Belize Day 2

One of the benefits of going to bed quite early is that it you get to enjoy the morning. One morning while we were in San Ignacio, the birds (which were extremely loud there) woke me up quite early. I decided to take a little walk while everyone else was sleeping and snapped this picture. It was a lovely morning.


After everyone else got up and moving we headed out on our first adventure. Our tour guide drove us up into the hills on a very rough road. Where the kids were delighted to discover a grove of fruit trees. Citrus is a major industry in Belize so our tour guide thought it was funny that we were so thrilled by seeing them. He pulled over and the kids picked an orange each.
Then he asked us all about snow, and told us that was something he would like to see.

Not long afterward we arrived at this cave with a river running through it. This was really an adventure the guide rowed Max and I in one canoe and Shane and Mason took another. We wound through this cave with stalactites hanging from the ceiling and a few remains of ancient Mayan rituals. Our guide explained that this cave had been used to perform human sacrifices by the Mayans because they believed it was a gateway to the underworld.





It was equal parts awe inspiring and creepy to drift through the cave and listen to our Mayan guide tell the stories of his ancestors. It was an interesting conversation and I got the notion that Adrienne our guide had a sense of respect for a culture that believed in their gods so fully that they would offer up their own children as tribute.

After the cave we took another short drive and then a quick hike to a beautiful waterfall.
By then Max's little legs were getting a bit tired.

The kids were happy to be able to get in the water and cool off.



Shane swam nearer to the waterfall.
There was this big rock near the edge of the water that Shane started jumping off.

Pretty soon Mason decided he wanted to give it a try. He started with one of the lower ledges. And then decided he was brave enough to try jumping from the top of the rock. It doesn't look that high in the picture, but it was. Shane and I were both surprised by his bravery.
Eventually Max wanted to give it a try too, but he needed a little help from Shane.

Finally we headed back to the lodge, but on the way home we stopped at the this lookout point in the hopes of seeing some exotic birds. It was too late in the day to see much wildlife, but the view was pretty amazing.


Finally we got back to the lodge and kids were dying to go swimming, so Shane being the great dad that he is took them down to the pool, I couldn't believe how much they wanted to swim on this trip. They couldn't get enough of it.

After swimming we had a great dinner and then dragged ourselves to bed. Again I think we were all in bed before eight.