Belize Friday, February 20, 2015

Today we are being transported to Belize City to catch our 12:45 plane back to Denver. We have a long layover in Houston and it will be great to get home tonight at around 9:00 pm. Good bye Belize. Wonderful trip!

Huge bamboo plant on Crystal Paradise property

Beautiful grounds

Tropical plantings. This used to be the Tut farm.

Main building

Belize Thursday, February 19, 2015

Today we took a canoe down the Macal River after a leisurely breakfast. Carolita set me up with my own little coffee maker so I could brew my decaf. It is not normally served in Belize. I always look forward to being greeted as Miss Ruth every morning before a wonderful breakfast of fresh squeezed orange juice, eggs, black beans, stewed tomatoes or zucchini and homemade tortillas.

The Macal River does not have a strong current, so we we rowed down the river. Comically, we got stuck in the first "rapid" that we came to. The river was beautiful with the vegetation and wildlife. We saw cormarants, kingfishers and cockatoos. Along the banks of the river it was fun to look at the little homes along the way. One had a forest of teak trees planted in tight lines.

At Deplooy's Resort, we got out to hike through their botanic gardens. Wow. It was a huge planted area. Lovely. We took the self guided tour with their little book that described the plantings in the different areas. We were both amazed at the expanse of the gardens. Very nice walk.

View from the river.

He is cutting back the jungle with a machete for the Savanna display. Hard to keep the jungle out!

neat roots

We had excellent quesadillas at Deplooy's overlooking the dense jungle. Really a nice spot. After a relaxing stop, we went back to our task of rowing down the river. We finally spotted the little white and blue Crystal Paradise sign, so found our way to the shore and tied up our canoe. Enjoyable, slow day!

Belize Wednesday, February 18, 2015

We were up bright and early for our trip to Barton Creek cave. Selmo, "Handsome", was our guide. Handsome is 75% Mayan. The Belizians are very aware of their lineage. There are many different Maya groups with different languages even. Barton Creek cave is a large wet cave  that runs underneath an entire village. We took our canoe through many very large rooms. Eventually, we reached the turnaround point and made our way back. It was pitch black when we turned out the light. Amazing cave! 

After Barton Creek Cave, we stopped at a butterfly farm, which was quite amazing. They harvest the eggs individually and care for them until the hatch. They then feed the caterpillars daily until they go into pupa stage. These are cared for, as well until butterflies emerge. It takes two girls all day to monitor these tasks. 

pupas being cared for until butterflies emerge

Each type of caterpillar is fed the type of leaf it needs. All are different.

Carolita had an empanada lunch waiting for us. We enjoyed hanging around the beautiful Tut property for the rest of the day. We took the Thomas Green Medicine Trail that is dedicated to the Tut's Great Grandfather. He was a shaman, using plants to heal folks.

Taking potatoes to market.

The entire property is so beautiful. Victor Tut owns 20 acres on a gently sloping plot leading down to the Macal River. The Tut's used to farm the land, but Victor had the idea to switch to tourism. They took out the crops and built thatch roofed casitas on the property. Andy Tut has 9 horses that often roam free, grazing with white egrets following them or hitching a ride on their backs. There are two large swings facing the river. They put fruit out for the native birds and they always have plenty of customers. We saw motmots, toucans, green parrots, chachalangas to name a few. It is interesting to see the "pecking order" (perhaps literally?) as different species came to and left the feeders.

Belize Tuesday, February 17, 2015

This morning after breakfast Eric Tut drove us to Xunantunich. 

Eric Tut driving to Xunantunich

Eric Tut and the man operating the crank.

To get a car across the Mopan River, a hand-crfanked ferry is used. 

This Mayan ruin is not as grand as Tikal, but it is equally majestic in character. I could get a good feel for how the people of Xunantunich lived. We were able to climb the tallest temple - El Castillo. What a view from the top. You could see the 360 valley view. The people of Xunantunich brought water from the rivers, but as their population grew, they could not support themselves and had to disperse. This is what Eric told us. The two ball fields were neat to see. There were two stone hoops and two teams tried to get the ball into their hoop. Eric said that slaves were forced to play the games. The losers were sacrificed to the gods and the winners were decapitated. Would be an enjoyable game to play!

After our tour we went to lunch at a place called Benny's Cafe. We had one of the specials called Pibel, which was delicious! It was pork cooked underground - whatever that means - with avocado, black beans and tortillas. With some Marie Sharp hot sauce, it was really good!! We needed one more bottle of Marie Sharp and we were planning to stop at a store, but low and behold, they sold it right at Benny's!

Dinner was again excellent. Eric had stopped for some beef at the San Ignacio outdoor market and that is what we had. Beef stew, cilantro rice, plantains and coleslaw. The starter was vegetable soup, which was made, I am sure, from the leftovers from our very delicious breakfast succotash.

Early night to bed some we can read and then get up early for tomorrow's adventure!

Belize Monday, February 16, 2015

We had a leisurely breakfast at the Jungle Lodge restaurant and then walked over to the two museums. The first had many artifacts from Tikal. They found quite a bit of pottery, tools, jewelry and much of it was on display.

The second museum was dedicated to the discovery and excavation of Tikal. There were numerous posters showing the process from first discovery to today.

We bought lots of Guatemalan souvenirs at the little stores near the museums. One older man seemed so very appreciative of the $40 USD I gave him for his goods. It made me happy to see him so appreciative of the money. After that I did not ask for any change from the storekeepers for my little purchases.

We had our lunch and then were picked up by Mariela's father and his nine year old son, Adon, who was along for the one hour and 45 minute drive to the border. There we were met by Andy Tut, who took us back to Crystal Paradise. We relaxed, showered, played cards and had a good chicken dinner, accompanied by black beans, cole slaw, potatoes and tortillas.

Early to bed again for another adventure in the morning.

Belize Sunday, February 15, 2015

We were driven to the Belize/Guatemala border early in the morning by Andy. At the border he turned us over to Mariela, who was our Guatemalan driver and guide in Tikal. When we arrived at the park, she walked the park with us, giving us information along the way. Tikal is quite amazing. It is hard to imagine how splendid the city must have been. The highlight was climbing to the top of Temple IV. We could sit there and view the entire Tikal site, with the tops of temples and pyramids showing through the trees.

Temple II

Temple II

Temple I

The Plaza

View across Tikal from Temple IV

Mariela and Rick

Mariela, our Tikal guide

The Mayan Ceiba Tree

Jungle Lodge was our one night stay in Tikal. It was an amazing complex right just steps from the park entrance. The grounds were beautiful, with jungle plantings throughout. Our little casita 6A was so cute. The bathroom had a big skylight and was so bright and airy. They turn off the generators during the day and during the night in the park grounds.

Jungle Lodge is located right at the Tikal Park entrance.

Our beautiful little casita!

W
alkway to our casita

We were served dinner in the Jungle Lodge restaurant. Before dinner, we were playing cards in the lobby. We chatted with a couple from England who were playing Scrabble near us. Phillip, an English traveler who we had met earlier in the day, came into the lobby and we invited him, a solo traveler, to join us for dinner. He is a lawyer from London who is traveling in El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua. We really enjoyed chatting with him.

Our new friend, Phillip

We were really ready for a good night's sleep and appreciated that we did not have to rise early for anything the next day.