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.