After a fantastic morning a the Baboon Sanctuary in Bermudian Landing (see my previous post), I decided I needed to find some lunch and drove North on the Northern Highway towards Sand Hill.

Found a small roadside shack that was offering some local Belizean (chicken, rice, beans, and yucca). Not bad, but very messy to eat. After lunch, I continued north to just past Sand Hill, where the highway splits. I decided to take the Old Northern Highway since it was headed towards the coast, and being the Turtle that I am, I wanted to see the Ocean.

A few miles up the highway, I spotted a sign for a Mayan Ruin called Altun Ha. I have been to Belize before and visited many of the Mayan Ruins, and always found them interesting and worth viewing if you have the time. I have never been to or heard of this site before, so I decided to go visit it.

Once you reach Lucky Strike, you leave the Old Northern Highway and drive west for about 4km and you arrive at the entrance to Altun Ha.

 At the entrance, there are some shops and information center that will give you the history of this site and what the layout for it is. Of course, there are plenty of guides for hire, and I recommend that you hire one. The guides are all licensed and knowledgeable about the site and the current theories on what happened at this site and where and why the Mayans left here. They also know where to go, and what to see based on how much information or time you have to explore the ruins.

I negotiated a good price ($20 US) for one of the guides and told him I had the rest of the afternoon to spend here, and I was interested in getting some good photos and information on the ruins.

Turtle with Guide

I was really impressed with the size and scope of these ruins. Some of these structures seemed to be as high and big as the ones I remembered from my last visit to the Tikal ruins in Guatemala. The nice thing about these ruins is that they are off the beaten tourist path, so not many visitors and you can still climb many of the structures. I am always amazed at how an old civilization like the Mayans was able to plan, construct and build such large, ornate, and geometrically accurate structures without the modern tools of today.

As with all the Mayan sites found in Central America, only about 10-20% of the site has been excavated, many of the structures are still buried under the earth and trees of the forest. This is to preserve these structures for future generations, since once exposed to the elements, most of these ruins will fade away to nothing.

One of the exciting objects found at this site is the jade head at Altun Ha, which is considered a national treasure of Belize.

Turtle at Altun Ha (I am not a national Treasure of Belize)

Coming up next will be the Belize Zoo.