Cayo – Mayan Ruins and the Mountain Pine Ridge

One of the best parts of having a travel company, is well, i get to travel!  I’ve spent a ton of time in the stunning Cayo district over the years, but has brought me there (happily) several times over the last couple weeks.  So, i thought i’d highlight some of the super cool things to do in Cayo, while staying at the stunning Hidden Valley Inn.  Take a day tour to either Cahal Pech, Xunantunich  or Even BETTER…Caracol in the insanely gorgeous area of Mountain Pine Ridge.

Taken from the BTB Website:

Caracol – The Snail

Belize’s premier Maya site with a rich and exciting history as a rival power to Tikal, Caracol is deep in the heart of the Chiquibul Forest Reserve of the Maya Mountains in the Cayo district.

The main temple, Canaa, (“sky place”) offers incredible views of the surrounding jungle – at 143 feet high it is the tallest manmade structure in the country. The ancient architects created not only a spectacular structure but incorporated excellent acoustics so that priests and rulers using normal speaking voices could be clearly heard by the masses assembled in the plaza below. (Try this yourself on your visit!)

Covering an area of some 65 sq.miles, this site is impressive not only for its size but it’s immense agricultural field system and elaborate city planning.

Much work has gone into the restoration of the temples and the surrounding environment in order to give visitors a sense of the life of the ancient Maya.

Visitor Experience
Caracol is certainly worth the drive via an all-weather gravel road through the Mountain Pine Ridge.   Because of its remote location it is advisable to use a reputable travel and tour operator or tour guide for your adventure and to check in with the Forestry Department in Douglas de Silva Village before continuing on to Caracol.

Cahal Pech – Place of Ticks

Maya temples in the midst of a present-day town differentiate Cahal Pech from other Maya sites in Belize.

Situated in San Ignacio town along the bank of the Macal River in the Cayo District, Cahal Pech was a ceremonial center with temples, palaces and a ball court and offers visitors a spectacular panoramic view of San Ignacio and the Belize River Valley.

Visitor Experience
Cahal Pech is only a short 10 minute walk from the town’s center with a hilltop visitor center providing a great introduction to life as it was at Cahal Pech.

Xunantunich- Maiden of the Rock

Xunantunich sits atop a hill overlooking the overlooking the Mopan River and the Cayo District.

Xunantunich was a major ceremonial site, built on a natural limestone ridge during the Classic Period.The site is composed of six major plazas with more than twenty-five temples and palaces.   “El Castillo” (the Castle), the largest pyramid at 130 feet above the plaza, has such carved friezes on the east and west sides. The frieze on the east has been preserved and covered with a fiberglass replica of the central mask representing the sun god flanked the moon, Venus, and different days.

On a clear day you can also see across into nearby Guatemala, and over towards Caracol in the Mountain Pine Ridge Reserve.

Visitor Experience
Xunantunich lies eight miles west of San Ignacio Town, directly across from the village of San Jose Succotz. It is easily accessible by public transportation, up to the hand-cranked ferry over the river.  Vehicles are ferried over one at a time for the one mile drive/hike to the parking lot.  An impressive visitor center with refreshments and souvenirs for sale are located on site.