It's A Jungle Out There

Aside from enjoying the heck out of our tree house, we toured two sets of Mayan ruins, Xunantunich & Cahal Pech. To get to Xunantunich, we had to take a hand- cranked ferry across the Mopan river.

Xuantunich means "Stone Woman", named for a female ghost inhabiting the Castillo who wore a tattered white nightshirt and had red eyes. (Ghost...or new mom?) This set of ruins is located a half a mile from the Guatemalan border, which was visible from the top.

                           The town of Melchor de Mencos, Guatemala

A portion of the ruins was being excavated during our visit. Instead of using huge machines and equipment, there was a line of people passing stone down the sizable structure, bucket brigade-style. I don't know how they were able to do this day after day in the hot sun.

Side view of El Castillo pyramid

          Cahal Pech was the Beverly Hills of Belize, where the elite Mayan families lived.

                                  I tried to leave him as an offering.

Cahal Pech was smaller and had fewer people visiting. Teague was intrigued by the ball court remains and the idea that the match winner lived and the loser did not. Imagine being sacrificed for losing a game of Mario Kart 8. Yikes.

The remaining photos show more of our time at the lodge. It's such a cool place, I just have to share! 

They delivered tea and muffins at 6am, and we would watch the wildlife from our balcony until it was time for breakfast.

Our place even had an outdoor shower.

                          Collared Aracaris were living in the trees around our balcony.