Belize? Sounds like a weird place, right? I bet not many people have given any thought to this tiny country to the south of Mexico and neither did I until I saw a really good flight deal from Calgary to Belize.Yes, most of my travel choices were based on the best deal that I could get on a flight and I am proud of it. I am a businesswoman after all, getting the best deal for myself is what I’m all about.
So, for a killer deal, I decided it was worth it to go and discover this tiny unknown country, which by the way, turned out to be filled with so many hidden gems. Belize has the second largest barrier reef after theGreat Barrier Reef of Australia but here is the catch: it has more alive coral than the Great Barrier Reef. When the Spanish conquerors arrived on this tiny country, their ships all got stuck in the reefs and they decided it was a land not worthy of pursuing and they turned around and left. But when the British arrived, their greed left no land untouched and they made it one of their colonial conquests and actually, English is still the official language ofBelize despite the fact that the majority of the population speaks Spanish.
I decided to split my trip time between San Ignacio which is all the way to the west of the country and the rest of the time, on one of the many islands which they call “cayes”. San Ignacio is a small town nestled between the low mountains of Belize and close to the border of Guatemala. What surprised me so much about this tiny place is how delicious the food is.Admittedly, I never found central American food to be that impressive, but Belize was a bit different. They have some variety of stews like oxtail stew and other dishes you would have never thought of that tasted delicious! As always, I found myself a very off the beaten track lodge to stay in nestled somewhere between the mountains alongside a river.
Now it was time to discover!
It turns out that Belize has some very important historical sites for the Mayan civilization like Caracol which is the site of the largest Mayan temples in Central American. In fact, the area around it is considered dangerous because there has been a constant power struggle between Belize andGuatemala over who should own what, considering that is situated on the border.When I visited Caracol, which was a nightmare to drive to through strenuous lands, it was under heavy military supervision and tourists were followed around by soldiers with rifles. Yikes!
But the historical wonders of Belize don’t stop there. Another more peculiar one is a cave by the name of Actun Tunichil Muknal. No, I don’t expect you to be able to say this and thankfully neither do they, so it’s abbreviated to ATM cave. This cave is hidden somewhere in the Belizean jungle and remained unknown well after the Mayan civilization was wiped out and actually only got discovered in the late 1980’s by a British archeologists. This cave was monumental for historians as it helped them tie in many loose ends of the Mayan civilization. This cave is so well preserved that you have to enter with a certified guide who had to go to school for two years!! This cave is no small business. Cameras were not allowed so all photos I am using are borrowed from the internet.
To get to the cave, first we had to hike through the jungle and cross two shallow rivers by walking and hoping the stream doesn’t take you along for a ride. We also had to look out for tapirs. A tough kind of breed mixed between a horse and a rhinoceros. Luckily, our tour guide had a machete with him. When you arrived at the cave, it looked like a huge gaping hole carved into a mountain into which the river flowed. Facing you was a giant rock that the Mayans calls the “God of Light”. This is the first and last glimpse of light you will see as you swim into the cave. After that, it is considered the nine levels of hell. The cave welcomed you with deep waters you have to swim through but after that, it was a mix of shallow water, dry grounds, and many unfamiliar and surprising landscapes. As the modern world advanced, we are able to survive with helmets and headlights, but the Mayans had to carry their torches into the depth of the cave to reach the sacred place where they offered their gods gifts and sacrifices in turn for well wishes. If the torches were put out by the water or if they lost their way, they’re just as good as dead.
We swam, walked, climbed rocks, and saw incredible crystallized waterfalls for what seemed like hours until we eventually reached a spot where we had to climb into another layer of depth of the cave. It was here that theMayans performed their sacrificial rituals. The ground was littered with half buried broken clay pots, initially filled with food and other gifts to the gods. In other crevasses of the cave, we saw skeletons of a baby and virgin girl, at the time considered to be the highest form of sacrifice of human life to the gods.The Mayans prayed mostly for rainfall to the God of Water to help them grow their crops and not surprisingly, part of their demise was the dryness of their lands which caused hunger and famine.
The scenery gave me the creeps. It was beyond words. An experience that paper and pen does not do justice. The things you can see and discover in these unknown parts of the world open your minds in ways that you could not really anticipate when you first book a very cheap ticket to the country. ATMCave showed me the ways in which human desperation for survival is a universal thing and whether Mayans sacrifice their baby or whether an ISIS terrorist kills his daughter for honour, the baseline is the same. Very basic human needs.
Belize is truly an undiscovered and unappreciated haven filled with adventures to satisfy any spirit. I haven’t even told you yet about how I crossed the country and jumped into the sea with sharks and stingrays.Yes, I even have proof of myself holding a shark. That’s a story for another time.
#belize #travelwriting #travel #adventuretravel #atmcave
