Maya be, maya be not.

Watching for a new beginning

We arrived in San Pedro on Ambergris Caye after talking the water taxi from Chetumal in Mexico. The boat ride took about 2 hours and we arrived as the sun went down behind the horizon. It was very warm, and we were very excited to see Chris and Noah waiting for us on the pier. As it was dark, it was difficult to tell how much San Pedro has changed since we were last here 12 years ago, we are really looking forward to exploring. The water taxi landed on the pier opposite the yellow beach house where we had lived, it now had a shop built below and a new top floor that looks like it may be a cafe…….will explore later to find out!

Early on Thursday morning we flew over to Belize City. Ellie sat next to the pilot, while Will, Noah and I had the back seat. The views over the turquoise blue sea and over the coral reef and mangrove surrounded Cayes were beautiful. We then started our 4 hour road trip to the Mayan sight of Caracol. Here we were joining others to camp and celebrate the end of 5125 years in the Maya long calendar.

The Maya believe that the world began 13 baktun’s ago on 11th August 3114 BC (a baktun is a year in the Maya long calendar). We pitched our tents next to Chris, Jo and Noah right below the temple A6, which towered above us. Chris and Jo’s tent usually lives on their boat, so had suffered the fate of salt erosion and the poles were a little worse for wear. Thanks to a tampon applicator and some first aid tape it held itself together!!!

Caracol was at it’s height of power between 450 and 850 AD, where it housed over 250,000 people. We were taken on a fascinating tour of the site by Dr Jamie Awe, who is the director of archaeology. His knowledge and passion about the Maya made it so interesting. After a tasty meal we headed up to the main palace and temple, Caana to watch the stars in the clears skies. The temple had torches marking the route up, and it was quite an eerie experience sat star gazing listening to the jungle nighttime sounds and the roars of the howler monkeys!

After a few hours sleep we were woken by the Maya priests who had a procession with pipes and a drum leading to the fire ceremony in the A plaza in front of us. Poor old Matt and Will also had a rude awakening as ants had got into their tent, Matt was bitten as he put on his shirt, and Will thought he had thorns in his pants, which were in fact ants. He wiggles around so much that he looks like he has ants in his pants most of the time anyway!!!!

We sat on the temple steps while chanting, incense wafting and blessings were given. It was quite an amazing experience to be able to share. We then climbed the 42 m Caana and watched the sun rise up as toucans and parrots flew overhead and the howler monkeys continued to roar at each other. A great start to a new cycle of the Maya calendar.