Tarpon Feeding

Steven took us to special places in Belize, both in San Pedro and Caye Caulker, where you can buy a bag of sardines and hand feed the local tarpon. Growing 4-8 feet long and weighing 60 to 280lbs, you have to be a little extra cautious in this process, just keep your palms flat as they really burst to the surface with force.

These fish are interesting for a number of reasons. Their modified swim bladders allow them to breathe air, surviving in oxygen-poor waters of brackish marshes but also leaving them tethered to the surface to breathe.

This flexibility around air also lets them take large gulps for short bursts of energy such as lunging for sardines, and this same jumping makes them popular game fish, although they are typically released afterwards as their flavour is not great.

We had our insta360 camera and an underwater housing along on this trip as well to share this tarpons-eye view of their feeding group under our boat.

Secret Beach

Given how widely advertized it is right from the airport, Secret Beach is certainly more of a “wink” secret than an unknown gem. In fact, it is possibly the most visited area of Ambergris Caye and perhaps all of Belize.

Until very recently, all development on Ambergris Caye was along the (eastern) reef side as the fishing, diving, and trade winds that brought people to the island were all there. 

However, in the last decade developers have built a road through the mangrove lagoons that form the centre of the island, making the (western) leeward side more accessible. Currently there are a number of scattered residences being built up along this road, but whether they are foolhardy or ahead of the curve remains to be seen.

 Once on site at Secret Beach there are a number of venues to choose from but the general theme of the spot is consistent: swim, eat/drink, sunscreen, repeat.

We took an afternoon trip by golf cart across the island and down to the crystal waters for a mellow afternoon of floating and eating nachos in a semi-submerged palapa. Despite my best efforts I am not really a natural-born loafer so after half an hour relaxed in the sun I was ready to be off on our next adventure.

Fortunately, the drive to and from the beach was a big enough part of the outing to fill out the day and provide some fun stops and detours to along the way.

Cockscomb Basin

Established in 1986 and deriving its name from the nearby mountain ridge which (to some) resembles a roosters comb, Cockscomb Basin Wildlife Sanctuary is 400 square kilometers of rainforest. One of its key reasons for creation was to preserve jaguar habitat, and it remains on of the premiere sites for these cats in the world.

With only a single morning of hiking near the entrance, it is unsurprising that this is as close to a jaguar as we got.

The park consists of two water basins (west and east) with access and trails getting more difficult the further west you venture. Wildlife highlights in our self-guided hike include coati, aracari, toucans and guans. There were also some tracks we believed to have been recently made by a tapir, but that was as close as we came to sighting one.

One guaranteed sighting in the park is this crashed plane, which occurred as a result of an attempted landing on an access road during a thunderstorm in the early 1980s. A researcher used this plane for tracking jaguars via radio collars to learn more about their behaviour before the park was formed, and it remained an artifact of his efforts when the park opened.

Fortunately, none of the pilot, photographer and researcher on board at the time were seriously injured in the crash.

Hopkins

Tucked between the Cockscomb mountains and the Caribbean Sea, Hopkins is the Belizean cultural center of the Garifuna population, hosting its own community holiday and drum ceremonies. In 1942 the nearby village of Newton was devastated by a hurricane and Hopkins was built to replace and rehouse its residents.

Hopkins itself was a pleasant place to spend a little time with some very enjoyable food but not more than a few days of activities. The north end of the town (Baila) was  quite touristy while the south end (False Sittee) was a sprawl of enormous fenced houses, typically with multiple boat launches tucked underneath.

 

The Garifuna are a people of mixed African and Amerindian ancestry that began on Saint Vincent. Much of the populace were transplanted to Central America in 1796 after a series of conflicts with the English known as the Carib Wars. The Garifuna language is an offshoot of Arawak with numerous European influences and in 2001 was declared, along with their music and dances, to be a “Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible History of Humanity” by UNESCO.

 

The Garifuna have their own flag are very proud of their culture, in a manner which reminded us of the Metis in Manitoba. We experienced several instances of Garifuna music and culture in our visit, including a very memorable music performance in Hopkins with a band that would randomly increase in size as additional members arrived.

 

Kathryn was of course dancing in the thick of it and having a grand time.

 

Caves Branch Night Walk

 Night walks looking for wildlife can be a mixed bag. Sometimes you have incredible encounters with all sorts of creatures of the night and other times you walk for hours, lose out on sleep, and see a handful of bugs or sleeping birds bums overhead.

