Xunantunich Mayan Ruins and Cave Tubing

Xunantunich Mayan Ruins and Cave Tubing

a blog by Easton Beymer

We had a group of people visiting here in San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, Belize from the U.S., a total of 10 adults and two teenagers.  We all decided to take a tour on the mainland of Belize on Tuesday, June 21, 2010.  Ecologic Divers is associated with Mark's Tours, whose owner is Mark Cal, a Belizian native and a Mayan descendant.  Our decision was to visit a Mayan archaeological site called Xunantunich, and to go cave tubing.

Our trip began at 6:30AM when we were picked up by two taxis to take us to the airport in San Pedro.  We chartered a single engine, propeller driven airplane from Mayan Island Air to take us to the municipal airport in Belize City, a short 15 minute flight.  The flight is exciting in that the views of the ocean and cayes at an altitude of around 2,000 feet are mesmerizing.  The airport in Belize City a was tiny, a single strip of asphalt bordering the ocean only feet away and maybe one or two feet above sea level.  We were asking ourselves if it was possible for a plane to land on what looked like a postage stamp on our approach.  Anyway, our landing was uneventful, and we soon boarded our van for a trip across the width of Belize to San Ignacio, our destination being the ruins of Xunantunich (Say {Zoo-nan-two-nich}) which means "stone woman" in Mayan.

The drive took us a couple of hours over a two lane highway frequented by speed bumps which slowed our forward progress in places to stop and go speeds.  Annoying but with no highway patrol, an effective means of speed control in more populated areas.  The terrain along our route was relatively flat to hilly through heavily wooded areas and sometimes into what I would classify as jungle. To get to the ruins, we had to take a man powered, one car ferry across a small river.  During the crossing we had to leave the van as a precaution against the possibility of the ferry sinking.  A very short drive later we arrived at the Xunantunich visitor center.

We were not expecting much, but when we finally saw the ruins, we were blown away -- they were simply awesome.  Everything was well manicured, the ruins were surprisingly intact, and much bigger than we expected, the pyramid, El Castillo, being around 130 feet tall.  We all decided to climb to the top following our guide Mark.  This climb at times was a bit unsettling in that there are no railings.  Needless to say, we were all very careful, and everyone made it up and down with no mishaps.  The view from the top was stunning allowing us to see many miles in every direction, and to the west, the hills and forests of Guatemala.

We then went to a restaurant in San Ignacio where we ate chicken, rice, beans, and plantains, the staple foods of Belize.  Very tasty.  Soon we were heading back toward Belize City and the turn off that would take us to the cave tubing site arriving about an hour later.

Luckily there were no cruise ships in Belize this day, and as such, there were no maddening crowds.  We got our truck-sized inner tubes, life jackets and battery powered head lamps, and began our trek upstream through a beautiful forest.  I am guessing the hike was about a mile or so on relatively flat trails, and about half an hour later, we arrived at the entrance to the cave.  It was awesome -- giant limestone cliffs with a crystal clear river flowing out of one cave and almost immediately into the mouth of a second mammoth cave.  Wow!  The cave was much bigger than I expected.  We all entered the clear, cool, refreshing water, got into our inner tubes, rafted together, and began our drift into the cave beginning with some minor rapids.  The cave quickly got dark and we all turned on our head lamps.  The water was slow moving and progress was relaxingly slow.  The cave was huge -- probably twenty feet tall and maybe fifty feet across, with the water being relatively shallow, sometimes to the point where our rear ends would hit rounded river rocks on the bottom.  The excitement level of this excursion likely varies depending on the flow of water.  In our case, it was very tranquil.  I am guessing we were in the cave for about half an hour before the river emerged into sunlight.  For the next half hour we tubed down the river through the amazingly beautiful forest.  All too soon we arrived back at the visitor center, and dried off for our return trip

Our trip back into Belize City took about another hour as we headed to the municipal airport.  We were split up onto two airplanes for our trip back to San Pedro.  At approximately 6:00pm after a short flight, our remarkable excursion was over ... but never to be forgotten...