Cayo / San Ignacio
Gateway to Adventure
From Judy's Journal
Cayo Belize     Fall, 1999

Day 1 - This time I decided to rent a car, a 4 wheel drive stick shift, of course. My friend Sue and I arrive Belize International and pick up our car. Due to my hopeless sense of direction, we exit the airport on our second try and soon are on our way north to Corozal. After correcting this error, I immediately drive us into a residential area, where the streets are filled with students dressed in brightly colored uniforms. School is out for the day. While we are making these side excursions, Sue, a first time visitor who took on the map navigation job, is searching for street signs, trying to get our bearing on our somewhat hand-drawn map. We can't seem to get oriented, so now it's time for directions. I ask a gentleman on a bicycle if he could point us to Cemetery Road, which turns into the Western Highway, which will lead us to Cayo. He kindly says he will show us, so we follow that bike, and finally we are on the way !

About 35 minutes later we reach the Belize Zoo. We stop. It's a wonderful zoo that has large natural areas for the animals, which are all native to Belize. Sue wants to learn as much as possible about Belize and the zoo is educational for both tourists and Belizeans. Too soon it's time to leave.

About 4 miles further down the highway we stop at Cheers, a palapa-style restaurant/bar. We are greeted by the owner and 3 resident dogs, who accompany us to our table. The dogs settle in under our table, hoping maybe a crumb or two may fall. We order 2 cokes and 2 bottles of water - each. It is rather warm and the Zoo had run out of fluids today.

Rehydrated, we continue about another 10 miles and turn off the highway. Now Sue has a new job - watching for people, cyclists, chickens, dogs and anything else that might be strolling down the road , while I unsuccessfully try to avoid the sizeable potholes. Going really slow does not help. A certain amount of speed seems to be necessary to sort of bash over them instead of sink into each one. (This means going about 15 mph instead of 5.) Sue concludes that the reason Belizean roads have no traffic control signs is because the roads are self-regulating.

The 8 mile road takes us ½ hour and as we get closer, we begin a long climb up, bounding, jostling and holding on as the path becomes steeper, narrower and rougher - more goat track than road. We make a turn and suddenly we are engulfed by soaring, thick jungle canopy. We inch down a very steep hill, up again and in a wide clearing is the Resort, nestled in an incredibly beautiful jungle/rainforest setting. We have arrived! We are shown to our charming cabana, change into our swimming suits, and follow the owners down a jungle trail, across a swaying plank bridge, to the Roaring River for a refreshing swim in cool pools beneath great rock outcroppings and overhanging vines - just like in jungle movies. Then change again, and off to the main lodge for dinner. The softly lit setting and the dinner were outstanding!

Day 2 - I awake in time to watch the sun rising above the mountains through a curtain of fog. Incredibly beautiful! Sue joins me and we listen to birds calling as we watch the mist rise. Today Sue chooses to go to Barton Creek Cave for her journey into the past. She will go by car through a small Mennonite farming area and then by canoe with an expert guide into the impressive cave, which also has Maya pottery pieces and high on a ledge, a single Maya skull.

Sue is off and my ultimate journey begins. Destination - Actun Tunichil Muknal, or "Cave of the Stone Sepulchre". This is "off the beaten track" even by Belizean standards. It's time. The resort owner leads me down a jungle trail to the river, which we wade across to a cornfield on the other side. Trying for a bit of shade, we sit down amongst the cornstalks, while awaiting my guides who are coming by pickup. Instantly we are covered with tiny iridescent bugs, identified by the owner as corn flies. They seem to do nothing more than alight on one and shine. My guides arrive and I depart with them in the truck. For about 20 minutes we bash through the cornfield until we must park the truck and begin our trek - we hike for about an hour and cross eight rivers and streams. We have arrived - almost. Now we must swim across the river to the cave entrance and climb large rocks to enter the underground world of the Maya. Headlamps are the only source of light for the next several hours, as we go from cavern to cavern seeing hundreds of pieces of pottery, two perfectly placed stele, and most mysterious of all, a perfectly preserved human skeleton.

We retrace our steps and duck back under the mouth of the cave and re-emerge into the bright tropical sun. It wasn't just my eyes that had trouble adjusting to the world above ground. Some part of me stayed behind in that cool, dark mysterious cave. Worth the trek? Absolutely! It was my ultimate adventure - thus far.

Now all too soon we must bid farewell to our hosts
and move on to the next Jungle Lodge
- and the next adventure.