After volunteering in Tulum I headed to Playa del Carmen to meet up for the second portion of my big adventure: a group tour through Central America. Our meetup was in Playa del Carmen, which is only about a 30min drive from Tulum. Easy commute for me! I got there in the early afternoon with some time to settle in and see the town. Definitely not my favorite... Extremely touristy with tons of souvenir vendors and loud bars. However, I did find a calm spot on the beach to grab a drink and relax a bit. Before too long it was time to go meet the group! We’re a total of 14 people with our guide and a good mix of people from all over the world (UK, Australia, US, Luxemburg, Canada, and Finland) aged between 29-70+. Our guide, Eric, gave us a super informative briefing to know what to expect in the next few weeks, followed by a group dinner to get to know each other a bit better. We all had a blast from the get-go! Such a fun, lively group of people.
The first full day as a group we had a free day with some suggestions on what to see. Since I had been in the area a while, plus it was a super rainy day, I decided to lay low, get some postcards sent out, and make sure I had everything for the upcoming trip.
UnBELIZEable!
We had a 4:30 am wake up call for our first stop: Caye Caulker, Belize. Pretty much all fo us took a nap on the long drive to the Belizian border. Once there, we had to pay an exit fee from the Yucatan, then cross the border on foot into Belize, where we got our passports stamped, followed by another bus and drive to get to Belize City, where we took a water taxi across to Caye Caulker.* Unfortunately it was quite rainy and overcast when we got there. But that just made the grilled lobster lunch even more enjoyable! After settling in to our hostel (shout out to the gals from dorm B) we got a little tour of the island followed by Karaoke and dinner.
Day 2 in Belize was…well… unbelizeable! Some of us decided to go on a snorkeling tour in the Hol Chan Marine Reserve. Wow - this was absolutely worth it!! We embarked on our catamaran knowing we’d make a few different stops and see some nice things including the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef*. But we got lucky and saw a turtle, tons of nurse sharks,cool coral formations, and even a Manatee!! It was absolutely fascinating! Not to mention the amazing (and good looking) crew, tasty food, and dangerously good rum punch…! 😅
Day 3 was a day to relax. I caught some of the sunrise by the water, got to try Fry Jacks*, swing in a hammock, and watch the stingrays and pelicans on the shore.
Day 4 we said goodbye to Caye Caulker, caught a water taxi back to the mainland, and headed in to San Ignacio by “chicken bus”*. Upon arrival in San Ignacio we noticed that one of our group’s pieces of luggsge hadn’t arrived - yikes! Did it get left behind? Had someone stolen it? What happened? I think we all were convinced it had been stolen… but just in case, our awesome guide Erick did some calling around to see if the people at the bus depot had found anything… we were so lucky to hear that it had simply been left behind and they were going to send it with the first bus the next day. Yay! Anyway, we went to check in to our hostel, then headed straight to lunch where I tried the local pork stew with coconut rice and beans - YUM!
Next up was a drive to a local women’s cooperative in San Antonio, where we learned a bit about the cooperative, their three main forms of income (food preservation, pottery, and embroidery), and got to make a small clay cup ourselves. It was a fun experience and really neat to learn about the strong women who are determined to make good change happen.
Caracol ruins
Day 5 started with a quick stop at the local market for some breakfast treats before piling in to a van to head to the Mayan ruins of Caracol, way out in nowheresville. The drive was an adventure in itself, seeing both jungle and pine forests and being jolted around in our seats on the bumpy, muddy roads*. Once there we basically had the whole site to ourselves. It was extremely special since it’s not touristy and overcrowded (yet). There were no tschotschky stands, no trash, etc. Just us in the jungle, admiring the historic buildings.
Here some detailed info about the Mayan site:
45% of Belize is protected land, including this site
Caracol lies 13 miles away from the Macal river, the closest water source. Due to the distance, the Mayans relied on a large network of underground reservoirs for their water source.
This area of forest is called the Chiquibul forest, which translates from Mayan to "small gum", as some of the trees that grow in this area are what is used to make chicle/gum!
Belize has no virgin forests. What this means is, they have all - at some point in history - been chopped down and have now re-grown.
It is known that over 400 Mayan cities are covered by jungle in Belize and only about 20 are restored and open to the public.
Caracol was discovered in 1937 by a local logger. He found a tree on top of a mound, saw a stone arrangement underneath, and knew it wasn't natural. So, he reported it to the archeological department and the excavations began a year later. After 3 different excavations the part of the city that is currently uncovered amounts to only about 9% of the entire city!
They estimate to have around 1300 structures at Caracol where around 200'000 people lived.
Why the Mayan civilization collapsed is an important and unsolved question with various possibilities. Our guide on this tour shared his position: there was a serious drought caused by the immense logging done by the Mayans. They had chopped all the trees down to build their structures (used wood to burn limestone to create cement) and to create space for farm land.
The rain god was a big deal for the Mayans. So when there was a drought, the Mayans prayed to the rain god. As the drought got wors and worse over the years, they kept stepping up their offerings a notch. At first they made blood offerings, piercing tender parts of the body, soaking the blood with cloth, then burning the cloth so the fumes would reach the gods. When that didn't seem to work, they switched to human sacrifices.
On our way home from the ruins we got to stop by a beautiful waterfall and jump in for a quick (but chilly) swim.
*Fun Facts about Belize:
Cayes (pronounced “keys”) are not islands per se, but rather limestone deposits with Mangroves.
Mesoamerican Reef: 2nd longest reef system in the world!
Fry Jacks: picture a huge flour tortilla fried and cut to make a pocket (like pita bread) then filled with beans, eggs, chicken, etc. Top with some habañero hot sauce - YUM!!
Chicken Bus: no, there were no chickens on the chicken bus… although there very easily could have been! It was a big, repurposed yellow schoolbus.
Caracol roads: the driver said the conditions we saw were WAY better than they used to be. I don’t know how they used to make it up there lol! However, there was also a lot of construction going on as they are upgrading all the roads to be able to accommodate cruise ship tours in the near future… We asked how the construction was being funded: the Kuwait government…
Food for tought: It has been absolutely amazing to see all the wildlife and history, to learn so much about other cultures and ways of life. But also, I keep coming back to the topic of sustainability. Is there any way we can actually have sustainable tourism? Isn’t that concept an oxymoron? I love what I’m currently doing, but at the same time I recognize I am part of the problem that certain places are eroding, animals are in danger, habitats are being hurt, and so much more... Tough! I need to think about that a bit more and read up on the topic. Please reach out if you have any reading suggestions or general input on this!
That's all for now!
Hasta pronto :)
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I love all your pictures Have a good time!
TP