You know, when I decided to visit Belize this year, I wasn’t really thinking about the Mayans nor the significance of the year 2012 in the Mayan calendar. But now that it is 2012, and after being here, visiting both Actun Tunichil Muknal and the Caracol temples, I’m so glad to have been given this […]
San Ignacio to San Pedro via Zipline & Belize Zoo
We left San Ignacio early Tuesday morning via a private shuttle. It rained hard at times but at each of our stops, the rain went momentarily away. I’m not complaining. We got to the Caves Branch Outpost where our guide from the shuttle company got us discounted tickets with Ziprider/DEB. I really could have done […]
Rio Frio Cave & Rio On Pools (Belize)
Our tour of Caracol with Pacz Tours came with a couple stopovers at other sites in Mountain Pine Ridge. Rio Frio Cave was the first stop. It has a huge (65 feet) opening that is simply awe-inspiring. It wasn’t too dark inside as a second opening was not too far away so we were able […]
Caracol – Mayan Archaeology
The most extensive Mayan site in Belize is Caracol, Spanish for snail. It covers over 200 square kilometers and holds over 30,000 buildings. It was quite an important city in the Classical Age of Maya civilization. Then its hieroglyph name would have been read as Uxwitza (Three-Hills-Water). The site is supposed to have been occupied […]
Spelunking at Actun Tunichil Muknal (ATM)
Actun Tunichil Muknal, or Cave of the Stone Sepulcher, is a cave in the Tapir Mountain Nature Reserve of the Cayo region of Belize. Belize is known to have an extensive cave system. Actun Tunichil Muknal was discovered in 1989 by a Canadian geologist. Archaeologists believe that it holds evidence of the Classic Maya religion […]
Arrival into Belize
Our trip to Belize was pretty much uneventful. We took an early morning flight out of Newark directly to Belize City. There were a number of empty seats on the plane. About four planes arrived close to each other leading to a a very busy immigration and customs hall however we were able to breeze […]
Belize on my mind
The winter this year has been pretty mild feeling like spring for days in a row. But I’m tired of the cold, the multi-layers of clothing, and the knowledge that a severe snowstorm could hit anytime between now and May. I signed up for snow-boarding lessons this year too, but I am not at all […]
State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
This is the sixth novel by award winning author Ann Patchett. I have not read any of her other novels, but the book was selected by one of my book clubs. The book club has not yet met so I cannot say what others thought about it. State of Wonder is a novel about Marina […]
Stuff parents say
So these days YouTube, and thus Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and even mainstream media, is ripe with the S*** X people say meme. What started out as S*** Girls Say where a man in drag parodied girls somewhat benignly, soon became S*** X people say to Y people such as the S*** White Girls Say…to Black […]
Costa Concordia shipwreck
When I heard about the Costa Concordia shipwreck this weekend I thought it was amusing, wait, not amusing ha ha, but amusing-sad that the captain of the ship was one of the first to leave. Seriously? He probably was frightened, which is understandble, but seriously? As a captain, don’t you know not to desert your […]