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Incidents of travel in Belize

Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2020 3:39 pm
by TahoeJeff
With acknowledgment (apologies?) to the very late John Lloyd Stephens for the thread title.
The fam and I spent a couple of weeks in Belize at the end of February.
Rather than post a lot of bla bla, and a link to a photo hosting site, I’ll keep the text to a minimum and throw up a ton of pics in a bunch of posts.

We started out in the Eastern part of the country at a lodge on the Macal River.
We swung, floated, fished and looked out over the river at the jungle for the first day:

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Re: Incidents of travel in Belize

Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2020 3:40 pm
by TahoeJeff
The bird watching was awesome (all photos by my son):

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Re: Incidents of travel in Belize

Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2020 3:42 pm
by TahoeJeff
There are a lot of iguanas and other lizards:

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Re: Incidents of travel in Belize

Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2020 3:43 pm
by TahoeJeff
Other animals too:

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Including a Killer Stealth Cow:

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And Temple Guardian Bats:

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Re: Incidents of travel in Belize

Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2020 3:44 pm
by TahoeJeff
We went on a guided night hike through the jungle:

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I was brave enough to hold the tarantula:

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Re: Incidents of travel in Belize

Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2020 3:45 pm
by TahoeJeff
We went to the Mayan ruins at Caracol (Keep in mind all Mayan structures were built without the use of the wheel or beasts of burden! (slave labor, more than likely)):

Here we are at the Sky Palace (Caana):

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Other ruins:

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Burial chamber or entrance to the Underworld?

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Stella with glyphs:

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This lintel made of Sapodilla wood was carbon dated to be 2,000 years old:

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Re: Incidents of travel in Belize

Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2020 3:47 pm
by TahoeJeff
On the way back we stopped at the Rio Frio Cave:

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Re: Incidents of travel in Belize

Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2020 3:48 pm
by TahoeJeff
The next day we went to Xunantunich:

El Castillo and its frieze:

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More ruins:

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A ball court:

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Re: Incidents of travel in Belize

Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2020 3:50 pm
by TahoeJeff
Our final experience with the Mundo Maya was the (in)famous ATM cave. Nope, not an underground ancient cash machine. It is the Cave of the Crystal Sepulcher or Actun Tunichil Muknal. I was hesitant to go based on my dislike of tight spaces, but I put on my Big Boy Pants and went for it:

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Some numbskull tourist dropped their camera on a skeleton a few years ago, so no more cameras allowed. These stock photos give a darn good idea of what it takes to get in and what can be seen:

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The highlight at the end of the cave, The Crystal Maiden:

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Re: Incidents of travel in Belize

Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2020 3:51 pm
by TahoeJeff
We left the jungle, headed east all the way across the country, jumped on a small boat, and hit the tiny (800’ X 400’) island Tobbaco Caye:

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There are a lot of different rays that swim around:

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