Conches and caves

I landed in Belize city airport and stepped off the plane wondering if I had made the right choice by heading off for three months traveling by myself in Central America. After a quick cab ride and a boat out to the island of Caye Caulker, I knew I had.

Caye Cauler is a seriously chilled out spot. Everyone on the island is so laid back that I really don't know anything ever gets done. At one stage, I had some guy shouting at me because I was walking too fast. I had heard they did that but didn't actually believe it! The locals all speak English, but often with such a strong accent (it almost sounded Jamaican) you're not sure what language it is.

A long way from home

I had booked the first few nights accommodation in Yuma's House, a hostel on the island, and apart from flights it was the only thing I had organized. I was basically planning on winging it for the next three months.

The hostel, right on the waters edge

The hostel was pretty sweet, right on the waters edge and as soon as I got settled in I got talking to some of the others staying there. A few of us headed out for dinner that night, there were two Germans, two English, one Spanish, one Dutch and myself. Little did I know that I'd stay traveling with them for the next few weeks.

One big happy family

Belize is famous for it's diving and snorkeling so I made it my business to see what all the fuss was about. One of the guys and I hadn't been diving for a quite some time so we arranged to do a refresher dive. It's handy to remember what's what when you're twenty meters under the sea.

The following day a few of us had organized a boat trip. The plan was to head out on the boat for the day, do some snorkeling, some spear fishing, catch some fishies and then head back to head what we caught for dinner.

Chilling on the boat

The snorkeling was good but not nearly as good as some of the stuff I've done in Florida, I don't think we went to the best reef. But what more than made up for it, was the spearfishing. While snorkeling, once we spotted a fish we could catch, (half the problem was figuring out what fish we were/weren't allowed to catch) we had to dive after them and get close enough catch them. By the end of the trip we returned with enough to feed the lot of us.

We finished the evening by chowing down on the fish we had caught that day. Ain't gonna get much fresher than that!

Dinner Time

The catch of the day washed down with some local brews

While staying in Caye Caulker, the weather was pretty patchy. And while the diving in Belize is excellent, the visibility for dives looked uncertain with the mixed forecast, so we (six of us in total, we said goodbye to Abraham the Dutchman) decided to head to San Ignacio in search of some ancient Mayan caves.

The entrance to the caves - the only way in is to swim!

The Actun Tunichil Muknal caves (commonly referred to as the ATM caves, which can can make for some confusing conversations) were used for ancient Mayans rituals including human sacrifices. The trip to the caves involved a hike through the jungle including a few river crossings.

Nicola and I cooling off as we're crossing the river

Once we arrived at the caves, we got some helmets and torches and were led through the deep pools and narrow passages of the caves - Indiana Jones style!. Once inside we found some amazing rock formations and chambers.

Getting ready for some exploring

Edgar and I in the caves

Caves look so much better if they're only lit up with the torches you have with you

But what made these caves so different from others (apart from the fact that we had to swim and climb through them) was the Mayan archeological sites they enclosed. The place was filled with ancient pots, skulls and most famous of all, 'The Crystal Maiden', the full skeleton of a teenage girl still in the positon it was found - any National Geographic fans will have see this before.

Skulls and stuff!

The Crystal Maiden

The caves alone would have been cool, and the Mayan archeological site alone would have been cool, but to have the two combined made this an amazing expererince - to think that nearly two thousand years ago, people ventured into these caves by torch light, and carried out sacrifices to the gods is hard to fathom but cool to think that we got a glimpse into this ancient past.

After spending some time in San Ignacio, we left Belize behind us and headed for the next country on the list, Guatemala....

More pics here:
Caye Caulker: https://picasaweb.google.com/105659496923832797916/CayeCaulkerBelize02
ATM Caves: https://picasaweb.google.com/105659496923832797916/ATMCavesBelize