Caracol and a Waterfall

If you haven’t spent a day climbing and jumping off of things, I suggest you either find a place to do so or transform your backyard into a pool and jump off the roof. While this may not give you the same Mayan Indiana Jones feeling I had today, it’s the best idea I have for replicating the experience without actually coming to Belize. Which you should do anyway, so forget the backyard pool and just get on a plane.  

My morning started off with a peanut butter and banana sandwich, and considering I hadn’t had peanut butter in three weeks, I was already happy to call it a day. Little did I know just how much more exciting the day would get after my energizing breakfast. When the air conditioned passenger bus pulled up in front of our hotel at 7:30am, I was amazed at how far bussing technology had come since the previous day. The first place this miraculously cool mode of transportation took us was at first glance a dirt road. However, it turns out if you walk on dirt roads, they tend to lead to other places. In this case, we wound up at the top of a set of stone steps that lead down to the second entrance of a Mayan shelter cave. In case your cave knowledge is the same as mine was at the beginning of the day, caves are huge. Just the sheer size made me feel about the size of a mosquito, and that was before hearing about the history held its cool, damp walls. Apparently the cave was used as a shelter way back in the day (picture 600 B.C.), as evidenced by the pottery and tools found scattered around its ledges and near the small river that runs through it. Our guide, Diego, informed us that this cave is the smallest of the Belizean cave systems, which makes me rather giddy to explore Actun Tunichil Muknal (worth a google) tomorrow.

After a series of jaw drops and group photos, we headed back to the bus and drove onward to Caracol. Here we spent much of the afternoon having our minds and eyes filled with amazing knowledge of Mayan architecture, agriculture, recreation, and religion. Not only were we allowed to touch the ruins, but to climb on them as well. Caracol means “snail” in Spanish, which is appropriate considering how long it took me to crawl to the top of the ruins. Ancient Mayans must have had amazing legs.

Another highlight of the day was our protein-enriched pre-lunch snack—termites. I ate a termite. From a tree. It tasted like minty carrots.

After the insect appetizer, we sat down to an amazing lunch of chicken burritos, watermelon, and banana chocolate chip bread. It was right after we got under our lunchtime shelter that it began to rain, cooling the area and allowing me to stop sweating for the first time in 7 hours. From there it was back to the bus and on to the most refreshing part of the day; river swimming and waterfall jumping. Again we were dropped off on a dirt road with our backpacks slung over our shoulders and made the trek down to Five Sisters Falls. I have not felt such joy climbing rocks and jumping into water since the infamous River Rat trip of ’02. The rest of the afternoon was spent swimming around and, in my case, trying to look a lot cooler than I actually am by attempting to jump off the side of a waterfall. I made it out unscathed, but it seems I won’t be adding “graceful” to my list of attributes anytime soon.

The evening was topped off with a grilled chicken and brie sandwich and some San Ignacio exploring. Now I’m all set to be rocked to sleep by the gentle blaring of the techno music coming from the club next door. Goodnight to all.