More Pics of Belize

My kids wanted to see more pics of our trip, so here's quite a big post of what we did and saw.

Below are pics of us inside ATM Caves. This was discovered in 1986 and has been left untouched. No where else in the world could you actually walk through a "living museum" such as this. Ancient ruins were actually at out feet! These are original Mayan ruins dating back to 900 AD. This cave was used only for religious ceremonial rites. This skeleton is of a 15 year-old female. Evidence of violence is seen. She was found in the highest chamber of the cave. It's not known why she was here or why she was murdered.

Dave and me viewing stalagtites and stalamites inside ATM cave, about 2 miles in.
About 14 skeletons were found inside this cave. All of them have evidence of their heads having taken a blow. All were male but the one show above.

Dave finding his way through the wet cave system.

This is the group that went into the cave this day. Only 5 of us and a guide.

Here I am up to my armpits in water, venturing through ATM cave.

Some of the other places we visited are shown below.

This is an ancient altar stone found at Caracol, the largest Mayan site in existence in Belize. There are over 1,400 sites many of which have not yet been unearthed.

This is an archway at a ruin called Cahal Pech, one of the oldest. The doorways were shaped this way to make way for the high headresses of royalty.

The Caana temple had tons of high steps. I forgot to count them all, but they were high and steep steps.

Here I am standing in front of a Mayan glyph wall at Caracol.

Dave and I were playing around on this altar stone, until we found out we were not supposed to be on it. Ooops.

Another ancient temple at Cahal Pech.

Above is a picture of a toucanette. These birds greeted us every morning in San Ignacio outside the restaurant.

This is typical view along Ambergris Caye, Belize. Each hotel had their own pier with a dive shop at the end. On our first dive we followed this 8-foot spotted eagle ray.

This is the view along Half Moon Caye. We went there diving one day, which was a 3 hour boat ride (one way) from where we were staying. It was beautiful and the sea life was plentiful. This caye is home to the rare red-footed booby bird, of which we got to watch for a while

Blue tangs and a large barrel coral underwater at the Wall at Half Moon Caye.

My Life in Ruins

Okay, today we did the most awesome thing ever! We went spelunking in an underground cave system called Actun Tunichil Muknal. We went about 2 miles into this cave, went through water up to our armpits, and viewed ruins dated back to about 600 AD in their original places high into the cave system. The stalagmites and stalagtites were beautiful and some of the chambers were huge. This cave was one of the ceremonial sites of the Mayans. The ordinary people did not enter here. We saw ancient pots, skeletons and crystals just to name a few. You sure wouldn't be able to do this kind of exploring in the US because of dangerous hiking (we even had to climb up a ladder) and the archeological content inside the caves. Pots and bones as early at 900 AD were just steps from us. Here's a few pics.

Below is Dave and me standing in front of some large stalagtites in the upper room of ATM cave.

Dave and I are looking at ancient Mayan pottery that has been left here untouched. It was amazing to be that close to history. Only here in Belize is this allowed.
Ancient Mayan pottery

When was the last time you did something for the first time?

Today we did a couple of "Firsts". We ventured into the rainforest and did some zip-lining. There were 6 different platforms and 5 cables of which we flew over the rainforest. It was very fun.
Have you ever heard of cavetubing? We floated a river and went through underground cave systems at the same time. It was too dark to get any good pictures of stalagtites inside, but it was amazing. Here we are just coming out of the river and Dave and I in our tubes just before we went in. We floated for about 45 minutes.


We were at a resort called Jacquar Paw and below is my new friend...a howler monkey. He was busy resting on the car next to us when we finished our day's excursion.

Here's Dave rapelling down the last platform. It's a little dark, but hope you get the idea.

Here we are right before our zip-line rides.
This is Gayle at HolChan Marine Sanctuary chasing a stingray. They were all over the place. They were a bit elusive, but then they would swim right up to you as if they were looking to be fed. It's the first time I've ever petted a stingray!

You'd better Belize it!

Here we are in Belize with some time this afternoon, so I thought I'd try to upload a few pictures of our dives off Ambergris Caye. We didn't have very good weather...it rained most days, but it didn't make much difference when you were sightseeing underwater. We saw all sorts of marine life. Many new varieties of fish and coral that are new to us.

Below is Gayle diving with nurse sharks. They weren't were intimidated by us divers that day!


Here is Dave petting sharks also. We're a daring duo!


Our last day of diving, we went to HolChan marine sanctuary and saw tons of stuff. Here is Gayle swimming past hundreds of french grunts and porgies. There were so many, we couldn't see very far ahead. They just wouldn't move, so we paused to take pictures instead.

Here is Nemo's friend just cruising along in the Caribbean current. It's a hawksbills turtle actually, that was quite at home swimming with us.