SanIgnacio, Cayo District

We have been at the Cohune Palms lodge for a few days, on the Mopan River. Went to the Belize Zoo on the way here to get a preview of what we might see up close and personal. Its a small zoo but very well laid out, with just animals indigenous to this area. The jaguar was impressive, also the harpy eagle. We did a four wheel trip to the ruins of El Pilar (in our two wheel drive rental car) -- it is unrestored, but there are many animals there. We saw howler monkeys again (saw them at Lamanai also), and the leaf cutter ants. I'm going to try to get some photos up on this blog, but will have to steal them from the internet for now, as I have yet to find a card reader to transfer my own.

Today we went to the Barton Creek Cave, which is a seven mile long natural cave through a mountain with a river/creek running through it, and maya burials inside. It can only be accessed by boat, and you have to take a licensed guide with you. Our guide, David, is regarded as the best guide here for the cave, and he is a very interesting rasta-man who has been exploring this cave for about 20 years. We rode out there in two vehicles, and forded a river on the way that came up above the bottom of the car doors. I am amazed that the vehicles were able to get across without flooding the engines, I would never have tried such a thing. Both ten to twenty year old vehicles, one a Nissan sedan, the other a japanese pickup of some type. As we were leaving the cave it began to rain, and I ended up on a bench with 7 other people in the back of the pickup, so was drenched after the hour long trip back to San Ignacio. The cave was unbelieveable, just beautiful. There was a partial skull in the rocks, and pottery in a couple of places -- all high above where it could be reached. We were in 3 canoes and had spotlights so we could see the caverns, which were huge -- must have been a hundred feet up. There were also bats that flew in and out and past us as we drifted along.

Tomorrow we're going to a botanic garden and a couple of other places, and will probably go over to Tikal on Sunday for a few days.