You better Belize it, Part 4

Wednesday, Dec. 17. It was another cloudless morning. When I did the site visit last January, I had wet feet every day I was there. It was such a relief to not have gotten my shoes wet once on this trip. We drove west to San Iganacio. We spent the morning touring Mayan ruins at Xunantunich and Cahal Pech. I hadn’t been to Xunantunich last year because the water was high. I hadn’t understood the problem at the time. I learned that there is a ferry across the Mopan River between the main road and the archeological site. Furthermore, the ferry is hand cranked!

Rapids on the Mopan River

Our guide explained Mayan architecture, daily life, rituals, religion, and other cultural practices. We climbed to the top of El Castillo, the royal residence, at Xunantunich, where we could see Guatemala. It was a lot of climbing, and the steps were high. Pablo explained that the large steps were intentional, as it forced the climbers to bow to the royalty seated at the top. Once I heard this, it was easy enough to verify.

Up

Up!

Sorority shot before climbing the rest of the way up El Castillo, the royal residence

Up!

Up!

The top, with Guatamala in the distance

View of Belize from the other side of the top of El Castillo

There is nothing to mark the boundary between Guatemala and Belize in this area. Border guards armed with machine guns were visible at the perimeter of the park.

Down

Down the other side of El Castillo

We had only been at Xunantunich a short time when busloads of tourists from cruise ships arrived. One of the students later referred to them as termites, an apt descriptor as they swarmed over the ruins.

It was a relief to get back in the van and go to Cahal Pech, where we had the place to ourselves. I was surprised, as Cahal Pech had been crowded last year. I inferred that Cahal Pech is the fallback for the cruise ship tourists when Xunantunich is inaccessible. Xunantunich has a larger “wow” factor because the royal residence is higher and has replicas of stone carvings on two sides. Cahal Pech is, however, the more historically significant because it was continuously occupied for 2 millenia from 1200 B.C.E. to the late 800’s C.E.

Temple with alter at Cahal Pech

Sorority shot in front of the Royal Throne at Plaza A

Loyal subjects bow before the queen

Passageway among royal bedrooms

We had a picnic lunch at Cahal Pech. The Lodge packed out burritos. I expected the burritos to be pre-made. Instead, we had individual containers including a stack of enormous, thick, home-made flour tortillas; sautéed chicken, peppers, and onions; salsa; refried beans; sour cream; bananas, other stuff I’m forgetting, and a whole watermelon that we did not cut. There was plenty of food without it.

After lunch, we went to the Green Iguana Conservation Project to learn about how the green iguana came to be endangered by selective hunting of females with eggs. The eggs, harvested from inside the female, have traditionally been used as an aphrodisiac. There is no scientific evidence to support that the eggs have any effect, but the practice continues. Captive breeding and education are working together to restore the population.

Orientation at the Green Iguana Conservation Project

Girls with iguanas

Girls with baby iguanas

We spent an hour shopping in San Ignacio, a tiny and rather seedy town. Several of the students explored a grocery to compare prices. Some food seemed about the same, some was much more expensive. I noticed that the eggs were stacked in open crates, 3 dozen eggs to a layer, on an unrefrigerated shelf. It was an interesting experience to walk down the street, sweating in the considerable late afternoon heat, while the sounds of Christmas carols in Spanish came through the open shop doors.

We had our last dinner at the lodge that night. I told the girls that I felt extremely fortunate to have spent the week in the company of such a remarkable group of women. Everyone was engaged and enthusiastic even when pushed outside their comfort zone. I had brought a notebook to discuss what should be changed in the course for next year. Nearly every suggestion was a change to the pack list. Everyone thought the online portion of the course was seamlessly integrated with the field activities, except that they wished they’d read more about the ethnic groups of Belize. There wasn’t anything they would change, even the order of the days. Score!

Dinner with the Christmas tree

Thursday, December 18. We left for the airport at 8:30. Everything went according to schedule all day. We managed to stay more or less together through Immigration and Customs in Miami, and get through it all in 1 hour and 40 minutes, leaving 80 minutes to get something to eat, which was important as we’d pretty much missed lunch. As soon as we got to the gate, the students were on their phones setting up a Facebook page where we could share our photos. I took this as one more piece of evidence that the trip had been an overwhelming success.