10/19/11 Cahal Pech Mayan Ruins

Up some big stairs!

Today we visited the Mayan Ruins at Cahal Pech, which means "The Place of the Ticks." They are located right here in San Ignacio. After only making 2 wrong turns and asking 3 people for directions we found the visitor’s center, paid our fee (which was $15US- $5 for Kris, J and me, Aaron was free), and we were off. The visitor’s center had many artifacts on exhibit- masks, bowls, vases, etc that had been excavated from the site. Jonathan has a dinosaur book that talks about archeologists and so we were able to discuss how those same type of people and processes that dug up dinosaur bones, found these things too!

Through a tunnel!

The weather was cool and overcast making it a great day for climbing and hiking! We were certainly in the midst of the jungle! We followed a stone path which was quite slippery due to the recent rains and the moss that grew all over it. Trees and vines on every side, we pressed on to see what waited for us at the top of the stairs. 

Looking down into the ruins

The boys in a doorway

Let's go!

The ruins were amazing! Huge stairs, walls, and rooms made of rock. Jonathan and Aaron couldn’t climb high enough or fast enough which made us pretty nervous since everything was slippery. We moved from room to room, up some stairs, down the stairs… through tunnels and doorways! We saw butterflies, fire ants, leaf cutter ants, and (of course) mosquitos (no worries, b/c we brought some repellant). We only saw about 10 other people during the whole 2 hours we were there, including a couple taking their wedding pictures. It was great just to be able to mill about at our own pace and as Jonathan kept saying “Go investigate”.  We made one pass through then stopped for lunch at some picnic tables. Then we decided to walk back through the main courtyard again and I’m so glad we did, because we hadn’t seen the entire right side! It was a bit maze-like in that you followed stairs and doorways and tunnels and weren’t sure at all where you were headed. As we climbed toward the big courtyard, we saw some people coming down from some stairs that led to the highest point on the ruins- we hadn’t even noticed that the first time through! We made our way around the plaza. By this time Aaron was getting pretty tired and cranky, his little legs just couldn’t climb the huge stairs by themselves. So Kris carried him for a while and even carried him up the sketchy stairway that took us to the top! The view from up there was spectacular. We kept the boys corralled in the center and even I couldn’t get too close to the edge because looking down from that far up made me quite queasy. If the climb up those stairs was scary, the climb down was even more so, but we just went super slow and everyone made it down safely. History lesson for the day- done!

Up we go!!

Buying tortillas

Within minutes we were back in the heart of San Ignacio and we found a tortilla stand. We bought 20 corn tortillas (made right in front of us) for $1US. We ended up on a road headed toward downtown, but we hadn’t been on it before and we came upon the coolest looking house ever! The colors and shape of the house and surrounding fence were unlike anything I’d see here before. We also swung by the market and picked up some bananas. Yesterday we’d met a lady at the ATM who told us about the library, saying that it has a lot of children’s books and free internet… so today we found it and made note of the hours so that we can go back another day- books for the kids and a decent internet connection for us, sounds like a great place to spent a couple hours! Aaron was asleep before we even got to the library and thankfully he stayed asleep after we got home and I moved him from the car into his bed. Aaron slept, Jonathan rested on his bed, Kris watched a movie and I took a nap.

Aaron sleeps

Coolest lo

Yum! Pizza!

Gourd lamp at restaurant

Kris wrangled the boys after naptime was over and let me sleep (I didn’t sleep well last night and I’m not sure why). When I woke up around 5pm he said we were going out to dinner so I didn’t have to cook! I love this man! He’d found a pizzeria online that got good reviews. Off we went back to San Ignacio to find a place called Mr. Greedy’s. It was a small bar/restaurant that resembled a tiki hut. The neat thing was that the floor of the restaurant was sand! It felt so wonderful to rub my feet in the cool sand! We ordered a BBQ chicken pizza and though it took a while to arrive, it was scrumptious!! We ate our fill and had 2 slices to bring home for tomorrow. The music at the restaurant was a bit loud, but Jonathan had fun dancing to it while sitting in his chair. The lamps that hung above the tables where dried gourds that had these intricate carvings in them- so unique! There was also a huge map of Belize on the wall next to our table so we showed Jonathan where we came into Belize (Corozal), and how we travelled down to Placencia and then west to San Igancio- geography lesson for the day, done! Dinner and drinks w/ tip was $25US. By the time we left the restaurant it was only a little after 6pm, but it was already dark. The cool breeze was back and we enjoyed the short drive back across the suspension bridge to Santa Elena (the lower bridge is visible now but is still closed for traffic).

The Fam at Cahal Pech

The top of the ruins- yes we climbed up there!

A seat of honor?

peek-a-boo Daddy!

Baths and bedtime rounded out the day. What a fun day of exploring around our town!