Xunantunich

Day 3: Jam needed to go into the capital to deal with some immigration stuff, so we had the day to explore on our own. Our town of Benque is within walking distance from Xunantunich, (pronounced shoo-NAHN-too-nich, meaning ¨Stone Maiden¨ after the female ghost seen climbing the temple) a quite impressive Mayan site, so that´s where we went! To get there, a giant iguana saw us off as we crossed the Mopan river in a hand cranked ferry. Since it´s one of the lesser known Mayan ruins, we basically had the entire site to ourselves, free to take some pretty awesome pictures without random tourists contaminating the shots. We climbed the main temple, called ¨El Castillo,¨ a hugely impressive structure, the second tallest in Belize, and the view was spectacular. Dispite the magnamity of the temples, being so deep in the jungle the site wasn´t even discovered until the 1950s when it was excavated and beautifully restored by a team led by an American archeologist. Included in the restoration were detailed stucco friezes of Mayan symbology on the side of El Castillo. Unfortunately for you the reader, we still can´t upload our pictures, so you´ll have to be patient. Although it was a hot and sunny day, once in a while a quick rain shower would pass through to cool us off just enough.

That evening, after another yummy meal prepared by Aisha and Mathias, we watched the movie Zeitgeist on Jam´s projector screen. If you haven´t seen this movie yet, you need to. Chances are it will change the way you think about everything. No joke.

Pictures from Day 3