Today we visited Caracol, a large Mayan city (in Belize) that was inhabited and prosperous from around 599 to 859 AD. It was just rediscovered in 1937 by a logger (a "chiclero" looking for trees used to make gum). The ancient city was given its name, Caracol (which means “snail” in Spanish), by a man who explored it in 1938 and found many snails.
Caracol is huge - 88 square kilometers - and once had a population of 150,000! Today, only a small fraction of the buildings and structures are fully excavated.
Caana is the largest and tallest excavated structure. Here they found 4 tombs. There was quite a climb to the top and we kept wondering how the Mayans managed these oversized steps. The view of the jungle canopy and the plaza below were quite impressive.
Not only did we see ruins today but also spider monkeys dangling in the trees above us. It was a lot of fun watching them skillfully run along tree branches. One actually straddled itself on a tree branch right above us – he was a Curious George.Raye and Melina
Julie, Raye & Melina on Caana
Later we stopped at Rio On pools and falls for a refreshing dip! Not bad!
No comments:
Post a Comment