Western Caribbean Cruise January 2024: Tuesday Altun Ha Mayan Ruins and Belize River

This morning we fnd ourselves anchored a few miles off Belize City. There are three other cruise ships here today: Celebrity Constellation (2170 ppl); Royal Caribbean Enchantment of the Seas (2400 ppl); Celebrity Apex (3400 ppl). Including our 2000 passengers, that's almost 10,000 people who might storm ashore!

The weather today is perfect! Cloudless skies, temperature would be in the low 80s by afternoon, with usual high humidity.

Our tender ride to the city was about 30 minutes. We were there by 9:00 to meet our excursion group. Our tour guide was a delightful and well informed Belizian native named "Flowers". Our coach took us through the city and out into the "wilderness" of inland Belize to the Altun Ha Mayan Ruins. There are apparently hundreds of Mayan ruins that have been discovered throughout Central America, but only 16 (?) that have been excavated enough to be worthy of a visit. Altun Ha is one of the smaller ones. It was excavated by a archeologist named Prendergast back in the 1960s and 70s. It reportedly dates back to 200BC to about 1000AD.

The "temples" are amazing! The largest one had a stone stairway up the backside. Probably against my better judgement, I made the hike to the top. Fortunately, there was a sturdy handrail. The steps were deep (12") and uneven, but I made it! Sam stayed down below. You can see her orange hat in the photos. (I would feel the effects of that climb for days after!) Note to self: look for a book about the Mayan culture.

From the ruins site, we reboarded our coach and drove another half hour to the launching point for our Belize River cruise back to the city. We were treated to a light lunch of BBQ chicken and brown rice. Lots of Iguanas around. The bright orange males we amazing! We spent about 2 hours on the river seeing wildlife like alligators, turtles, birds, etc. The most interesting encounter was where the river enters the bay to see "apportunistic" Frigate Birds eating the fush scraps coughed up by the dolphins.

We went out into the open ocean on our little craft to get back to the main cruise pier by 3:00, right on time! Then tendered back to the boat, home by 4:30. Then anchors aweigh as we head out for Cozumel.