Green Cotton

Following Green Cotton’s first post on Belize, I promised I would delve more deeply into Xunantunich, the ancient Maya site, and Green Cotton’s rainforest trek by moonlight. To begin, Xunantunich must be one of the most beautiful and fascinating Mayan sites that I have ever seen. If you have an opportunity to visit, I highly recommend going on a day when no cruise ships are in town, nor other travelers for that matter (e.g. see top photo– no one else in site!). We did not plan this purposefully, but for one reason or another, this was the case, and the weather was even fabulous! We could count all the other visitors present on one hand. If you do so, you just may have the opportunity to walk through the famous Maya “plaza” (featured above) and shout softly with your words carrying to nearly every corner of the compound. The Maya were insightful acoustical planners.

Go with a guide and you will hear stories about the “ins” and “outs” of this fascinating ancient civilization in which complex ritual ceremonies, astronomically-inspired architecture and the occasional human sacrifice and deathly game of “ball” all played a role.

Of particular interest is the fact that the Maya appear to have been deeply concerned with astrology and incorporated this interest into their calendrical data and an intricate, mathematical discipline. They were one of the first to come up with “zero” as a numbering tool for their mathematical system. In addition, their architectural building alignments provide documentation of a number of Maya astronomical skills. For example, certain structural corners perfectly align with the sun at summer and winter solstice.

As many of you may be aware as well, it appears they were the first to cultivate and drink chocolate from the cocoa bean more than 2,600 years ago (all you Belgian chocolate lovers out there – sorry to burst any bubbles). The Maya also made incredible advances in medicine. Walking through the ruins, one gains a magical sense of what it must have been like at that time, and a respect for how large and complex their society became thousands of years ago – before any of our modern day advances (eg no running water, toilets, cell phones, computers, blenders, ovens or washing machines).

However, I must say also that I was not particularly impressed with their sense of environmentalism nor conservation. In fact, arguably their systematic use of natural resources including corn growing and chopping down trees for agriculture as well as making their limestone structures were likely strong factors in their demise. One small limestone platform for example could take up to 4,000 trees to make!! So that view up top shown in the photo above would have been A LOT less green in their day!

Finally, you may wonder what Xunantunich means? According to our guide and also wikipedia, it is a name given by archeologists in Maya language to mean “Stone Woman”. However, in recent years, written artifacts from the site (according to our guide) reveal that the Maya likely referred to this site as “white hill” named after the limestone structures characterizing the site.

—-
Turning now to the moonlight walk to the mountain peak at Black Rock, this view was by far one of the most spectacular on our trip (see photos below). Within minutes of this hike however, my husband and I, draped in sweat, felt like we had entered a wildlife sauna. Puffing and panting as we gained altitude, we reached the peak just at dusk’s softest, pinkest moment of light. Luckily, the view up top was well worth the effort.

Above: View from the Mountain Peak near Black Rock

Not sure if you can see all the sweat but it was there!

Never far from adventure, our trek down led to one of our most stressful moments too. As the sun descended and the path began to take on all the same dark hues, we unfortunately took a wrong turn while deeply immersed in conversation. Not until we reached the end of the path on a grassy cliff did we realize that we were definitely in the wrong place!

At this point it was nearly pitch black. Not sure of where we were, we decided to turn back the way we came to find the right path back to the lodge. We soon began hiking over branches, stumps, and large acorns , only this time uphill and without much light…tripping, stumbling and dodging fast moving bats that were swooping in and out of our path.

Sweating from heat and fear….we finally made it back to the juncture where we had made a bad turn. Simultaneously we heard music coming from the lodge….and eagerly began following the sound as our adrenaline continued to race. After a windy walk down the final stretch of trail, we finally hit our destination, soaked in sweat, releasing our fear in a huge sigh.…happy to be back to civilization once again and thankful that we were not locals in the rainforest!

Thank you Belizeans for making our trip a memorable, exciting and educational one. I hope that I may traverse the land again, but in the meantime, for those of you out there who have not yet been, may you not be discouraged by the lizards and occasional poorly marked trails, but rather remember the stunning wildlife, waterfalls and natural beauty as well as deep history and consider it as a future destination. And if you have been already been, tell us your story! We’d love to hear from you.