Caves Branch was a mixed bag with a few highlights below but not as rich an outing as we'd hoped for. Still this helmeted iguana is undeniably a neat little character, and the only one of his species on this particular trip. He was also content to stay still and cling to his branch, so we had a good opportunity for pictures.

Cuban tree frogs were quite common in Belize - Steven routinely catches them on his condo grounds - but this one looks a little more naturally posed on the side of a tree than it does in a bathroom sink.

We also had a valuable lesson in learning how large a spider has to get before we do request housekeeping to extract it (they had a good net and this was clearly not their first time with the ask). While the macro perspective does undeniably make this Tiger Bromeliad Spider look a little larger and more dangerous than you'd want to share a room with, it was still a comfortable hand span across and a little more than we wanted to have crawling about overhead as we napped.

Caves Branch Birding

We stayed for two nights in the rain forest at Caves Branch on our way from the central highlands of Belize to the coast. Having gorged on Mayan history for a week it was a fresh change of scenery and photography challenges. Forests can be particularly difficult areas to spot and identify birds, so we arrange for a full day guided tour with Ishmael, a local guide with the perfect combination of enthusiasm and patience to help us get the most out of our time.

There were plenty of interesting birds right on the grounds and we spent the morning just on the trails and pathways around the lodge, picking up local characters like this hooded warbler, which was boldly flapping around the breakfast tables while my camera struggled a little with morning humidity.

I am always a big advocate for getting local guides because they not only know the birds by appearance but they often know the habits and haunts of individuals that you would never notice in a million years on your own. A prime example of this local knowledge is the bard owl that was tucked between some coconuts in the top of a palm tree. He looks obvious in the photo below but was anything but, especially given the thousands of trees to choose from.

Local guides are also great for finding species you didn't know you were looking for and would struggle to identify without them, such as this Morelet's Seedeater. Of course even the best guide can't guarantee that you'll get more than a fleeting look or be able to fumble through with your own gear - of the 68 species we saw on our outing, I would say I have "okay" pictures of maybe a third of the species and "good" pictures of half of those, but that's all part of the fun and challenge of a day like that.

Caracol

Originally thought to be a fringe player in the Classic Period of Mayan history, the city is now known to have been one of the key political centres. Located on the Vaca Plateau at an elevation of 500m in the foothills of the Maya Mountains, the modern name means “snail shell” on account of the winding access road to the site. The ancient Maya would have known it as Uxwitza meaning “Three Water Hill.”

Although famous for its altars and stellae, Caracol’s biggest draw is Caana, the “Sky Palace,” which remains the tallest structure in Belize at 43m. Designed with Mayan cosmology and numerology throughout, Caana has two sequential stairways to a top platform, which is itself topped by a trio of pyramids. The other major highlight is the celestial observatory, which still has the original wooden timber supports

Caana is a stunning structure to behold, but its tiered pyramid design doesn’t do it favors to the conventional camera lens. What looks imposing to the eye invariably comes out as squat and unassuming in pixels. If we’d had our drone with us we might have done it justice, but for now we just recommend everyone go see it for themselves.

Once covering 200km2 with a suspected population of 180,000, it covers an area larger than modern Belize City with double the number of inhabitants. Occupied as early as 1,200BC, Caracol flourished as Tikal’s main competitor, but ultimately collapsed with all the other Mayan city states around 950AD. Rediscovered by a woodcutter in 1938, the ruins were surveyed in the 1950s but major excavation didn’t occur until the 1980s.

 

The Road to Caracol

Our original plan to was take every 2nd or 3rd day easy, but unfortunately there was too much to see and do in Belize so every day became an expedition. Case in point, I had barely heard of the ruins of Caracol before leaving, but having gotten a taste for Mayan cities this one sounded too tantalizing to miss.

It was also one of the most remote sites we visited, being far from town and close to the Guatemalan border. There have historically been problems with bandits in the forests as well (Belize recommends visiting the site as part of a daily convoy, but we did just fine with a local guide) so we opted to go with an organized tour for this one - fortunately there were only three of us booked so we had a small and personal tour to the site. But getting there took time...

On the way, we really lucked out with a close encounter with some King Vultures. Normally they are circling FAR up in the air, and we were incredibly fortunate to see a cluster of them practically at eye level and very close to the road.

