Mayan Mania

I love being inland! I came on this trip looking for adventure and I have finally found it here on the mainland! Today we woke up and ventured to Caracal which is a site of Mayan ruins. We had a wonderful tour guide named Diego who showed us the ropes after a long and windy bus ride. We explored the ruins and learned a lot about the Mayan culture and their history. It is amazing that we are here during the sacred year of 2012 when their official calendar ends. Now, for those of you who are worried that the world will end including my STUDENTS who used to always ask me, I have some news for you. The world is not expected to end according to Mayan legend. There will simply be a change in world order and a new calendar will begin! The only problem is that they did not create a new calendar so they will have to modify and use the old one. There will be special alignments in the cosmos but these are things that happen regularly every 20 or 50 years. The Mayans were very big astronomers so they were good at predicting this type of thing.

After exploring the ruins and hiking to the highest point in Belize I was exhausted! The hiking was no joke! The Mayans created very steep stairs on their temples for ritual purposes which made it hard to get to the top of these giant buildings. We finally saw the last temple and settled in for lunch just in time for an afternoon rain.

We finished lunch and headed to a secret waterfall spot on the way back past the river. Once at the spot we had to park and hike a good ways down the most dangerous and steep path I have ever seen. When we got down the path we were met with a gorgeous waterfall and cliffs in a valley surrounded by jungle. I felt like I was in Jurassic Park, minus the dinosaurs... So we all changed into our bathing suits and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon in the pool and around the waterfall. I was so excited because in every country I have visited I have made an effort to jump off of a cliff into water and this trip was no exception! I climbed up a huge rock wall almost 50 feet tall and jumped off of a cliff into the waterfall. It was amazing!! One of the highlights of my trip so far! I jumped off many other jumps and even fought the current and made it to the rocks under the waterfall. It was so exciting and just breathtaking. I was one of three from our group and the only girl to jump! After a while of jumping we all swam back to shore and dried off and were on our way back in no time. The day was exhausting but I learned a lot and had a great time! I apologize because now that I am inland I have to blog from my iPad, so I am sorry if these are hard to read or have errors. I am also unable to upload pictures right now so pictures of all of my excursions will show up this weekend! Stay tuned!