Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Belize 4 – Sat – Iguana & Cahal Peche

We awoke and made plans for our ‘down day’.  The kids awoke, and as they have every evening and morning, filled time with electronics in their jammies.
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I asked Marlynn at the front desk when the Iguana project was open.  She said it left on the hour, so we considered rallying the troops for that trip now or first getting breakfast downtown.  The kids voted for Iguana so we went with it.  Turned out to be a good move, as later in the day we noticed larger and more frequent groups being lead that way.

We met Darryl at the front desk, and he lead us the long way through the jungle to avoid some of the construction.  He pointed out some of the plants along the way and even stopped at a termite nest, not in the ground as you might think but in the branch of a tree as they are often seen here in Belize.  He asked if we’d like to taste termites.  Kate was the first to say yes.  Darryl grabbed a stick and poked out a couple.  This is Kate chewing on the surprisingly tiny termites.
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We all tried some bar Maeve who declined, and Jane, who did try, but hers fell off the stick.  She didn’t feel compelled enough to ask for another, however.  Darryl explained that there were all kinds of flavors of termites.  We believed we had the cinnamon flavor.  No question if I were with Bear Grylls and he asked me to eat termites… that’d be a tasty treat compared to some of the other protein he’s used.

The Iguana project was just a small 50’ x 50’ structure with screens keeping the Green Iguanas in.  And as Zeke noticed, keeping some Iguanas out.  There was a LARGE male Iguana on top of the structure.  (Not nearly as large as the Iguana the french family had pointed us towards at TEC).  Darryl explained that their mating season was coming up and if they left all the mature males in the cage they would fight, so they released about 5 of the mature males until after mating season.  At which point most, if not all, would return to their good life in the project.  Darryl brought over their oldest male, Gomez.  He was 15 years old and non-aggressive.  He let us pet and even hold Gomez.
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Kate really enjoyed Gomez.
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Zeke wanted to hold him as well, but Gomez was less cooperative, seemingly wanting to get back to Kate further down the hand rail.DSC04614

He also allowed us to feed the Iguanas, warning us to be careful not to touch the milk coming out of the broken stem as it was an irritant.  They came running as soon as you lowered the leaves near them.
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Darryl then lead us to a separate area of the enclosure where the youngsters were separated.  These were all about 6 to 9 months old.  He loaded us up with nearly every youngster in the area.

Theo and Maeve stepped back through the counter to near the trees, where the Iguanas jumped off their hats and bodies back to their more common settings, the tree limbs.
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We finished with a full family shot Darryl took for us…
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Darryl walked us back to the hotel front desk, where we jumped into our vehicle and drove down to Hanna’s restaurant for breakfast.  We seemed to get lucky most of the time finding parking and this time was no exception, we found a single spot right in front of Hanna’s.  Breakfast was great… but more standard fare than I was hoping.  Nothing truly Belizean, but then again it was just breakfast.  From there we walked down to the large Saturday market.  Along the way, I noticed a young man leaving a store, who looked remarkably familiar.  As I walked by, my mind tried to process exactly how I could recognize someone in a separate country in the 3rd largest city of the country.  From behind me I heard, “Mr Dave”.  Ahaa, it was Gerald from the check-in desk at TEC.  He was with his brother Patrick who also worked at the Zoo, and had guided us to the big cats before the rains.  This was their hometown, where they were born and raised and still lived in their family of 8 or 7 (one of their siblings had died from cancer).  Their father was the head keeper at the zoo, having worked their 21 years at the zoo.  They were kind enough to walk with us and just share our company.  They pointed out a cow that a local villager was selling, a tall young Menonite woman in a vibrant Belizean dress was bartering over the young heifer.  I couldn’t help but thinking how beautiful and exotic she must have appeared to Gerald or Patrick… a young tall white European.  Or maybe they were thinking how strange this was, even for them.  Or maybe it made no mark on them whatsoever, just normal life at the market in Belize.  A market they’d probably been to several hundreds of times in their lives.  We walked down through the market as they told us of life in San Ignacio, they greeted and were greeted by many of their friends as they strolled the market with us.  We stopped at the edge of the market where I got a close up view of the new bridge currently underwater.  Patrick told us he was just 16 yrs old, working an internship at the zoo.  He guessed Zeke was only 12 or 13 based on his young face and immature behavior, nope, he’s 15.  DSC04634

