The ship was docked in Belize when we woke up this morning. We had a very eventful day.
On the way to the Mayan ruins, another vehicle broke down on us. Our air-conditioned but poorly maintained and smelly tour bus died in the middle of nowhere. Do not confuse this particular “middle of nowhere” with the “middle of nowhere” near mile marker 48 outside of Lake Charles, LA where our car broke down on the way to the board the ship on Sunday. This really was the true Middle of Nowhere. Capital M. Capital N. And this happened just after the guide told us how dangerous this particular section of Belize was. Very nice. Since this part of the country was dangerous, they made us wait in the bus for the replacement to arrive. They were able to get a NON-air-conditioned but poorly maintained and smelly bus in just under 20 minutes. I guess they have an office near the Middle of Nowhere. Good for them. No one was accosted by a roving band of Belizean bandits or eaten by a rabid water buffalo or anything.
The ruins were totally cool. Not as cool as the ruins at Tulum, which were mind-blowingly cool, but still very neat. The Tulum experience is so phenomenal because you spend an hour on a horrible bus ride, then 45 minutes taking a shuttle out to the site, you’re hot, sweaty, aggravated, and wondering why in the hell you picked this particular excursion. You arrive at the destination and are herded like cattle to another staging area where you wait for your tour guide to arrive. Blah! But then, the guide arrives and leads you through a narrow passage, and suddenly a huge, lush green valley opens up before you, and the ruins stand proudly against the blue sky and crystal-clear ocean water.
The ruins at Altun Ha were neat. The buildings there were much larger than those at Tulum and the site has a very strong presence. There. That’s my official archeological interpretation.
Made it back to the ship, ate, drank, ate some more and crashed early. Riding in a hot tour bus for 3 hours really takes a toll on ya.