Got up this morning and we were in Harvest Caye, Belize.
We had breakfast in the Grand Dining Room. Jim and oatmeal and bananas with a brioche. Patricia had a special apple bread and a Spanish flat with a grilled tomato. It was nice to just relax this morning before we began the day.
Our tour today is to the Mayan Ruins and Spice farm. We walked from the ship to the end of the pier to catch our guide. It was quite a walk.
We then boarded a covered catamaran for a 30 min ride to the center of Belize. If you are asked about your day in Belize you say…Our trip to Belize was “unbelizeable”.
We met our guides Juana & Felix. Our driver was Caisus. Our transportation was a bus which was like a school bus but it was airconditioned. Roads in Belize are not the best and we had quite the workout riding the bus.
Our first stop was the Spice Farm.
We were welcomed with a orange juice and then boarded a covered wagon with benches that was driven by a John Deere tractor.
The staff was very informative as we departed on the tour. The farm introduced us to so many spices, woods, flowers, that we’ve only ever seen in packaged form. Hearing and seeing the vanilla process, chewing green pepper and the cinnamon leaves, were just a few highlights for us. We saw lily pads, unusual flowers and mahogany and teak trees. They mill the trees and make things with the wood. It was a very relaxing place and even had an area for weddings.
Less than 5 minutes down the road was the archeological site Nim li Punit.
Nim Lii Punit means large hat in the Mayan Kekchi language. The site was named due to a depiction on a Maya stela of one of its rulers wearing a very large head dress.
We first went to the ball court in the center of the complex where we saw where this ball game would have been played by 2 people with a 6 or 7 pound rubber ball. They would have made the rubber ball from a rubber tree. We saw where the spectators could observe these 2 people when they played the ball game.
We saw some graves of common people and of royalty where they found jade and artifacts in the royalty graves. The entire site was shaded by canopy of large trees, which provided a comfortable environment for viewing this very interesting Mayan site.
This unique Mayan ceremonial site had a small museum in the welcome center where we saw some of the large stelas with well preserved Maya drawings and writing, as well as artifacts.
Things we learned from our guides:
Agriculture: Bananas, sugarcane and oranges
Tourism #1 industry and agricultural is #2
400K people
National bird: Toucan
National tree: mahogany
Average wage is $400 per month
Afterward we left for a 45 minute bus ride back to catch our catamaran. It was a very bumpy ride and we bounced all over and was exhausted at the end of our tour.
We got back to the port and took a 30 minute ride back to the ship. They have to go slow as it is a protected environment and it shows with how blue the water is.
We were the last tour back to the ship and once we were onboard we left Belize. Patricia watched as the ship pulled away from the dock.
We had dinner at Toscano Restaurant tonight at 6:30 PM. Jim had a caesar salad and a trio of pastas. Patricia had her favorite volcano pasta, Caesar salad, sea bass with lemon and caper sauce and a special angel hair pasta of the day with cherry tomatoes and artichokes. For dessert we shared cannoli and biscotti.
Good night from the Caribbean Sea!
Jim & Patricia's Travels 