Gerald gave us directions to the best ice cream in town, a Mennonite establishment, and we said our goodbyes.  We headed toward a shop we’d heard of at the end of the walking district.  After a little questioning, we found it in the rear of a building that included the ‘Magic Touch’, a massage parlor.  And found some of the best selection and prices that we’d found in any souvenir shop.  Having heard that Ambergris Caye was much more expensive, we loaded up on souvenirs, $345 worth.  While we made our last selections, Zeke asked questions of the niece of the shop worker who was 7 years old.  Between her and the shop owner, he collected more Tata Duende stories.  Jane found a painting representative of Belize, as did Kate and I.  At checkout, Ruby told us there was a cash discount, but we didn’t have enough cash on us.  Ruby allowed us to come back later and pay for our goods while she wrapped them and held them behind the counter.  We then walked over to the ice cream shop.  It was quite busy, so we decided to buy a few quarts to go.  Theo and Janie didn’t like the smell in the shop, so walked with me up to Hanna’s to gather our car.  We drove it down and allowed the air conditioning to cool down the car.  Soon afterwards Maeve walked out with her own cone, evidently having warn mom down with her pleas.  We drove back up to the hotel and enjoyed our ice cream by the pool, while Theo, Zeke and Maeve swam.  I did a little blogging, and said I’d be in shortly, but the kids didn’t last that long.  To keep my word, I dove in and swam for a little bit in the FREEZING pool.  I can’t believe how long Theo and Maeve can swim in there without getting cold.  I last about 20 to 30 minutes.  I got back to the room and we rallied to go see our first Mayan ruins, Cahal Peche, inside San Ignacio just 20 minutes walk or 5 minutes drive from the hotel.  But first I needed to run a couple errands in town.  Drop off the 3 small bags of dirty clothing at the laundromat, and swing back by the souvenir shop with our cash.  I went down the hill at about 3:45, which turned out to be rush hour.  The new bridge was evidently still closed and despite adopting the local driving habits, I got stuck behind a tourist who refused to nose into the continuous traffic coming at us from across the one-way bridge.  I had to turn downtown just so I could circle back up toward the laundromat, and ended up choosing the lesser of 2 roads, just because it had less traffic on it, even though it landed me further away from the laundromat and souvenir shop.  I found both fairly quickly, but admit that I had a hard time relocating my vehicle.  Finally, I was on the way back up to the hotel.  Kate and the kids were waiting at reception, and we drove up to the top of the city and Cahal Peche.

It was a small site, easily waked in an hour.  With a nice museum explaining much of the arte\ifacts found there and more of the Mayan history.  This was the major temple on the grounds…
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Jane had banged her knee up a bit in the ATM cave, and was complaining of walking.  She did OK.  Zeke seemed most interested, and Theo and Maeve didn’t get much Mayan out of it, but did enjoy climbing around on things…DSC04650

We explored a few of the restored rooms… Not much to see really. DSC04651

Like all Mayan temples, Cahal Peche was built at the zenith of the hill, as close to the upper world as can be obtained by man.  Here’s a shot of us looking down on the city proper.  There were definitely some nice houses up here in the hills.  The neighboring house looked completely modernized with a gate, car port, and modern grill on the stone patio.
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We were looking to eat at Ceraidos, but they were closed for a private function.  I’d also heard good things of Ervas, which was nearby so we went there instead.  It was on a mud road.  Kate was disappointed to see all the white patrons, hoping for something more authentic, but she recanted when we got our food and everyone loved it.  She also noticed that the locals seemed to drift in later in the evening.  A good finish to our day.

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