Belize (like the Yucatan) is crisscrossed with limestone caverns and waterways of various sizes. The Rio Frio cave was an enormous, but also highly accessible cave on the way out. Its also not incredibly deep, so we could enjoy the strange formations and stream running through it, without spending too long (or worry about getting too lost)

We also visited the Big Rock waterfall, which was as scenic as it was freezing cold. Despite an opportunity to swim none of us were quite hot enough to want to brave the chilly water, though there were a group of cliff jumpers a little further up that were the right combination of brave and foolhardy to be enjoying the waters themselves.

Xunantunich

Xunantunich means “Maiden of the Rock” in Mayan and refers to a ghostly woman with fiery glowing eyes that has been reported ascending the stairs of El Castillo since 1892. As an indicator of how long the site has been abandoned and how completely the Mayan empire collapsed, the settlements original name is lost to time.

Strategically located on a limestone ridge overlooking the Mopan River, local Maya established control of the valley but were themselves vassals of the city state of Calakmul. Construction began as early as 200AD, halted following an unknown violent event in 750AD and then took off again by 800AD, ultimately outliving many of its rivals but still collapsing by 1,000AD and lying dormant until its rediscovery in the 1890s.

The core of the site is dominated by the pyramid known as “El Castillo” which, at 40m in height, is the 2nd tallest structure in Belize. Magnificent stucco friezes depicting the birth of a god and the tree of life are still visible near the top, with portions having been reconstructed for the benefit of tourists.

This focal point is in turn surrounded by 2.6km2 of plazas, temples, palaces and ball courts. As with most Mayan ruins, the remains of the city extend far beyond what has been excavated, offering only a hint to what the original city would have looked like.

The view from the top of El Castillo is stunning. At the peak of Mayan civilization it would have offered an unrestricted view to Tikal and Cahel Pech when all the rainforest now between the sites was developed farmland and city.

Access across the Mopan river requires a simple cable ferry, which is free to take but gives local guides an opportunity to pitch their value to you while entering the site (protip: they are worth it, if Edward is there, he is fantastic). The operators were also more than happy to sit back and let Kathryn take a turn on the crank to put her captaining skills to use in another country and kind of boat.

Actun Tunichil Muknal

The rain god Chaahk was a powerful and fickle power to the Mayan people, especially in times of drought, and human blood was a potent source of nourishment for the gods. The limestone caves across Belize were sacred places for him, as the rivers flowing from them were seen as his influence extending from the underworld of Xibalba.

Actun Tunichil Muknal, meaning “Cave of the Crystal Sepulchre” contains both artifacts and human remains from the Classic Mayan period. For hundreds of years, priests came to this cave to conduct bloodletting rituals and human sacrifices.

Many of the stone formations within were shaped to produce musical instruments, altars, or to cast shadow silhouettes of faces and animals on the cave walls.

Entering the cave today involves a 3km scramble underground along a meandering river to the site. The final cave opens up like a natural cathedral that contains 14 skeletal remains, all assumed to be high-status individuals sacrificed in times of war or drought. Frequent flooding over time has calcified their bones, fusing them to the ground and leaving them with a sparking and otherworldly finish.

Experiencing this site was an intensely spiritual experience that left a mark on us - truth be told I think we are still processing it and likely will be for years to come. Though the priests who worshipped these gods are long gone, they were human beings similar to ourselves but utterly different in circumstance. The undeniable power of the place, combined with the things that happened there, are haunting.

Please note: All these photos were shared afterwards by our guide Basilio from a collection built up by local guides. After a number of mishaps with clumsy tourists, photography is no longer permitted in the caves.

Belize Raptor Centre

Belize is home to some 30 species of hawks/eagles/kites and 10 species of owls. With a diverse and commonly agrarian populace, Belize has many complex interactions between these amazing birds and the people they co-exist with.

The Belize Raptor Centre has two key aims:

1. to educate the people of Belize about the importance of these birds to their ecosystems and to appreciate their nature beauty. They do this through community outreach and school programs.
2. to rehabilitate (and ideally release) birds that are injured through human contact
   

 This Ornate Hawk-Eagle is a fine example of the stunning animals they have on hand and how close you can get to the animals and appreciate them in detail.

Getting there is a bit of an ordeal as the local road is frequently steep and periodically washed out, but the facility is quite modern with a space for flight displays as well as a variety of hutches and enclosures to keep the animals safe and separated. Raptors are individually very solitary and competitive, commonly viewing each other as enemies or food, so spacing them apart is key.

The staff were wonderful about accommodating our late (and somewhat unexpected) arrival. Although the official demonstrations for the day was over, the founder generously spent several hours giving us a private tour of the facilities, including up-close encounters with a number of their residents, including this gorgeous Spectacled Owl.

