Day One:
Our plans for the second half of the trip were open-ended and without
any schedules. While we had flown from Belize City to San Pedro
(approx $100), Julia and I decided to take the ferry back to Belize City
($15). We had no idea of what the ferry would be like, but I guess
that I assumed it would have a cabin and be bigger. Fortunately, it
didn’t rain, and the seas were smooth. I was worried because the
departure time was delayed while they cleaned up some puke on the floor
and helped the sick woman disembark. I don’t know for sure, but I
believe that alcohol or drugs may have been a factor. Anyway, we made
sure not to sit on that side of the boat.
After 90 minutes of boat motoring, we arrived in Belize City. We
were originally going to take the bus from Belize City to San Ignacio,
but Julia was worried that bus travel might be difficult with our large
suitcases and reports of crowded buses. On the previous night, I
emailed a couple of shuttle services and arranged for a $35 van shuttle
to San Ignacio with one stop at the airport to pick up another couple.
The pickup turned out to be an adventure. Our van driver wasn’t there
at our arrival, and some street people were trying to help out. One guy
wanted me to put money on his cracked phone so that he could make calls
to our van service. I might have been born in Iowa but not yesterday.
Just when we were ready to walk to the bus station, the van driver
arrived. We enjoyed a comfortable, air-conditioned, two-hour ride to
San Ignacio near Belize’s western border with Guatemala. The driver
dropped us off at our $50/night Airbnb, and we were soon taking it easy.
Our hosts were Landy and Erva. Landy is an elections administrator,
senior justice of the peace, and commissioner to the Belize Supreme
Court. His wife owned and operated Erva’s restaurant in San Ignacio
before turning it over to their son. They were incredible hosts:
offering us drinks, cooking dinner one night, giving us rides around the
area, providing recommendations, and more than willing to discuss
politics and issues of the day.
Belize was once British Honduras before gaining its independence.
English is the official language, although Spanish is widely spoken
also. Back in the 1880’s, Belize’s borders were established via treaty
with England and Guatemala. Unfortunately, Guatemala contends that the
treaty was with England and not modern Belize. Guatemala is interested
in Belize’s natural resources and tourism. The big political issue in
Belize and Guatemala is that referendums will be held this spring to
decide whether to send the matter to the International Court of
Justice. Landy thinks that Belize has an excellent case but was worried
about the administration/education process for the referendum.
Landy is a big fan of the United States, but has grave concerns about
our current president. He is also worried that other countries like
Russia and China will fill the vacuum of credibility/leadership in
Central and South America. We live in interesting times.
That night, Julia and I dined at Hode’s Place, which was all of the
way down the hill and to the other edge of the downtown area. We got
lots of exercise walking up and down the hill over the next days.
Dinner was terrific. Julia had jerk pork, and I had an onion stew. We
were joined for dinner by these two well-fed companions.
Day Two:
We were up early the next morning and traveling by foot to our first
Mayan ruin. Cahal Pech is on the edge of San Ignacio and about a mile
from our host’s house. We did get lost getting there and walked up an
extra hill, but a business owner turned us in the right direction,
shouting “Don’t use Google maps in this city, It doesn’t work.”
The only ruins that I had ever seen before were fallen barns and
outbuildings, so this was something new to me and old for the world.
There was hardly anyone else visiting, so we had the ruins mostly to
ourselves. I can only imagine all of the rules and regulations that
would have been imposed if something like this was in America. Here, we
were free to climb up the temple steps and explore the palace rooms.
I was glad that we saw Cahal Pech first because it was the smallest
of the ruins that we saw and was a good introductory lesson about the
Mayans. We learned that the temple and palace were only for the elites,
and that the regular folks rarely stepped here. The Mayan elites were
also very much into blood sacrifice: Cutting off finger tips and
mutilating genital areas were areas of specialty that pleased their
gods. Prisoners and animals were also sacrificed. The elites consumed
hallucinogenic drugs and stretched their heads to the point of
deformity. The Mayans kept an accurate though different calendar and
were known for use of the number zero. Some people believed that the
end of the world would occur at the end of the Mayan calendar. It
didn’t. Our host argued that the Mayans only predicted that the end of
the calendar marked the beginning of a new turbulent time. Hindsight is
20/20; predictions are tougher.
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