Belize! Part 1

Matt and I just got back from our amazing trip to Belize.  For the first part of the trip, we stayed in San Ignacio, a small town in the jungle.  We stayed at The Lodge at Chaa Creek for three days.  When we landed at the international airport, we were picked up by a driver from Chaa Creek and rode two hours to the resort.  Along the way it was so interesting to pass through the small villages.  Most of the houses were small, colorful, one story houses with clothes hanging on lines outside.  There were lots of chickens, horses, and dogs.  The schools were open buildings with no windows!  It is such a different world there.  Between the villages there was so much open land with beautiful views.

Pretty church that we saw along the way

When we arrived at Chaa Creek, we were amazed at how peaceful and beautiful it was.  We were surrounded by palm trees and flowers and colorful plants.  We were taken to our cottage and immediately I was so excited to be staying there.  The cottages had screened windows all around and tall thatched roofs.  It was a rustic but lovely.  There was no AC, it was just the perfect way to experience the jungle.

The resort was located on the Macal River and had an amazing pool.  The restaurant served authentic meals that were delicious.  

Our first full day there, we took a two hour canoe trip in the morning down the Macal River to the town of San Ignacio.  The views as we were canoeing were amazing and we even saw three river otters run and jump into the water as we passed.  Once we arrived at the town, we walked around and had a Belikin beer (the official beer of Belize) and nachos while we waited to be picked up.

Giant bamboo!

That afternoon, we went horseback riding through the jungle with our guide, Robert.  My horse's name was Sugar and Matt's horse's name was Destiny.  We rode the horses through tiny paths in the jungle, up hill, down hill, through a pond, and through tall grass.  It was such an awesome experience.  At one point, Robert got all of the horses to gallop for a little bit.  It was really exciting - definitely the fastest I've ever ridden on a horse!

Each night that we slept, we were woken up by the LOUD noise of the howler monkeys.  It was terrifying!  It sounded more like lions growling than monkeys!  Although the monkey noises were a little unsettling, the other noises of the jungle (birds, bugs, and rain) were so nice to fall asleep to.

Matt got a great picture of the monkey howling one morning

Our next full day at Chaa Creek, we traveled to Guatemala to see Tikal, a Mayan ruins site.  We were taken to the Belize-Guatemala border and had to get out of our van and physically walk across the border.  It was a little scary walking across and seeing men dressed in military uniforms, holding very large guns.  Then, we got our passports stamped and then hopped into a different van with our guide Miguel.  It was a two hour drive from the border to Tikal and some of the road was not paved along the way.  It was incredible to see the way people live there.  Small houses, no running water, people gathering sticks to burn for cooking, clothes hanging on lines, dogs everywhere, people riding bikes or walking along the road...so different form how we live!

Lake that we saw in Guatemala on the way to Tikal

A school we passed along the way

Finally, we arrived at Tikal.  It was huge!  So many Mayan ruins to see and there are even tons more that haven't been excavated yet.  They were literally breathtaking.  We we able to climb up most of them, except for a huge pyramid that someone had fallen from and so was now closed.  The first temple that we climbed was Temple IV and was the tallest at 230 ft tall!  We had to climb 195 wooden steps that were built along the side to get to the top.  The view was amazing, but also terrifying (I am slightly afraid of heights).  We continued to walk around and see palaces, other temples, ball courts, and the Grand Plaza.  It's amazing that the whole city was abandoned by the Maya people over a thousand years ago and no one really knows what happened.  There are still so many ruins that are covered in a thick layer of earth that haven't been touched!

Top of Temple IV

Super steep steps!

The view from the top of the temple...those are all the tops of huge trees

Toucan

Spider Monkey

You can barely see Matt at the very top with his arms up!

The Pyramid that we were not able to climb up 

So amazing how tall the ruins are

We had such an awesome time with our adventures in the jungle.  Although we were only there for three days, it felt like a whole vacation because of all of the activities we were able to do.  We were so excited that we had three more days ahead of us on the island of San Pedro!