The Maya of Belize

Continued  On our last night in Caye Caulker, we got in touch with a flight agency "Tsunami Adventures" (Little did we know that it was pun intended) to check if they can arrange a flyby for us over the famous "Belize Blue hole" the next day morning before we take our ferry back to the mainland. The next morning, they picked us up from Yuma's hostel on a golf cart and then drove us to a landing strip in the middle of the island.

  The journey started with us sitting in a really old 4 seat Cessna flight, speeding down the runway with the door next to the pilot wide open! Yes the pilot felt hot as the air conditioning wasn't working and the easy fix solution was to keep the door open until we took off. He was kickass cool pilot and no complaints about that, just made me gulp down some air down my throat as we had never seen anything like that before. As we took off the doors were shut and a small window was opened to ensure airflow and so started the roller coaster ride on air. He took us around the island first, by tracing an eight on air above the island and so we understood the pun behind "Tsunami adventures". The next 45 minutes were stable and we got to see the clear separation of shallow reefs and the deep ocean like an oil painting on earth. It was as if the reefs were underwater rivers trying to squeeze out themselves from a natural dam built in the middle of ocean.

The captain with the open window :)

Pictures simply can't explain

Underwater rivers squeezing out of the reefs :)

Finally we got to see the "Blue hole", the gorgeous. We spent quite some time and the pilot was showcasing all his expertise flying by real low and doing all sorts of roller coaster stuffs on top of the blue hole. We got to see few more reefs on our way back and landed safely back on the tarmac. We were put back on the golf cart immediately and straight back to the port where the ferry was waiting to take us back to mainland.

On reaching mainland we hired a car and drove our way through the capital city of Belmopan to the western borders near Guatemala. After three hours and a final stretch across a river on a manually operated car ferry we reached "Xunantunich- The Mayan land". Almost 1400 years old and the second tallest Mayan structure found till date was in front of us. The palace, the temple and the courtyard, including the flooring, used to be of shining colourful marbles during the peak of its civilization. Now, although the floors are replaced by sand and temples are destroyed due to fatigue over the years, yet stands all majestic and retains its charm. The engineering and architecture were clearly way ahead of its times, aligning the entire structures to the celestial Orion belts. Just trying to imagine them at the peak of its civilization with colours from top of the highest pyramid was far too much beyond the limits of brain's imaginative skills.

We then went to a nearby site called the "Cahal Pech" through the town of San Ignacio, with beautiful street arts across the town. The site was a palatial home of the Mayan kings and was much older, dating back to 1200 BC. More beautiful architecture and less exploited by tourists than Xunantunich.

From the top there was Guatamelan border just couple of blocks away.

At the end of the day we drove back again to the east coastal town of Hopkins. The drive was through the Blue-hole national park of Belize and simply one of the best drives I have ever had. Beautiful, surreal mountains and green fields all around with the winding roads. We reached Hopkins late in the evening, a calm small town with beautiful beaches. We just crashed there for the night at a hostel named "Funky Dodo", caught up with more marine conservationist from Europe discussing coral bleach over dinner.

Last day of  the trip we woke up early for the sunrise and drove towards the southern coast of Belize to Placencia. A beautiful coast drive all the way finishing our journey aptly at "The Maya beach". Very much like the name it was beautiful, sending off my friend for volunteering 1 more week at Placencia, I had to drive back to catch my flight by noon.

Driving back four hours all alone through the rugged untamed Blue-hole national park for sure blew me away and yes the usual happened i did get lost taking a wrong turn from my route (it's becoming more than usual now) but got back and reached the airport on time.

Before I finished the trip I was already thinking if I would be back here again anytime. The usual depression after vacations, but I found the best cure ever for that take note - "START PLANNING YOUR NEXT VACATION BEFORE YOU FINISH THE CURRENT ONE". Only way to survive the monotonous boring everyday work life. South America here i come :)

Slow down & Smell the Curry :)