Belize Believer part 3 - Caracol

     The Banana Bank Ranch was in a good central location for exploring the Cayo district of Belize.  Our first stop was the ongoing archeological excavation at Caracol - "snail" in Spanish.  Although first documented in 1937, the recent large scale excavation was begun in 1985.  Enough of the site has now been uncovered for archaeologists to realize that Caracol was one of the most important regional political centers of the lowlands during the Mayan Classic Period.  The city spanned over 200 square kilometers and held twice as many people as the largest city in Belize does today.
     In 1996, however, most of Caracol was still jungle.  In fact it was quite a hike through the rainforest on a barely marked trail to get to the site, which was only announced by a piece of wood nailed to a stake with the word "Caracol" and an arrow written on it.

the rainforest in the mist: can a T-rex be far away?

  

     The rainforest was bathed in mist early in the morning, and as we traipsed through it, it would not have been at all surprising to see a herd of brontosauri thundering through a la Jurassic Park.   The most amazing thing about visiting this site in 1996 was that we were pretty much the only ones there.  As you can see by the pictures there are hardly any other people (except the actual archaeologists) around. As this was Central America, the rules were pretty relaxed so we got to poke around and climb all the structures which I am fairly certain is Verboten now.  As we explored the ruins we really felt like we were channeling Indiana Jones uncovering riches from the hidden temples.  I am just going to post some pics of the site - if you are interested in the history and/or what the excavation looks like today you can check out the Wiki link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caracol.

a cenote - good place to throw your ceremonial offerings

most of the structures were still covered by vegetation

the big pyramid

there really was no one else there

  After our visit to Caracol, we stopped by a local cave to do a little exploring (we try and hit up any available caves wherever we go - I don't know why, lol).  

Then we hit up the "Blue Hole" for a quick refreshing dip before returning to the Ranch for a horseback ride through the jungle.

  The horseback ride.  Ahhhh.  Another memorable moment for Mommy.  I should have realized this might have been more than I bargained for when the nice lady assigning the horses inquired if the kids had ever been on a horse before.  "Oh yes!" they chorused.  I attempted to explain that they had indeed ridden ponies at the zoo and had been on a very tame horseback WALK on the beach in Cozumel (S being seated between my legs on my horse), but nice lady apparently chose not to hear that part. She hoisted the happy children up on their own full sized horses and, with the usual Central American attention to safety, did not provide any kind of riding helmets or actual riding instructions. And off we went.

    

The ride through the jungle was grueling enough (although quite cool!) with several of the adults almost falling off their mounts they made their way down steep ravines and river banks.  But the piece de resistance occurred once we finally broke free of the forest and I was silently thanking any and all gods that both my babies were still in their saddles and  intact.  As we started to cross an empty field, nice (and by nice I clearly mean EVIL) horse lady suddenly turns around to S and says, "say, would you like to go FAST?"  And before I can get any words out, the woman whacks S's horse on the rump and the horse begins to GALLOP ACROSS THE FIELD.  My heart is in my throat as I watch my 6 year old helmetless NON-EQUESTRIAN bouncing up and down in the saddle, little legs flapping in their stirrups, with a huge smile plastered across her face.  I have no idea how she hung on - I believe devine intervention was involved.  After what seemed like hours (but was probably only about 3 minutes) the horse finally stopped at the edge of the field and the rest of us trotted on over to catch up with her.  "Can we do that AGAIN!" of course were the first words out of the kid's mouth.  I believe the death stare I gave the nice horse lady encouraged her to mumble something about the horsies being tired and started the group meandering back to the ranch at a nice SLOW pace.

     After a nice medicinal cocktail (or 2) we settled down to bed as the next day would bring a new adventure - Guatemala!