Caracol

I woke up, got out of bed, dragged a comb across my head. Went downstairs to get some coffee and asked Mark, the owner of this joint, where the best tour company for Caracol could be found. He pointed to the only other man in the room, sitting at a table with his tours book. "The only tour for the day in town" I was told. Well that narrowed down the choices. The usual price of $75 US was discounted to $65 US as I was staying at the place. Interesting, the room is only costing me $12.50 US. They were leaving in 20 minutes. I ordered a breakfast burrito and went up to my room to grab a pancho; it looked like rain. I was given a 'to go' cup and my burrito. The truck was idling out front with two tourists in the back seat. I grabbed shotgun and off we went.

Sergio was my tour guide, a fourth generation Belizean of Lebanese descent. There were enough Lebanese in the country such that he is pretty much undiluted Arab. Sergio responded affirmatively to my question regarding his Catholicism. "That's fortunate. I haven't seen any mosques here."

My tour companions were a Dutchman, now a professor of Amer-Indian studies in a university in Stockholm and his son who resides in the Netherlands.
Within minutes the paved road gave way to dirt roads winding by jungle resorts on the river. Land here is $1,500 bz (750 USD) / acre. Verdant, lush and quiet. Lovely place for a quiet getaway.

After half an hour we passed a sign indicating the turn to a 1,000 foot waterfall. Sergio asserted that it was actually 1,600 feet. Not common for attractions to be undersold. Shortly there after we entered a park of pine forest. I observed the very small pines and asked why there were no trees over 20 years old. Sergio stated that 11 years ago the Southern Pine Bark Beetle wiped out 60 percent of the trees in the park. Strange park, land is for sale. Presently we passed Five Sisters Lodge, a Francis Ford Coppola resort with five small waterfalls.

The toucans were out in force, on the road, at the ruins; we must have seen over a hundred.

Caracol is the superlative Mayan site in Belize: with 35,000 buildings it has the most structures; extending over 30 square miles it covers the most area; home to an estimated 200,000 people it had the highest population; most hieroglyphics. The zenith of the city state occurred around 700 A.D.

After lunch we stopped at Rio On Pools during our return trip. Water cascades over large granite boulders pools, collects and cascades further.

We had an unscheduled stop at a local subsistence farm. The old farmer had a produce stall in town and moved out into the country when his wife died. He took a young woman for his wife and kept her pregnant; four kids later she is due again. The bed is the dirt floor of the shack. Crops raised include the near mandatory banana, usually eaten green and cooked, and yucca. A nancite tree must have pre-dated his agricultural efforts, which commenced but a year ago. Naked little children wandered in squalor amongst the pups and the chicks.

Everybody seemed happy and healthy and that is the important thing. Who am I to judge?

Pictures are uploading. It was a wet day. Lots moisture inside the lens.