.  It was really nice but we were all too tired to enjoy it haha.  Lets just say that it was a very quiet ride home that day.

The Belize Zoo 

The zoo was more like the wild than the zoo!  There are animals behind chicken wire basically, and some you were allowed to pet.  I think my favorite animal was the tapir.  That is the national animal, and it is really ugly but really sweet.  Another cool thing about the zoo was that we got to go inside a cage inside the jaguar's cage and feed him!  His name was Jr. and he could do tricks like doing a somersault.  He was really cool.  I got to see some really awesome animals.