The Xunantunich ruins excursion was great. It rained all day, but the cool 78 degree weather was a welcome break. Our tour guide, Marisol, was absolutely wonderful…she talked literally for 3.5 hours about Belize and the Xunantunich excavation site and she was entertaining and informative 100% of the time.
The shore excursion description boasted that you would arrive at the Mayan ruins via an “old-fashioned ferry”. That didn’t quite prepare Jody and I for the rickety flatbed wooden float that was manually hand cranked along cables (the cable wheel was a recycled automotive rim) across a river to reach the Mayan site. You should have seen the biceps and forearms on the ferry operator…seriously, he was Popeye the Ferryman!
Lunch was a bit hurried but offered at the “5-star” Windy Hill resort in the Cayo district of Belize. We were guided to a roofed but open-air dining room where we were served fruit punch (made with purified water), red beans and rice cooked in coconut milk and roasted chicken (despite Marisol’s promise that we were having iguana (sometimes called “bamboo chicken”) or gibnut (a large Belizean rodent also known as “The Royal Rat”) Unfortunately, due to the weather, we were running a bit late and literally inhaled lunch and ran to catch the bus.
Yes, I climbed to the very tippy top of this thing to sacrifice myself to the gods…but they wouldn’t have me. It was a wonderful view from heaven, nonetheless.
