My Belize Ruins Tour

[rucruizin]

Belize was our last port of call on our cruise. I had been injured at the first port of call and was on crutches, and pain meds. I had come all this way to see the ruins, and was going to see them! My husband really doesn't enjoy this sort of thing, so he booked a beach excursion through the ship. He said he was more comfortable with me booking a ship tour as well, since I would be alone. The cost through the ship was only $10 more than the private tours, and it was worth the $ for the piece of mind, for both of us.

 

I did the Xuinantuin...whatever... It is an easy pronunciation if you break it down like this...Shoe-nan-tune each...run it all together, and you've got it.

 

We started out on our LONG bus ride. Denise was the first person to speak, and I really enjoyed listening to her. She turned the mic over to some guy, and he totally made me mad from the beginning. I was in the very front seat, and had my injured legs propped up on the thing in front of me. He used swear words, and just said some inappropriate things...IMO

 

Denise stood in the isle, but the guy leaned up against the same thing I had my legs propped up on. He could have easily leaned up against the other side, but he didn't. As he talked he flailed his arms about, and whackedmy leg about 4 times...hard. I told him if he did it again, I was going to beat him with my crutch! He finally moved.:mad:

 

So we arrive at the destination...sort of. We have to take a ferry across a river, which was beautiful. And, we have to take a van to the ruins site. We had a large group, so it took about 3 trips to get everyone to the site. When we arrived, the male guide (here after referred to as MG) gave everyone time to use the restroom, and then we met in a room where there were mock ups of the entire site. We stood in that room for what seemed like an eternity, and I was getting extremely anxious to just go see the real thing. I think I have ADD, I can't sit and listen to stuff like that. I was very tempted to sneak out the back, and just go on my own.

 

THIS IS WHY I USUALLY DON'T TAKE TRADITIONAL/SHIP TOURS!

 

So out to the site...more standing...more YACK, YACK, YACK!:rolleyes: I was about to go nuts... I finally went off on my own, as the rest of the group rounded a corner. I went to some of the sites he said we wouldn't be visiting, so I could take pictures. I left one crutch in the van, and hobbled all over on the one. The MG spotted me, and yelled at me to get back to the group...by this time I was ok with it. He talked about those who wanted to climb the pyramid, and looked at me and said, "you'll wait at the bottom." I told him I was going to clomb the pyramid, and he said I couldn't. I told him, "I do what I want." He said I wasn't going to clomb the pyramid. I told him again, "I do what I want."

 

He directed those who were clombing the pyramid, up the back side. He directed those who didn't want to climb, where to wait for us. By this time I think he had decided, I was going to do what I wanted:D and he left me go.

 

I carefully ascended to the top. As a 39 year old female who works out regularly, I was able to climb it with ease, in spite of the injury. The views were beautiful, and by this time I was no longer annoyed with the MG. His attitude totally changed towards me as well. The trip down was a little uneasy, but I took it slow, and then just decided to go down on my rear. EVeryone in the group offered help, and support throughout the excursion. The MG later told me he didn't believe I could do it, but was impressed with my spirit, my will, my drive. He offered to take a picture of me at the base of the pyramid, I said, "no thanks." He said, "really...let me take your picture to show your accomplishement. You should be proud of what you did today."

 

We headed back to the buses for the long ride back. We stopped for lunch at a hotel/resort??? thing/place. The grounds were beautiful, the gardens exquisite. The lunch simple, yet good. Lunch, and fruit punch (very yummy) were included, beers were $2. The time there was short, which was fine. Back to the ship just in time to board pretty much. I ran into my husband at the port, and we were able to do a little, and I mean little shopping. That kind bugged me, I wanted to have more time to shop. But that wasn't the fault of anyone, just all the time that was alotted due to the time the ship was in port.

 

The ruins were splendid, the views incredible. My DH saw the pictures of the ruins, and said, "wow. Those were pretty cool, huh?"

[sharecruises]

LOL>>> all in all it ended well I guess, you climbed the ruins that is really cool

 

I am the same way tho about long winded "speeches" and "endless" tours, no fun IMHO....I am not getting a PhD in archeology so skip the lecture, I prefer the "romance" or the majesty or just the "antiquity" of something like this

 

That is awesome that you went ahead and met the challenge of the climb: congrats !! Good for YOU!

[vmom]

Thanks for sharing the pictures. I'll keep this tour in mind for our next trip to Belize. This last time we did Altun Ha which we enjoyed...so now I'm anxious to visit more.

[OttoCal]

Xunantuninch is a beautiful site, and that hand-cranked ferry to get there is really fun. Glad you went. It sounds like you just climbed up the main pyramid and not the one facing it. I hope you got to go over to see the ball court too, that is pretty neat.

 

The little market stalls right by the ferry are actually pretty good shopping, better prices and more interesting crafts than we saw in Belize City- others visiting there should check out this little market!