07.12.07

Caving in Belize at the site of Actun Tunichil Muknal (ATM)

Posted in Actun Tunichil Muknal, Belize Caving, Vacations at 2:37 pm by admin

Having fun in the Belize Jungle and Pyramids

When staying in Belize there is no doubt you will spend much of your time on the beach. With the 2nd biggest reef in the world next to Australia’s you would be dumb not to snorkel or dive in the reef. After diving, snorkeling and lounging on the beach you will want to get off your lazy butt and head into the interior of Belize to check out the Pyramids and jungle. You will want to go to San Ignacio Belize which is the jumping point to the several different jungle and pyramid locations.

Travelling to San Ignacio

The place you want to go to first after doing the beach thing is San Ignacio. This city is very close to the Guatemalan border. On your way to San Ignacio have the bus drop you off at the zoo. You will see a sign stating that you are now enetering the zoo. Once you have made it in about 200 yards you start to wonder if your lost down some abandoned road but then you will actually start to see the zoo. They have it setup as if you are walking through a jungle. The animals are lightly fenced in with chain link and you can get quite close to the wildlife. They have a black Jaguar which is very rare and several other mean looking felines. Parrots, Eagles, and many different birds are located here.

Playing with the baby Jaguar

There is a young baby Jaguar staying here that was rejected by the mother and so it was raised by the staff.  It acts just like a baby kitty and loves people and attention. That was by far the neatest part of the zoo trip. We didn’t actually play with the Jaguar but we were able to tease playfully with it from the other side of the cage.

Riding a bus in Belize

After the zoo you will wait at the bus stop and a bus will be by shortly. Each time you see a bus just try and waive it down. If it is a bus that is allowed to stop it will stop for you and you will be on your way to San Ignacio. Bus fares are very cheap. You could take a bus from Belize City to San Ignacio for probably $5 US.

Where to stay in San Ignacio Belize

After arriving in San Ignacio Belize you will want to stay at “Martha’s Guest House”. They have very affordable clean accomodations. They charge $45 US a night to stay at their guest house. The place is amazing inside and I promise you will be more then pleased with your stay there. They currently only have air conditioning in some of the rooms but for $45 a night you only get a fan. This is good though as the fan blows so hard you will not need an A/C.

  

Martha’s guest house also does a great job in setting up discounted travel excursions into the jungle  available by various tour companies. We went with PACZ Tours which the hotel setup and were more then satisfied with the professionalism and knowledge of the tour guide. We found the tour rate to be quite competitive then if we had gone at it on our own looking for someone. The tour guide could have easily have been mistaken for a college professor. In fact this tour company is certified by the government as official tour guides. We really got our money’s worth during our tours.

Most recommended tour to take while in Belize

The best tour to take while in Belize is known as ATM for short. The actual name is Actun Tunichil Muknal. You have to go with a tour company to take this tour as sanctioned by the government of Belize. For those who would like to know how to get there on your own I can tell you. You take a bus into Tea Kettle Belize from San Ignacio. Have them drop you off at the Yellow Catholic School. Walk down the dirt road until it dead ends. Take a right and follow that road all the way down until you get to an open site with a couple of palm tree canopies. These are changing rooms so people can change from wet clothes to dry clothes. Try and get someone with a car to drive you here as it is about 2 or 3 miles to this location. If you don’t mind the walk then go ahead anyway. Watch out for viper snakes and other poisonous snakes. It’s best advised to go with a tour guide and you will likley be reprimanded by a tour guide if they see that you are on your own.

You will be paying $85 a person to go into a guided tour into the jungle for about 1 1/2 hours. There a bush man tour guide will have you try various plants and bugs if you like and tell you of there medicinal equivalent in the pharmecutical drug market. This trek into the jungle is facinating on its own.

You eat a packed lunch as you arrive at this large mountain that jets straight up from flat land. Many of the mountains in Belize seem to come out of nowhere as they are not a gradual incline. You walk down a narrow slop into a jungle river only to find that it winds into a cave in the mountain and continues on for 5 miles on into the cave. Prepare for your next adventure that will last 5 hours in a very interesting cave.

