Friday, June 6, 2014

HELLO: Belize Study Abroad - Day 2

Day 2 in Belize was one of the most epic day ever!

We drove an hour to our destination from where we were staying. But, we also had a tour of places we saw and passed by.


For instance, we passed by a river that goes directly to the ocean.


Here is a tree known as snake tree because the vines are wrapped around the tree and they look like snakes.


Here we are at Altun Ha. Where the Mayan Temples are standing today. This is the first part of our adventure. 


The whole crew. Majority of the students were education majors and then there was my Enactus team and I, which consists of 4 members, who were business majors.


Here is what used to be a part of a temple. The only thing that's left are the staircases.


Our tour guide talking about the building structures and the clay that the Mayan people used.


Here is a tree that the Mayan people believed that the leaves from this tree can cure bruises, cuts, and other pains like arthritis.


Standing right in the plaza, well, what used to be anyways. It was huge, amazing, astonishing! Something you have to see with your own two eyes. The temples were beautiful.


 Here we are still on the ground. They might not look huge in the picture, but I assure you, they are big!


Here I am on the first temple that we climbed. You can see another temple behind me.


From our view on the first temple we were on, you can get a clear view of the Sun God Temple.


Behind the first temple that we started our adventure was this structure. Can you see it? It's the face of the Rain God.


This used to be the lake where the Mayan people used to bathe and washed their clothes. But today, the river no longer exist and it's been dried up for a long time.


Here I am on top of the second temple that we climbed up. There were so many stairs. They sure had quite the exercise back then.


Here I am standing in front of the Sun God Temple. This was the biggest temple of them all, of course. It was definitely scary looking from the top!


Here is the structure that the Mayan people made to represent the Sun God.


Here we are on top of the Sun God Temple. It doesn't look high from my angle but it was definitely scary being on the very edge.


Here I am sitting on top of the place where back in the days they did their human sacrifices to the gods.


Now this is the stairs that we went down from. Just imagine the stairs with no rails, just the stairs themselves. Now that's scary. Other students in my group used their butts to go down the stairs. They were afraid to walk down.

Anyways, after our great adventure into the Maya history, we had the traditional Belizean lunch (my favorite meal in Belize): stewed chicken, rice and beans, and coleslaw. We also did tourist shopping in their little shopping plaza that was at the site. Anyways, if you want to learn more about the Mayan people and their culture in Belize, click here.

He headed out back on the tour bus after seeing the temples. We went for another hour drive somewhere deeper into the jungle. Our next destination and adventure was cave tubing! I've been tubing before but never cave tubing! I couldn' wait!


Here we are. At our destination. When we reached the tubing location we went to gather our tubes and headlights. After another 25 minute hike down to the cave location, we were ready to go tubing! The caves were amazing!


It was an hour and a half long and about 6 to 7 people were assigned to one instructor.


Sorry if the pictures look a little blurry or have blur spots on them. It started to rain on us. Thankfully half of our time was spent in the caves.


Here we go! Going into the caves!



As you can see in this picture, it's pitch black without my camera flash. Also, you can see that our tubing instructor is pulling our entire group with a string tied onto his feet! That's something I've never seen. Also, there were seven of us in the group with our tubes all tied together and all the instructors has to pull and push us throughout our cave tubing. Our instructor said that it's great exercise though.


Here is the inside of the caves. It's covered with limestone formations. As we venture the cave, there were all kinds of shapes and structures that the limestone created.


There's the other group and the other instructor next to us. I believe we have about 5 or 6 huge groups that went tubing.


In the caves, we saw bats and their little houses. It was so cool! I've never seen one in person before.


Yes, they had a small waterfall in the cave! Too bad we couldn't touch it even though we were so close to it.


We're reaching the end of the cave. Finally, the light!


Here's the cave that we just exited. Right when we went outside it started raining on us. Which, even though it's surprising in Belize, we were kind of cold. Cold and tubing in the rain, not so fun.


Here we are outside of the river. This river was used by the Mayan people. They used this river to travel the lands and their trades. When it got dark, they would camp inside of the caves sometimes.


Tubing in the rain, but first, let me take a selfie, and jeez, these life jackets stinks like majority of them always do.


More limestone formations.


Here's another location where some bats are located. See those tiny holes within the rock? Well, that's where they live.


Here we are at the end of our cave tubing experience. It was such a wonderful experience and if you have never done it before, I recommend that you should try it! It's definitely different from your regular tubing experience. Well, I want to thank our awesome tour guides that drove us to see the different sights, showed us the Mayan temples, and to our tubing instructor who was very knowledgeable as well. What a exciting adventure Day 2 was. I really got to learn more about the Belizean cutlure and they have such a fascinating culture as well as their traditions.

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