Day 2 - Xunantunich

Today was our first full day in Belize. First we met up with each other and had breakfast. At 9:00, we got in the van and started on our drive toward the Mayan Ruin. When we got to the Mopan River, we had to get out of the van to cross on the ferry. Before we got onto the ferry, a few students went to the little shops they had set up next to the ferry. We all froze upon entering. People were yelling at us left and right. All at once they were telling us what they were selling and their prices. It was incredibly over whelming - I stood there speechless for a few seconds. I eventually gathered myself enough to take a look around. It was really interesting.  They were selling bracelets, masks, shirts, pipes, and more! All hand made, and made well! When we left the store we got on the ferry and crossed the Mopan River. We got back in the car and drove up to the parking lot to start the tour of Xunantunich.

 We were completely surrounded by tropical jungle. We walked up a big hill toward the site and saw one ruin on the way. When we arrived at the palace, we got to climb and walk on the structures. The first building was pretty small, but still so cool, there was some grass on the top of it. All the ruins we got to walk on were pretty slippery, and the steps were really big so climbing them was a work out. We got to walk on some more, bigger ruins before we made our way to the main attraction. The Maiden of the Rock - it was so big and beautiful! 

It was like a giant white sculpture, completely unreal. We walked our way up, climbing lots and lots of stairs and seeing many cool faces and designs carved into the structure. By the time we made it to the top we were all exhausted. The view was unreal, you could see all the other ruins and really far over the jungles of Belize. Some were getting dizzy looking over the edge as it was quite the drop. We made our way down the ruin towards the ball court and we finished our tour. We walked back to the van and started driving to Du Plooys Botanical Gardens. When we arrived we had lunch, then a few of us walked down to the beach.

 Later we grouped together at the garden entrance and started our second tour for the day. At the entrance, you could tell that the plants we were getting to see were really big. The first plant we looked at had three different color flowers on it – called Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. We looked at the national tree of Belize which was the mahogany tree. The tour guides took us into the jungle briefly, they told us not to touch anything because there was a tree called the Che chen tree that would give you a terrible rash if you touched it. In the jungle there was a lookout that we got to climb to the top of. 

We got to see over all the jungle - it made for some nice pictures. One tree we saw on the tour was called the travellers tree, it looked like a giant fan. When you punched it where the leaves attached to the stem water would squirt out of it. When we finished the tour we were all exhausted for an awesome day. We got back in the van and made our way back to the hotel for the night.

 by D'Art Wolfe