Post 2 -The Tour

This is Post 2.  To start at the beginning, go to Post 1 

At the Tourism Village in Belize City, we boarded a small bus with a driver and a tour guide, and it carried us westward on a paved road like I would expect in the rural United States.  Belize is not a primitive country, we find that parts of Belize are quite modern and the main roads are in great shape.

We crossed miles of flat lowlands, much like parts of our southern states that lie along the coast, sparsely populated and with mostly scrub vegetation and marsh grass.  Occasional trees stand tall on clumps of high ground, separated by tidal creeks.  When we left the lowlands, thick jungle lined each side of the road, and then we began to climb into the foothills of the mountains.  The bus stopped at a narrow river and waited for a small ferry to come from the other side to take us across. 

This hand-cranked ferry was the first I have ever been on or even seen, one of many new experiences in Belize.  It took our small bus across the river to a paved road that snaked its way up the side of a mountain. 

Our bus guide told us that we would soon arrive at the ancient city of Xunantunich, and she asked us to repeat the Mayan name.   We Americans could not pronounce it properly, so she told us that it sounds like ‘tuna sandwich.’  From then on, that’s what we called the city.  If someone tells you they went to Belize and visited a place that sounds like ‘Tuna Sandwich’, this is where they went.

The bus stopped on a gravel parking lot at the top of a mountain and when we stepped off, we were met by a brown-skinned man, a Mayan.  He told us he was a farmer from a nearby village so he knew this area well, and he also had completed a course and earned his license to be a guide.  He led us to a trail through the jungle that took us beside the ruins of an ancient palace, and then we followed him across a wide, grassy plaza.

Beyond that stood an enormous pyramid.

Go to Post 3 to see the pyramid.