The Mayan Ruins of Altun Ha

Altun Ha

Turns out that Dzibanché weren’t the only Mayan ruins we would visit this trip.  Reaching Belize City the next morning, we set out for the ruins of Altun Ha.  Unfortunately, the rains of the previous day were not shaken off during the short jaunt down the coast of the Yucatán Penisula, and we had mostly light precipitation throughout our shore excursion this day.

Altun Ha

While the structures at Altun Ha are impressive, I thought the jungle setting at Dzibanché led to some better photographic opportunities.  Also influencing that impression were the better weather conditions the preceding day and the fact that there were almost no competing crowds getting in the way of photographic composition at Dzibanché.

Altun Ha

Along the way we sighted some interesting artifacts, including this rather impressive termite nest and this sculptured face.

Termite colony

Altun Ha face

We also took note of a recently discovered Mayan calendar.  This particular one would have come in handy last year, as it’s the previously unknown 2013 edition.  All that panic for nothing.

Mayan Calendar — 2013 Edition

This next photograph depicts the famous Jester Head on the Sun God’s Tomb.

Jester Head

After our Mayan excursion our great tour guide Michael of Vitalino Reyes Cave Tubing, Michael then took us to lunch followed by our trek into the jungle for a cave tubing experience.  If you get a chance to go on this cave tubing trip, by all means take it.  And make sure you ask for Michael — friendly, informative, helpful, and just an all-round great guy.  We spent much of the road portion of our trip exchanging recipes and cooking tips.  Alas, because of the continual rain and the need to carry our floats, helmets, and life-jackets, I purposely left the camera back in the van rather than take the chance of saturating it.

You can view Ursula’s  review of Vitalino Reyes Cave Tubing at this link on Trip Advisor.

On Friday we’ll take a break from the archeological with a visit to the Honduran island of Roatán — a great place, it turns out, to get your eMail account hacked!