The Fife Life: Belize

I've been interested in visiting Belize ever since "House Hunters International" started having shows about Belize. It's a pretty interesting place. It has some incredibly beautiful places and some VERY poor places. We had a very sunny day.....incredibly HOT and HUMID. We were very thankful for the comfortable air conditioned bus we rode on. We went on a tour of Belize City and then about an hour away to the Mayan Ruins of Altun Ha. Our guides work with a company called Bak-a-bush and they did an excellent job. Three wonderful girls....Amalia, Lynette, and Maria. Overall, it was a great place to visit but I don't think I'll be getting in the line to buy a house there. :)

Some pictures from our time in Belize(out of order as usual)....(uploading all these pictures has me frustrated with blogger....it didn't used to bug me as much...but now pretty much EVERY website that allows you upload pictures has an uploader that is heads and tails better than this....get with the times blogger!)

Altun Ha....some beautiful Mayan ruins and the jungle surrounding it is absolutely gorgeous.

The guides let us pick these little fruits off of some trees and try them. They called them "plums" but they tasted very little like a plum. Kinda like a crab apple.

Jason checking out the huge drop-off at the ledge on top of a temple. We were allowed to climb the largest temple at the site. While I loved it, it was a little big nerve-wracking for a few reasons. You had to climb a lot of very steep stone steps that were very tall steps....uneven surface. Atop the temple was a rocky uneven surface and huge drop-offs on all sides....if you fell it's a good bet you wouldn't survive. All these things were fairly easy to navigate for Jason and I. What made me so nervous was that EVERYONE was allowed to climb and there were a few old people who shouldn't have been doing it. They could hardly lift their legs high enough to climb the steps and were barely stable enough to walk securely on flat ground.....let alone these rocky surfaces. I kept thinking that I was going to have to watch someone get seriously hurt! Pretty much zero safety precautions whatsoever. I guess this worry comes from being an American where everybody is so worried about lawsuits that safety protocols are everywhere.

Mayan ruins are often found in square formations like this. The guides said that under the grassy area in the middle are huge stone tiles....it's amazing that these people were able to construct such beautiful and intricate things at the time they lived.

View of the jungle from the top of the temple

This was the biggest temple that we got to climb.

window.....Look how thick that wall is!!!

Trees growing over other trees....it was amazing.

This was a sacred pool-like area where they swam to purify themselves.

They used large limestone rocks at the base of the walls and then flint rocks towards the top.

Belize City

A very old Cathedral in Belize City that is mostly original

A cemetery in Belize City....because of the water table here people are buried three feet under instead of six.

Our guides all grew up in Belize and it was so interesting to hear about their culture. In school if you misbehave you will still get a lashing. Our guides said this is how they grew up to be good girls. :) They explained that if you got a lashing at school you'd never complain to your mom because if she found out then she'd give you a lashing too.....then your grandma (the elderly usually live with their children) would find out and she'd give you a lashing too. It was better to keep it quiet and just be good at school. They said that Belize has a social security system but no welfare system. If you want to live.....you will work.

Everyone in Belize receives a parcel of land when they turn 18. Many of the people have no money to do anything with the land besides build a little shack with whatever they can find.

Many of the houses we saw were built off the ground like this for a couple of reasons. The first reason is flood prevention as Belize City is two feet BELOW sea level. The second is that they can still hang their laundry under the house to dry even during rainy season.

Political campaigning in Belize City. The national language is English but the native language is Creole. Spanish is the next most common language.

A sculpture in Belize City

Rubble in Belize

Back to Altun Ha.....a female body was found here and her head had been bashed in. We were told that if a priest died his wife was usually killed too. She wasn't allowed to outlive her husband. If a priests wife died before him then he just got a new one. (Wow)

We got some amazing photos, huh? This one (and probably most of the really good ones) were shot by Jason of course....he's absolutely amazingly steady!!

This is soooo interesting to me. Temple of the Masonry Altars. A large tomb is under the stair block which housed the remains of an elderly male. This elite person was likely an important ruler of the site during his life. In this tomb a ten pound carved jade head was found by Dr. David Pendergast in 1968. Jade was the most precious stone to the Maya. It is Kinich Ahau, the Mayan Sun God. It was carved with stone tools and probably took many months or years to produce. It is a great treasure to Belize and is displayed on all of their money. It is the only one of it's kind in all of Mesoamerica. Based on other items in the tomb it's believed to be from 600 to 650 A.D. It is quite amazing.....if you are interested you can see a picture HERE.