But the undeniable star of the show was a black vulture there named Cora that loved to attack boot laces and was patted like a dog by the founder. Cora had been rehabilitated at the facility, then tried to make it on her own but returned underweight and was getting healthy again. I had never considered vultures to be affectionate and was proven wrong in that assumption.

If you'd like to visit, donate, or learn more, check out their website for more information.

San Ignacio

San Igancio is the capital and cultural-economic hub of Cayo, the largest of Belize’s six districts. Founded in the 1800s, the twin towns of San Ignacio and Santa Elana have largely amalgamated over time into a single centre. Two major thoroughfares run through the area, the George Price Highway between Belize City and the Guatamalan border, and the Hummingbird Highway which runs south to Stann Creek. We stayed at the Maya Bella Hotel in the centre of town and enjoyed our stay immensely

The regional population is highly diverse, with Mestizo, Kriol, Mayan, Chinese, and Mennonite communities all active participants. Tourism is a large source of income as the region is famed for its ruins, caves, waterfalls, and riverways.

 

San Ignacio was our base camp for exploring Western Belize as it was both affordable and centrally located to a number of interesting sites. There were originally a few days planned for relaxing, but the sights in the area proved too alluring and we maintained a very go-go-go pace throughout our visit.

Special shout out to the Ko-Ox restaurant for having the best food in town. Steven had heard about them before we arrived and we must have eaten 2 out of 3 meals there every day the entire time we were in the area.

Tikal Pt 2 - the Little Details

Tikal was a wonderland for photographic opportunities around colossal structures, but there were several smaller scenes and moments at a less grand and more human scale that I absolutely think are worth highlighting.

For instance, the city fell over 1,100 years ago, but the people still remain on the land and hold it as a sacred site. We were there on an unremarkable Friday afternoon in December (not an eclipse or other major celestial event) and a sizable group of people had gathered in the plaza between Temple 1 and 2 to have a ceremony and maintain their connection to this ancient place.

I've mentioned in the past how voracious the jungle is and how quickly it would cover up the city again given a chance. Its easy to think that, once a University leads a formal excavation that the site is preserved for an extended period, but the key structures were alive with local people manually clearing vegetation off the temples with machetes. The top of Temple 3 had a decent sized tree growing from it and our guide said that it had only been there a few months and that the top was due for another clearing shortly.

One of the few domesticated animals of the Americas, there are both the domesticated species (which became so popular in Europe in the 1500s that is now a food staple for numerous feast days), and the Ocellated Turkey, which is endemic only to the Yucatan region. Both species were eaten, sacrificed, and viewed as sacred.

The ancient Mayans revered turkeys, considering them powerful while also valuing their iridescent feathers and leg spurs.  One Mayan leader was posthumously honoured as Chak Ak'ach Yuhk, roughly translated as “Great Male Turkey, Shaker of Cities.”

Tikal Pt 1 - The Majesty

 Tikal was the capital of an ancient Maya conquest state which arose in 400BC and collapsed around 900AD. The entire 16km2 core site has been mapped and includes over 3,000 structures, most of which remain un-excavated. Major restoration by the University of Pennsylvania took place from 1956 to 1970 and it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979.

The modern name, adopted in the 1840s,  means “at the waterhole” in Mayan, while hieroglyphic scripts discovered more recently refer to it as Yax Mutul. Regardless of the name, it remains an important cultural space to this day, with modern Maya still conducting rituals within its grounds.

 There are 4 key tourist sites in the area. Temple 1, the “Temple of the Great Jaguar” a 47m funerary pyramid where Jasaw Chan K’awil was entombed in 734AD. Temple 2, the “Temple of the Mask” is 38m high and dedicated to the wife of Jasaw Chan K’awil but no tomb has been found. 

Temple 3, the “Temple of the Jaguar Priest” is 55m high, but the base is entirely obscured by vegetation.Our guide told us in advance that we wouldn't recognize Temple 3 even when we were at the base of it and he was not wrong.

Temple 4 is the tallest pre-Columbian structure at 70m high and marks the reign of Yik’in Chan Kawil. A wooden scaffold runs up the side, allowing you to ascend Temple 4 to the very top, offering a stunning view of the other three temples peaking out of the surrounding rain forest.

For those of you wondering how to tell a pyramid from a temple, the easy rule of thumb is that a pyramid is flat at the top while a temple has an entrance and inner chamber at the top. Based on this, the major structures at Tikal are all temples while Altun Ha, Cahel Pech, and others are predominantly pyramids.

