After spending a few nights in Utah visiting family and friends we went to the airport and caught a flight for Belize.
When we arrived in Belize we headed straight for the Guatemalan border. We would be staying in Flores for the night and exploring the ancient Mayan city of Tikal. We spent the evening walking along the lake in Flores and eating dinner as we watched the sunset over the lake. We have a blog post dedicated to our Tikal experience that you can read here.
After exploring the incredible Tikal we drove back towards the border and back into Belize. We then spent the remainder of the afternoon by the pool at the hotel before getting some sleep for another early start the next day. We woke up to the sound of a woodpecker pecking away at one of the cabins tin roofs. We set off to the ATM caves, another Mayan historical site. We have done caving before, but this would be the first time in a wet cave. We would have to swim and wade through water to eventually get to a Mayan sacrificial spot where there are human skeletons. If you want to feel like Indiana Jones then this is the activity for you. After a tourist dropped their camera on one of the skeletons and crushed its skull, cameras are completely banned now.
Without torches the caves are pitch black and several miles long. I can’t imagine being a Mayan and trekking through the water in hope of a good spot to make sacrifices. On the way out of the cave we noticed a very large spider on the cave wall, we found out later that the cave is home to large predatory spiders. We had been putting our hands all over the dark cave walls and who knows what was there!
Our final day on mainland Belize was a long drive to another ancient Mayan city called Caracol. Caracol is still home to Belize's tallest man made structure. You can read all about our Caracol experience here.
After exploring the beautiful city of Caracol we headed to some waterfalls and spent the afternoon jumping off the rocks into the cool refreshing water that was a welcome break from the heat of the jungles.
We had an amazing time exploring ancient Mayan sites in both Belize and Guatemala. We would now be leaving the mainland and setting off to explore the second largest coral reef in the world. We would be staying on Ambergris Caye which is the second largest island in Belize. You can read our Ambergris Caye blog here.
We had never been to central America before but our time in Belize has made us even more excited about coming back and exploring more of Central America and South America.
