Saturday: Xunantunich

We drove about an hour from Belmopan, to just past San Ignacio, to see the ancient Mayan architectural site of Xunantunich.  A word of advice we have already been given here - do not say ruins.  It implies a bygone culture whereas Mayan heritage and tradition is still very much alive.

Anyway, off to the sites we went.  We’ve never seen anything like it - it was incredibly impressive and peaceful.  Despite the heat, we climbed to the top and were able to see across the valley and into Guatemala.  

To get there and back we had to take the car on a hand-cranked ferry which takes four cars at a time - I have no doubt I’ll be blipping that some time in the future. We had an excellent lunch at ‘Benny’s Kitchen’ which had been recommended to us by colleagues.  Our local dish of the day was salbutes (a form of fried tortilla, topped with shredded chicken, lime and onions) followed by fried chicken and slaw.

On the way back we stopped off at the smaller Mayan site of Cahal Pech.  It felt more intimate so, even though it was smaller, we almost liked it more.