Altun Ha

The Maya were a Mesoamerican civilization famed for their architecture, art, mathematics, and astronomical studies. Maya history divides into three key periods:

1. Preclassic period (2,000BC to 250 AD) was characterized by sedentary communities and the introduction of pottery. The first large cities featured paved avenues with stelae standing in major plazas. Population in the hundreds of thousands.
   
   
2. Classic period (250-950AD) was the zenith when major agriculturally intensive city-states engaged in trade, alliances, and warfare. Elaborate palaces and pyramids became widespread as did hieroglyphic monuments to their rulers. Population of 7 to 11 million.
   
   
3. Postclassic period (950-1539AD) was one of decline as many Classic cities collapsed and influence shifted to the Yucatán. Root causes appear to be a combination of drought, brutal warfare, and environmental degradation prior to the Spanish conquest in the 16th century. Population between 3 to 5 million.

6 million of their modern descendants inhabit their ancestral lands and speak over 28 surviving languages. The cities collapsed but the people never disappeared.

Altun Ha was the first Belizean ruin we visited and its main temple is also used on the Belikin beer label. Large portions of this site have yet to be excavated while some areas have had their stones appropriated for nearby residential construction. Popular with cruise ship tourists lacking time to go deeper into the country, it was an impressive ruin and a first taste of the splendour of Mayan architecture yet to come.

The picture above may look like a stairway up a hill with a tree on top, but its actually an un-excavated temple which has been swallowed up by the jungle. If you ever wonder how these cities were lost, google what they looked like BEFORE they were identified and cut back, its incredible how easily the jungle can make a grand pyramid 55m tall just disappear into the landscape.

Crawlies of Belize

Of course Belize wasn't all pyramids, rain forest and birds, there are lots of little creatures living out their lives underfoot whenever and wherever you go. Mexican red-rump tarantulas are quite common in the area and we got nice pictures of this one as it was crossing a gravel road out in the countryside. Unbeknownst to tourists, they make readily identifiable burrows in short grass and guides throughout the area can quickly winkle them out just by disturbing their lair with a piece of grass for a few seconds.

Many of you may get the heebie-jeebies from spiders, so you'll be glad to know that there are insects down there that give the heebe-jeebies TO spiders. Take for example this Milde's Tarantula-Hawk Wasp, which looks colourful to us but is a nightmare to tarantulas. The reproductive cycle of the wasp requires that the female sting a live tarantula, which paralyses it, and then drag it to its den. There the spider serves as a living meal for the young implanted in that that gradually eat their way out. But don't worry, these wasps are necatarivorous, living entirely off flowers and only supplementing a small part of their diet from your nightmares.

Hermit crabs were quite common on the grounds of Steven's condo complex and we went out several evenings to watch them scurry around at night while mosquitoes (not pictured) would feast on us. Hermit crabs are very neat since they don't produce their own shells but rather scavenge discarded shells of other animals and trade-up as they grow and require a larger home. This can result in a "vacancy chain" as they hand shells down the line from largest to smallest with everyone getting an upgrade to the preceding crabs old digs. Spending more time on land than you might expect, the shells also help keep their gills humid so they can breathe out of the water.

Cahel Pech

Located in the heart of modern San Ignacio, Cahel Pech was once a palatial hilltop home for an elite Maya family. Overlooking the junction of the Macal and Mopan rivers, the site includes 34 excavated structures, including ballcourts and a central acropolis arranged around a pyramid 25m high. Originally covering 26 square kilometres, only a fraction has been examined and artifacts remain common on the ground in the surrounding area.

Like so many cities of the Maya period its original name is lost, with Cahel Pech meaning “Place of Ticks” from when the area was used as pasture during the first archaeological studies in the 1950s. Unfortunately, looting in the 1970s left a gap in potential scientific understanding no stelae or writing have since been recovered. Official  excavation of the site began in 1988 and was completed in 2000.  
There is evidence of continuous habitation as early as 1,200 BC, making it one of the oldest recognizable Maya sites in Western Belize, until it too was victim of the Mayan collapse around 800AD. At the peak of Maya civilization, this site would have been home to as many as 15,000 people.

Having a site such as this in easy walking distance from our hotel was a real treat, and since its a lesser-known ruin we practically had it to ourselves. Although the view from the top of the pyramid largely obscured by trees and therefore less impressive than others, the lines and design of the plaza entrance were incredibly unique and interesting to me.