We swam and hiked into the cave for 1.5 miles until we came to a place in the cave where we had to climb up several steep walls without climbing gear. The tour guide gave us step by step instructions on how to proceed up the cave walls without breaking anything or falling. We made our way up into the cave and began to see pottery from the Mayans as well as skulls and skeletons as we proceeded further. At times I was even walking over bones, skulls and pottery making my way further into the cave. All the while teh tour guide gave us instruction not to step on the artifacts as they are history and very delicate. These artifacts are between the time period of 600 - 900 A.D. This was around the time the Mayan civilization was having problems and was on the decline. They began to sacrifice some of the elite of the people in order to appease the God’s but of course this did not work and the civilization came to an eventual complete decline.

Scorpion Spider - Found deep in the cave.

After going in 1.5 miles into the cave we turned around and came back out and trecked back out of the jungle. Changed out of our wet clothes and drove back into San Ignacio Belize. There were about 6 people in our group and everyone of us were truly amazed at what we had experienced. It almost makes you feel guilty to walk over such old artifacts because I kept thinking I might accidentally step on a pot or a skull but I managed to not break anything.

About 1 mile in the cave. That’s me waving in the black shirt and Melody’s head is behind my hand

I recommend this expedition of all other possibilities when going to Belize. I doubt this cave adventure will be allowed too much longer by the government of Belize because of the chances that some of these artifacts being destroyed.�

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05.03.07

Vacations: Belize, Costa Rica or Mexico?

Posted in Vacations at 5:49 pm by admin

Picking a Central American Vacation Destination

If you live in Texas or around the border of Mexico you have some enticing vacation options near you for relatively cheap. Imagine spending a $300 - $400 on a cruise to travel along the Central American coastline visiting coral reefs, pyramid ruins and access to good food and drinks. The price can hardly be beat.

Some people would love to do this and the price makes it easy to do. I was searching this vacation option out and did a search in Google for cruise deals. I found some helpful sites that offer last minute cruise packages at around these prices. I was almost committed to making a choice with a 4.5 star rated cruise deal when I realized the person I would be going with might get sea sick. To avoid the possibility of sea sickness I decided to find a different means to have the same vacation.

Choosing an online travel site

I went to priceline, Travelocity, expedia and a couple others and what I discovered was that the airfare they offered really was no better then a travel agent could do for you anyway. So what did I do? I walked into my local travel agent and told her I wanted a vacation in Central America and wanted a cheap flight there. She searched around and found several different trips and days I could leave. I eventually settled on going to Belize.

Belize is the best destination in Central America

Why did I pick Belize out of Mexico and Costa Rica? Mexico has several tourist traps and I didn’t want to accidentally gravitate to the typical tourist destination. You can be catered too for really cheap and live like a king for dirt cheap. Why don’t I want this? I wanted something a little less of a trap but still safe and fun. Mexico is great but I’m a Texan and I am familiar enough with Mexico to not be as excited about it as some people but don’t get me wrong Mexico is still great!

Central America is for adventure

Costa Rica and Belize gives me that feeling of adventure and fun that I don’t get with Mexico. There is a little of the unknown when going to these countries. Most people have been to Mexico but not as many to these other beautiful countries.

Beautiful Jungles in Costa Rica but good roads are sparse

I decided against Costa Rica because their roads aren’t the greatest. It’s hard to go cross country. You basically have to fly everywhere. They have several fun tourist destinations next to each other to avoid flying but I want to know all the places and have enough time to visit several. The interior jungles of Costa Rica do not allow me to do that affordably. Costa Rica is an awesome place but not this trip.

Belize is the choice I made for this trip. I will be gone 6 days and will be spending lots of time on the beach and snorkeling along their coral reefs. The coral reefs leave some of the remote islands shores with crystal blue water, just like a swimming pool. It’s just like you are in a swimming pool. The abundance of different ocean fish swimming along these reefs is so beautiful it is almost worth the whole trip.

What you can do in Belize

You can swim with the dolphins like most destinations, eat Latin food, enjoy the Latin clubs, lounge in mild summer weather on the coastline and explore the pyramids. Most of the natives speak English and traveling the roads is easy and can take you into other countries if you decide to visit Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico or several other Central American countries. Because of its central location to everything else you have many options and can visit all the best sites. Belize by far is my favorite choice among the Central American countries.

Below is a typical site you will see when snorkeling in Belize. When you are doing this in person the site is absolutely amazing. Snorkeling is just as fun as diving because there is so much to see either way.

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 Snorkeling with Sting Rays and exotic looking fish

 Loggerhead Turtle in Belize

This is what the ocean water looks like in Belize. Paradise crystal blue water. You can see everything.

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