San Ignacio

After days of taking it easy and relaxing we moved onto the mainland of Belize. This time we took a short flight from the San Pedro to Belize City and then a private transfer to San Ignacio in the west of Belize where we’d base ourselves for a few days. On our way to San Ignacio, we stopped at Belize Zoo. It was fantastic to see the national animal, the tapir, and jaguars, macaws and monkeys. We’re not usually fans of zoos but this one was really well done with large enclosures and lots of natural vegetation.

On our first day in San Ignacio we visited the Iguana Conservation Project on the outskirts of town, they care for injured iguanas and also have a breeding programme for release into the wild. In Belize iguana is a delicacy (albeit it was not seen on any menus), they only tend to eat the females though as the males have a toxic gland that needs to be carefully removed so they play it safe with the females! On top of this, iguana gender is determined by the temperature that the eggs are incubated at, with warming temperatures more males have been incubated in the wild leading to females (and therefore the populus of iguanas) becoming endangered. The breeding programme is helping to restore the numbers (and perhaps feed some of the locals). On the walk back to town we stopped off at a local chocolatier, we were able to sample all the ingredients used in the process of making their chocolate from the cocoa beans (uncooked/fermented), thorough to the chocolate ‘nibs’ and the finished product. Hot chocolate is popular in Belize, but not as we know it! They tend to make it with hot water, honey and a mixture of spices, we tried it all including the addition of honey, chilli, cinnamon and allspice which grows in proliferation in Belize.

On our second day we headed out of town to Xunantunich Mayan Ruins. You have to get a small hand wound ferry over a river prior to travelling the last mile to the ruins. We opted to head up under our own steam walking the last mile from the ferry to the ruins, it was great to build up the anticipation! We’ve come to discover that all the ruins, Mayan or otherwise, have some sort of linkage and influence from other sites in terms of architecture but they all have their own unique story. The ruins are quite bijou compared to some of the other sites we have visited, nonetheless they were charming and some of the best we’d seen amongst the jungle. Views from the top of the main pyramid offered fantastic views cross the jungle and we were also able to see the border with Guatemala which we would cross in a few days. It was then time to make our way back to the town, following a wet walk (tropical showers) back to the ferry we eventually managed to flag a passing taxi down for the drive back to town. The taxi itself had seen better days, it did have keyless starting – courtesy of the wires hanging out where the ignition barrel should have been! In the afternoon we took a walk to the local market which was bursting with produce from local farmers, we also spotted the local Amish community selling their wares.Read more