Day 9

I am blogging from my hotel room with everything packed and ready to go to the airport in about one hour.

Day 9: Monday

This morning, I woke up before Ash and went in to take a shower. I noticed, since it wasn't dark outside, that we had the most beautiful view of the hillside from our third story bathroom. We decided to hit the road early since we had a few things on our list of things to see as well as a drive ahead of us.

After a breakfast of the last piece of bannana bread and a plantain, we left the hotel around 7:00 am. Ashley still wanted to play one round of frisbee golf at the Trek Stop so we went there first. The course was amazing as it was cut into the jungle. Most of the baskets were not visible from the box so we had to hike to the basket to figure out which way he had to throw the frisbee. The course was only nine holes so it was over after just about an hour.

The next thing on our list of things to do was to visit the Xunantunich (pronounced shoo-na-too-neech) Mayan Ruins. We drove down the road about five more miles to find the entrance. We were driving next to the Macal River and had to get across the river to get to the ruins. Rather than cross a bridge, there was a hand-cranked ferry that took cars and people across the river. Because there have been incidents of drivers driving off the end of the ferry and into the river, all passengers have to get out of the vehicle until the vehicle is off of the ferry. The hand-crank was one of the neatest things I have seen. The ferry was strung on a cable with a giant pully in the middle that was cranked by the ferry operator. It took only two-three minutes to get across. Once across, we drove the mile to the parking lot and paid the entry fee for the park. Ashley was feeling a bit woozy from the hike and from the frisbee golf so we went nice and slow. We started at the visitor center to learn more about the ruins and the Mayan history. This particular villiage was small but controlled the western valley of the Belize River for about 900 years. It even lasted about 300 years beyond the fall of the Mayan civilization.

We hiked to the top of a couple of ruins before we went for the big one. Even though the ruin looked high and towering, it wasn't hard to get to the top. Once we were up there, we noticed some howler monkeys in the neighboring trees above a different ruin. We quickly went to the bottom of the big ruin and went to the top of the neighboring ruin to get a closer look. I have been hoping that we would have the opportunity to see some monkeys while we were here so this was very exciting for me.

When we were finished watching the monkeys, we left to hit the road for the drive to Belize City. As we drove back through San Ingacio on our way to Belize City, we stopped at the local market (an open air market with fresh fruit and veggies as well as our favorite street vendors) to get some pastries and some lunch. We got some croissants, some celery, and more plantain chips. Ash purchased a tamale which was wrapped in a banana leaf instead of a corn husk. It had the best masa he had every tasted but the chicken inside was more bone than meat, an interesting surprise in every bite.

We left San Ignacio with full bellies. Two hours later we arrived in Belize City. We wanted to go to the Belikin Brewery, the beer of Belize, to go on a tour. The tour guide was having lunch so we were told to come back in a half hour. We went and checked into our hotel, the Raddison, and then returned an hour later. The tour was amazing. I have never been to a brewery but Ashley had. Everything there was so clean! At the end of the tour, we visited the Belikin Brewery Bar where we were able to sample all of the beers brewed at the plant from the tap.

After we arrived back at the hotel, we decided to purchase some pastries-again-and then go to the pool. We hadn't been to a pool yet since we had the biggest pool around, the ocean. When we finshed that, we decided to order in. Anyone who has travelled with me knows how much I love room service. So room service was our food for dinner, and breakfast the next day. After dinner, I spent several hours blogging before going to bed.

We did so much on Day 9! It was a great day and proved that renting our car was worth the expense.

Til later...