A trip to Ambergris Caye: The mainland; Jungle, animals and adventures!

As you may have guessed, we left everything to the last minute! This time we we took a 2 night trip to San Ignacio, Cayo. San Ignacio sits right on the Guatemalan border on the opposite side of the country. Fun fact for us Brits ... Only 3 roundabouts (traffic circles) on the road that spans the width of the entire country!

Anyway, on to more interesting things ...

We picked up a hire car in Belize City and whilst we were doing the paperwork we spoke with their travel advisor (we think that's who she was, she never introduced herself!). When she realised we were going to wing it and had no plans and no hotels booked, she stepped in. She managed to get 30% discount on a our hotel, which turned out to be amazing!!

Set in the heart of the jungle, next to the Macal river, DuPlooys was the perfect place for us. It is an eco-lodge, so no plastic anywhere (this means that drinks straws are large dried pasta tubes!). The nightly rate included use of canoes, bicycles and entrance to their botanic gardens. The bar opens up into the jungle and there is a wooden walkway through the tree canopy to a viewing platform over the river. There are a few resident vampire bats in the viewing platform!!

Our room ... 'Jungle Lodge'

Inside - basic but brilliant!

Phil of the jungle

Bar area

Jungle walkway

Every morning at 6.30 the staff put fresh fruit onto a tray in the bar and toucans, squirrels, motmots and other creatures appear from all over to get their breakfast. This was a real treat to watch!

Toucans eating breakfast

Activities

Belize Zoo

The first thing we did on the mainland was go to Belize Zoo. All of the animals in the zoo are rescued and native to Belize. They have a number of big cats, birds, crocodiles and other animals. It's not the best zoo in the world, but its nice to see the animals rescued and well cared for.

Crocodile!

Mot Mot

Spider Monkey

Pelican

Tapir

Jaguar!

Xunantunich (Shoo-nan-to-nitch)

Next we went to Xunantunich, which is a Mayan ruin on the Guatamalan border. It was amazing!! We paid for a tour guide to take us round - and it was so worth it. We didn't really know anything about the Mayan culture before going, so have someone explaining everything to us was really helpful. Note that all facts to follow came from our guide and have not been verified!! :-)

The site was discovered in the late 1800s is still only 30% excavated. The oldest part of the ruins discovered so far dates back to 600 BC! Like the Egyptian pyramids, the architecture is well ahead of its time - and almost impossible to work out how they would have built it without modern day technology/machinery.

It is believed that the site took 200yrs to build, with each ruler raising the buildings another level as a show of their power. The common people were not allowed into the squares, other than to go to the market. It is believed that there were up to 10,000 people living in the Xunantunich community.

Xunantunich is one of the largest Mayan ruins in Belize, but it is not unique. There are Mayan ruins of some description approximately every 1km on the mainland!

The landscape to the far side of the ruins is Guatamala, and Mayan ruins are just as common there too.

Definitely a sight worth seeing and a culture worth investigating whilst in Belize! Particularly because the Mayan culture is still alive and can present significant challenges to overcome on the ministry.

What a view!

And again!

Guatamala in the background

The old Royal residence

Excavations still under way

The size of the buildings are incredible

Canoeing

The next morning we canoed down the Macal river. With steep banks of rock and trees on both sides, it was an experience we will never forget.

We didn't see another soul on the river, it was so quiet. We did, however, see lots of fish and birds! And the noise coming from the jungle was amazing ... Birds, crickets, frogs, howler monkeys - incredible!

A few miles downstream we reached the next hotel where we got out and waited for a lift back to our hotel. Whilst waiting for our lift we made the best use of our time and had rum daiquiris!

View of the river from the hotel walkway

Walking through the jungle to our canoe

Canoe is ready and waiting

Empty river ready for exploring!

Horse Riding

The final activity of our trip was an afternoon riding through the jungle. We had a guide who was born and raised in the local area and was able to point out all the poisonous plants and dangerous insects!

The horses were Arab x Quarter breeds, and as a result very lively ... Not your average riding school horses!

The terrain was fairly tricky, and on a few occasions I had to close my eyes! A fear of heights is less than ideal when riding up and down super steep muddy tracks on the back of a horse. That aside, it was an awesome experience, and good to be back on a horse!