Hi friends! I have just returned from an adrenaline-inducing trip in Belize. Our trip started in the heart of the rainforest, surrounded by stars and nature.
The first stop was Xunantunich, an ancient Mayan ruin. It’s the second largest in Belize with the tallest structure, El Castillo, reaching 130 ft.
Unlike Cancun’s Chichen Itza, you’re able to climb to the top and get an incredibly breath-taking view. If you look towards the south, you can see Belize’s neighbor, Guatemala! Some of the nearby trees have howler monkeys — you can probably hear their hair-raising howl before you see them.
You’re also able to climb and explore several nooks and crannies– we found the homes of bats and other bugs’ nests making Xunantunich their home. Kinda creepy but fun!
Next, we stopped by the nearby town San Ignacio. At the San Ignacio Resort, there is an iguana sanctuary. In Belize, iguanas are endangered due to people hunting pregnant female iguanas. Here, they rehabilitate the iguanas to send them back out to the wild. Apparently, we went on too cold of a day (80 F!) so the iguanas were pretty lazy. If it’s hotter, they will jump on you!
The following day we trekked through the jungle and explored the Actun Tunichil Muknal (ATM) cave. The ATM cave used to be the home of Mayan offerings (very different from sacrifices– here the people volunteered!), dating back as recently as 1000 CE. After a half kilometer venture through the water of the cave, you get to a dry spot where the Mayans left offerings of pots, food, and people. All the artifacts are very well preserved, except in the case where one skull has a hole in it from a tourist’s camera. Now none are allowed inside!
The ATM cave was my absolute favorite part of this trip. It felt very adventurous and had lots of history, just like an Indiana Jones movie š
Sundays in SoHo 