Belize, Finally — The Towering Travelers

This was the third time that Jason and I had tried to go to Belize (we can blame the events of 2020). In fact, if this third time didn’t work, we had agreed that we had to give it several years before trying again, since the trip was clearly cursed. When we decided on Belize with some of our friends, we were hopeful that the addition of several people would be enough of a change that the trip would actually happen - and it worked. Our timing, which took advantage of Labor Day, was both great and problematic - there were almost no other tourists, but it was also the most hot and sweaty that we had ever been. It was a great trip though, and I’m so glad we finally got to experience the country with some of our close friends.

None of us knew a lot about Belize, and it was fun to learn about the country as we went. First, it’s very sparsely populated - there are only 400,000 people in the country, and almost a quarter of those are in Belize City, which we didn’t visit. Most of the time we were driving, we saw only very small towns, and even the larger towns where we stayed felt pretty empty. When tourist season is in full swing, the country must feel like it’s bursting at the seams of the limited city infrastructure.

The roads are mostly in good shape, but the most memorable part of driving was the varied use of speed bumps - they were everywhere, sometimes seemed to be placed at random, and were all different sizes, so you never quite knew how significant they would be to get over. This resulted in the best speed control I’ve ever seen - everyone slowed way down for every speed bump. Sometimes there was one large one, sometimes a set of smaller ones, and sometimes just slightly elevated rumble strips, but predicting which it would be in any upcoming location was pretty impossible. We were also driving in a Kia Carnival, and the people in the back were especially subjected to any lack of care on the bumps.

We started our trip in San Ignacio, a town near the border of Guatemala. It’s the classic kicking off point to take a day trip into Guatemala to visit the ruins of Tikal, which is exactly what we did on our first full day of the trip.

Our guide walked us through the border crossing into Guatemala, and then we got in a van with a few other Americans (including a friend who happened to be in Guatemala and met us there for the tour) and drove a couple of hours to Tikal. On the way, he told us about Guatemala, which is about 60% Mayan and has more than 20 languages. The soil is not well suited to agriculture, so Guatemala raises a lot of cows (many of them Brahman cows, which are bred to handle heat well).

Tikal, a Mayan city, is fascinating and shockingly large. Only about 20% of the city has been uncovered, and in a few hours, we only explored about 20% of that. To prevent looting and improper handling of the site, Guatemala is doing all of the excavation themselves. It’s a very slow process - as soon as buildings are dug out, they have to be covered and supported immediately so they don’t collapse.

A LiDAR scan from a few years ago exposed the full size of the complex and clarified that hundreds of thousands of people lived there. Based on these numbers, the city may have been abandoned simply because of overpopulation and the issues that arise with it, not because of any crazy war or extinction event.

Tikal is in a rainforest, but not on a water source - the complex was built to collect rain water in reservoirs, which were then purified with volcanic rock. Another unexpected thing we learned was that several of the buildings had multiple layers - a Mayan building covering a Teotihuacan building, for example.

Taking a look at the part of Tikal we’d be exploring (photo/Jason Rafal)

A couple of the temples had stairs built against them so we could climb to the top. The views were amazing - jungle as far as the eye could see, with temple tops peeking above the trees.

Our happy and sweaty group of friends (photo/Jason Rafal)

Treetops and temple tops from a high point in Tikal. — Temples 1, 2, and 3 peeking above the trees (photo/Jason Rafal)

A large Mayan temple with people visible at the top. — The imposing Temple 1 (photo/Jason Rafal)

A large carved stone mask with green moss growing over some of the pale stone. — An incredible giant mask carving (photo/Jason Rafal)

The trunk of a large tree, with many leaves in the background and another plant winding up the branches. — The trees and plants at Tikal are awe-inspiring (photo/Jason Rafal)

The ruins were amazing, but the animals were the highlight for me (as usual). We saw lots of spider monkeys, two types of toucans (and some other birds as well), and white-nosed coatis, which are an adorable raccoon-anteater situation.

An adorable spider monkey (photo/Jason Rafal)

A spider monkey hanging by one arm and its tail from a tree branch. — A spider monkey…hanging out (photo/Jason Rafal)

A Collared Aracari with some food in its beak (photo/Jason Rafal)

The well-known Keel-billed Toucan (photo/Jason Rafal)

A black, dinosaur looking bird with a red wattle. — A Crested Guan that looks just like a dinosaur (photo/Jason Rafal)

An extraordinarily well camouflaged bird sitting on a tree branch. — An impossibly well camouflaged Northern Potoo bird that might actually be a muppet (photo/Jason Rafal)

A coati walking across the path. — One of the very chill coatis (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two coatis with their tails in the air sniffing the ground. — I love the coatis (photo/Jason Rafal)

A coati walking toward a temple. — A coati strolling toward one of the temples (photo/Jason Rafal)

A butterfly on a tree trunk drinking from a bead of sap. — A butterfly (or moth?) drinking tree sap (photo Jason Rafal)

A tiny lizard on a mossy tree trunk. — Just a little guy (photo/Jason Rafal)

We spent the day after our Tikal trip exploring the small town of San Ignacio. Belize and Guatemala both had very cute and sweet street dogs, and we met a lot of them as we strolled around town, shopped, and ate.

A brown and white dog stands on gravel beside a road and looks at the camera. — One of the cute roadside dogs (photo/Jason Rafal)

An equally cute and friendly street cat (photo/Jason Rafal)

The Green Iguana Conservation Project was conveniently located across the street from the house where we stayed, so it was an easy choice for an activity. Our guide, who was excellent despite initially apologizing for only being an iguana caretaker and not one of the formal guides, told us about the project’s program to incubate, hatch, and release endangered green iguanas into the wild. They also provide a sanctuary for iguanas who have injuries or other issues that prevent them from living in the wild. We got to feed and even hold a couple of the iguanas.

