Explore Mayan Ruins

OK sure Cahal Pech means 'the place of ticks', but we never saw or felt one.  We wanted to start out with a general overview and history of the Mayan culture, and our hosts at Parrot's Nest suggested this ruin as an introduction for us before we went to the larger ruins. You meander through a forest before you get to a very informational visitor center. There is a fantastic model of what the site looked like around 800AD.  (Evidence shows construction dating back to 1200BC.)  The center has lots of Mayan artifacts, tools, pots, toys. After enjoying the displays in the visitor center, we explored Cahal Pech.

Gotta climb up
for the views

Looking down at Cahal Pech's Ball Court 

Can there be too many parrots?

Well we finally found parrot's nest lodge.  And what a find!  This was THE perfect place to stay.
There are individual cabins which you  reserve, and the one we chose had a private bathroom/shower.

Here we are on the back porch, checking out our restroom on the left side. A heat wave was just ending when we arrived, so our hosts put fans in the room for us. Very nice. The area has walking paths where you see all sorts of unusual plants and jungle type insects. In the morning a blanket of parrot sounds fill the air.  It's just wild. We felt at home immediately.  Very beautiful, rustic, and comfortable.
You pay a small price for breakfast, or dinner and the meals are great.  We did go to a restaurant once, and thought why? (Because Parrot's nest is just that good.)   They helped us quite a bit with additional information when we were choosing which ruin(s) to see. (Not all roads are maintained, so the ruin may be close, but takes longer to reach)  And we had specific questions about heading to Caracol on our own.  Did we really need a military escort?
So once we got settled here, it was time to head off on our adventures.

"Denali time to go!"

Belize in 12 days

You know Belize is large with a great deal of sights to take in. And when planning this 12 day trip we needed to prioritize our preferences. Our family of four would be flying out of San Francisco, California and heading to Belize, just once.  So if you know you're going to an exotic wonderful cultural country with treasures to behold everywhere-just how do you decide what to see, where to stay, who to book tours with? (Thank goodness for TripAdvisor, Rough Guides, and Lonely Planet) So what did we want to do? How much to explore: The Mayan ruins, Jungle life, Animal/Plant Nature Preserves, Caving, Canoeing, Snorkeling, or go island hoping, resort comfort, even take a side trip to the Guatemalan ruins?  It was a little nerve wracking, pouring over all the information, trying to filter the truth from fiction. But, we finally decided. We would have an outdoor adventurous, slightly risky  family vacation (which is pretty usual for us.) This would mean  more of a Jungle experience, (caving, tubing, zip-lining, Mayan ruins, rappelling,)  and then end on the Caribbean coast.

 Because we would be traveling over the Easter week prices were a bit higher, but more importantly we deliberately chose to stay away from the tourists spots, and seek out the less traveled areas when possible.

 12 days in Belize in short form with detailed posts following.
Thursday April 14-Sunday April 17 Reservations at  Parrot Nest Lodge
Day 1: arrive in Belize, visit Belize Zoo, Branch Mouth Park, Iguana Preserve
Day 2: Cachel Pech Ruin , Xunantunich Ruin, Mopan river tubing

 Day 3: Carocal Ruins, Rio Frio Caves, Rio On Pools, San Ignacio
Day 4& 5: Mayawalk Tour of Actun Tunichil Muknal Cave, Jungle Over Night
Monday April 18-Thursday April 21 Chaa Creek/Macal River Campground
Day 6:  Actun Chapat Cave Day Tour with Ken Dart, Howler Monkey Night
Day 7: Bird watching, Zipline @ Caracol Jacks, Butterfly farm, Swimming
Day 8: Canoe the Macal River, Drive to Cockscomb Jaguar Preserve
Thursday April 21 Night at Tutzil Nah Cottages in the Maya Center Village
Day 9: Trail walking at Jaguar Nature Preserve, Drive to Coastal Town of Hopkins, Garfunda Drumming
Friday April 22-Monday April 25 Reservations at All Seasons Guesthouse, Beach front cottage

Day 10: Snorkel Trip with Alternate Adventures, Garafunda meal at local women's co-op
Day 11: Easter: Recovery, Garfunda Drumming Center, Crocodile River Night in Florescent Algae Lagoon
Day 12: Depart Belize, and drive the 3 1/2 hours to the airport

Getting Lost in Belize

Mopan and Macal Rivers come together at Branch Mouth

Day One Con't: On the way to Parrot's Nest, we took a wrong turn (easy to do, signs are not very common.) Ten minutes later down a bumpy dirt road,  we ended up at a beautiful river with an Iganua Preserve. Later on we find out this is  Branch Mouth Park. The area where the Mopan and Macal Rivers come together to form the Belize River.

