Post 2 - The Tour

This is Post 2 of the blog.  To start at the beginning, go to Post 1.

At the Tourism Village in Belize City, we board a small bus with a driver and a tour guide, and it carries us westward on a paved road like I would expect in the United States.  Belize is not a primitive country, we find that parts of Belize are quite modern and the main roads are in great shape.

We cross miles of flat lowlands, much like parts of our southern states that lie along the coast, sparsely populated and with mostly scrub vegetation and marsh grass.  Occasional trees stand tall on clumps of high ground, separated by tidal creeks.  When we leave the lowlands, thick jungle lines each side of the road, and then we begin to climb into the foothills of the mountains.  The bus stops at a narrow river and waits for a small ferry to come from the other side to take us across. 

This hand-cranked ferry is one of many new experiences in Belize.  It takes our small bus across the river to a paved road that snakes its way up the side of a mountain. 

Our bus guide tells us that we will soon arrive at the ancient city of Xunantunich, and she asks us to repeat the Mayan name.   We Americans cannot pronounce it properly, so she tells us that it sounds like ‘tuna sandwich.’  From then on, that’s what we call the city.  If someone tells you they went to Belize and visited a place that sounds like ‘Tuna Sandwich’, this is where they went.

The bus stops on a gravel parking lot at the top of a mountain and when we step off, we are met by a brown-skinned man, a Mayan.  He tells us he is a farmer from a nearby village so he knows this area well, and he also has completed a course and earned his license to be a guide.  He leads us to a trail through the jungle that takes us beside the ruins of an ancient palace, and then we follow him across a wide, grassy plaza.

Beyond that stands an enormous pyramid.

To see the pyramid, scroll down or go to Post 3.