A male iguana in a small hut, looking regal. — A majestic male iguana (photo/Jason Rafal)

Jason's hand holding out a large leaf to an iguana while it chows down. — Noming on a leaf (photo/Jason Rafal)

Four iguanas laying in a row. — Some of the adult iguanas relaxing (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two baby iguanas stacked on top of each other on a stick. — A stack of young iguanas (photo/Jason Rafal)

A tiny female iguana with a genetic abnormality that gave her a beautiful blue tint (photo/Jason Rafal)

A black iguana sitting among the plants on a rock wall. — A sneaky black iguana (photo/Jason Rafal)

Apparently this is our year of seeing orb weavers (photo/Jason Rafal)

Our last activity in San Ignacio was the beautiful Belize Botanic Garden. It had wonderful plants and a lot of animals - we’d definitely recommend it (though our overloaded car had a little bit of trouble on the dirt road getting there). I would also recommend going during a cooler season if possible - 90 degrees and 90% humidity was an intense time to explore a rainforest.

A toucan sitting in a tree with a nut in its beak. — Another toucan, this one with a nut in its mouth (photo/Jason Rafal)

All of the air plants (photo/Jason Rafal)

One of the caretakers at the botanic garden pointed out some howler monkeys in some of the trees, which we really appreciated because we wouldn’t have seen them otherwise. We first saw a male, and then another whole family, including a young and adorable baby monkey.

A howler monkey lounging in the branches of a tree. — A relaxing howler monkey (photo/Jason Rafal)

A mother and baby howler monkey looking down from the tree branches. — A mother and baby howler monkey staring at us (photo/Jason Rafal)

A small black and green butterfly landing on a beautiful tropical flower. — There were so many beautiful flowers (and butterflies) (photo/Jason Rafal)

Two leaf cutter ants carrying leaves across a log. — The always-mesmerizing leaf cutter ants (photo/Jason Rafal)

An iguana sitting on a tree trunk. — Another black iguana in the botanic garden (photo/Jason Rafal)

From San Ignacio, we headed to Placencia on the Caribbean Sea. We rented a very bougie beach house on the water with a beautiful pool, and we spent a majority of our time relaxing and hanging out. Our house was about halfway down the long peninsula, and we made the 20 minute drive a couple of times for activities and meals. It’s a very cute area, with lots of bars and restaurants, and was as empty as everywhere else we’d been.

Looking out over a pool and beach toward the sea. — The beautiful view from our rented house (photo/Jason Rafal)

A view down the peninsula with period piers jutting into the water. — The view up the peninsula from our house (photo/Jason Rafal)

A brightly painted bus between a row of palm trees and a gravel construction area. — Some fun painted buses (photo/Jason Rafal)

On one of our days on the beach, we went on a snorkeling tour. We got into a little motorboat and drove for almost an hour out to sea - every time we passed an island, we thought that’s where we’d stop, but we just kept going.

We eventually stopped at Silk Caye, a tiny island in the middle of nowhere consisting entirely of sand, a couple of palm trees, a BBQ and a handful of picnic tables, and a bathroom shack. It’s a protected marine reserve in Belize’s barrier reef, and the snorkeling was amazing. We swam around the island, which was completely encompassed by beautiful corals and fish. Looking out away from the island, the light turquoise water stretched into nothingness, which made me a little nervous, but it was also awe-inspriring in its vastness and how small it made me feel.

Several fish swimming through coral. — Some of the coral and fish we saw while snorkeling (photo/Jason Rafal)

Schools of several types of fish swimming above the coral. — There were a lot of fish (photo/Jason Rafal)

After a BBQ lunch, we went over to one of the nearby fishing boats, where our guide said there might be Nerf sharks looking for fish pieces. Some of us were a little nervous to get in the water, but it was worth it when we did - there were close to a dozen Nerf sharks, ranging from 3-6 feet long, just swimming around under the boat, ignoring us. A surprise turtle also appeared right next to us, with a couple of little fish swimming against its belly. I’ve never swam with such large animals, and it was very cool.

A nurse shark and several fish swim through the water. — One of the Nerf sharks we were swimming with (photo/Jason Rafal)

A turtle swimming low over the grass-covered sand. — The turtle was everyone’s favorite (photo/Jason Rafal)

Swimming with the turtle (spot the shark in the back) (photo/Jason Rafal)

On our way back from snorkeling, we stopped at Ray Caye Resort, where we got to use a very fun water slide into the ocean and relax in the pool with a beer. It was delightful, and also when we started realizing how insanely sunburned we were.

A pelican flying low over the water in front of an island. — A pelican matching the water (photo/Jason Rafal)

On the way back we saw dolphins, which was a great way to top off the day. I was expecting the snorkeling to be good, but I continue to be impressed by the wildlife I see in Central America, in the water or on land.

There were nightly storms while we were in Placencia, and one night we went out onto the pier to watch one for a while. A lightning storm across the water is amazing - it made me feel so small, but in such a comforting way.

A lighting strike across dark water, with clouds and stars overhead. — An awesome picture from the storm (photo/Jason Rafal)

We had a wonderful trip to Belize, and it was so great to be able to share it with some of our closest friends. Our travels to Central America continue to be amazing, and maybe we’ll try out a whole trip in Guatemala next time.