Very nature-ish. A wonderful local man decided  to watch over the Iguana's so the 'bamboo chicken' don't get caught and eaten by Belizeans.He's successful, and has turned this area into an Iguana Preserve.The Iguana's were getting a feeding of lettuce, and it was so interesting to watch them move around so freely, and eerily so dang fast.
They would be terrific guard Iguana's if possible.

After we soaked in this scene, we investigated the wooden hammock bridge.  It sure didn't look too steady, it was missing some boards,
and there was a definite rickety-ness to the bridge.

We did watch a motorcycler ride across the bridge and frankly we were all holding our breath.  And really couldn't believe our eyes. But there are

families that live on the other side of the Macal River, and this is the only way to get to their home without tacking on an extra hour to their travels. We did hear from our hosts at Parrot Nest, that they did see the hammock bridge break when a motorcyclist actually fell in the water as he attempted to cross. This could explain why the motorcyclist we saw took a reaaally long time waiting at the start before he went across.

Then we had some fun on the bridge, going to and fro before we ventured off to find our cabin at Parrot's Nest.

Belize Airport -Then What?

Day One: Belize City, Belize Zoo, San Ignacio, Branch Mouth Park, Iguana Preserve,  Parrots Nest  So we get out of our seats, and prepare to walk off the plane. The kids thought we were 'special,'  because the way you actually get down from the airplane is to step down those white stair steps that have been pushed to the opening front side door of the airplane.  It's the kind that you see  'important people' use. (Y'know Presidents, and Celebrities)  Well we are neither- but we still felt 'important' being greeted by the flight attendants at the bottom of the 15 or so steps as we reached the tarmac. And then YES, it really hits you. We have landed in Central America, Belize. The heat, humidity, and tropical scents assault your senses immediately, and everything is great to take in. We left behind snowy Northern California-and came to Belize! (Experiencing a heat wave of sorts -we found out later). Welcome to 90 degree weather in April. Get out the sunscreen! Going through customs and then renting a car at Crystal Auto Rental was next.  One thing we learned at the end of this trip, was that we should've asked the rental place for their free cell phone and cooler to use which they do advertise, but don't remind you about. (oops on us) Especially the cooler. That would've helped a lot. We explored many parts of Belize on our own, and without a cooler, or being near any 'markets' for water/soda- the warm drinks in the car did not help to quench our thirst. Our first stop in Belize was to drive to the BELIZE ZOO. We needed to drive through Belize City to locate the zoo, and yes it is true what you read about the city. There really isn't much of a 'city center' at all, but as you drive through the city it is a good introduction to their culture, (clothes, faces, bikes, cars, small food stands, school kids in uniforms,-just a slice of the local Belizean life) So, onto the BELIZE ZOO. We had read so much about this in both the Lonely Planet, and Rough Guide books.  And since the zoo is on the way to San Ignacio it was a no brainer.  The zoo  is smallish, but landscaped so nicely with bamboo, and other natural Belizean looks, that this really was a  lovely first stop, and a great opportunity to see animals. And a quick fabulous beginning to our Belize adventures! (One couple we met a few days later, said they were heading to the zoo on their way out of Belize-to do a sleep over at the zoo and a night walk.  They'd be close to the airport for their departing flight.)  The zoo was  the only place we saw a Jaguar, and a Tapir. Later on during our Jungle Adventures we looked for both but found neither. We spent about an hour or so at the Zoo, and then drove the 72 miles  to San Ignacio, heading to our most wonderful and absolutely fantastic place of luscious rest: Parrot Nest.

Belize here we come!

TRAVEL DAY: Our family of four flew from SFO to Miami, and then on to Belize.  We chose to do an overnight from SFO so we could get some shut eye.  We flew American Airlines, and the flight was both fine and completely full. Our lay over in Miami was about 5-6 hours-pretty uncomfortable- and I will say that those airport floors are the worst, so hard to sleep on, and no lounging chairs to kick back in.  But even scarier is their speaker system. Every 15 minutes (And I do mean EVERY 15 MINUTES) an automated female voice announces over the speaker system what time it is. Seriously! (I thought only Chicago could sing about 'Does anybody know what time it really is?') Now  I'm not sure why it's important to know that at 3AM it is no longer 3AM, but indeed 3:15AM and then 3:30AM and on to 4:00AM and so on (snore.) But apparently that Miami airport is very pleased. . . they can keep track of time.  If anyone watches the 'EUREKA'  TV series, the voice that the airport uses is the same voice that is heard in Carter's smart house.
(I actually was quite proud to figure this out at 4:30AM.)
OK so finally it's time to leave  Miami, Florida and fly into Belize-we land around 10:10AM.
Excitement Adventure and Unknown Suprises await us!!