Belize Day 5: Xanantunich

It's kind of tough to top yesterday's adventure. Yet today's travel would take us over a raging river on a hand-cranked ferry. An encounter with armed soldiers. And a climb to the top of the tallest Maya structure in all of Belize. There we would be no looking back for us on this trip.

A cold front moved in overnight bringing rain. By cold front, I mean the temps dipped down into the high 60's. The staff at the open-air restaurant were bundled up in sweaters and long pants. You could easily spot me as a tourist because I had on shorts and acted as if it were the middle of summer.

We hired a local cab driver, Melvin, for half the day to take us to Xanantunich. He drove us west for a few miles to a ferry crossing. This was a turn of the century device that was operated manually by a hand-crank. There were no fancy motors, just good old elbow grease. The rickety ferry looked like it could barely hold one car, let alone us. Now for the bad news. The rains turned the river into a raging, muddy torrent that might just be able to sweep the ferry away. The ferry operator said no cars would be crossing today. However, passengers could walk on and cross at their own risk. Diane and I figured that since we survived the ATM, a little fast moving current wouldn't slow us down. We waved goodbye to the cab driver and climbed aboard. Joining us were several armed soldiers carrying loaded M-16's. We felt safe heading to the ruins with our armed escorts.

The reason there are soldiers at the ruins is that bandits from Guatemala would sneak across the border and rob tourists. One soldier told us that the bandits typically took all your valuables and then tied you in the woods. I would like to mention again that it was comforting to have the soldiers with us as we walked a mile to the ruins.

Xunantunich covers about one square mile of ground with 6 plazas and over 26 temples and palaces. Back in the day, this was one huge Mayan city. The tallest temple was El Castilo at 120 feet. The cool thing is that you can climb to the top of it. The ancient Mayans seemed to like short, steep steps with no handrails. I carefully made my way to the top. The reward was a sweeping view over the top of the jungle.


A shower broke out and we headed for cover in a picnic table area. There we met a soldier and three ground maintenance men. The soldier was kind enough to move his M16 off the picnic table and offered us a seat. He spoke good English and we talked about the history of the ruins.

The rain passed by and the sun returned. We spent the rest of the day exploring the ruins. It was starting to get late and had to head back. As we rode the ferry back across the river, Melvin was waiting for us. And so were several vendors wanting to sell us their goods. They showed us some finely, hand carved stone souvenirs. One had a map of Belize. Another the different Maya symbols. We kindly declined. Then got in the cab and went off to the next ruins nicknamed the Place of Ticks

Next: Cahal Pech