7/14 -- Yaxha and Drive to Belize

This morning, we set out for Belize City, and stopped at Yaxha (Ya-sha), another archaeological site near Tikal that is the 3rd largest Mayan site in Guatemala (after Tikal and El Mirador). It was first settled in 1000 BC and did not suffer the rapid collapse that hit other cities, lasting nearly 2000  years. It abuts Lake Yaxha and was a critical line of defense for Tikal. One particularly insistent enemy general attacked it 21 times in 19 years. 

Fiberglass copy of a stela, allowing the original
to be kept safe. You can see the feet and body
of a person. The top part is an elaborate headdress
that probably would have been too heavy to
actually wear.

One of the pyramids, with the central steps not cleared.

Industrious paper cutter ants at work. We had to be careful
not to step on their trails.

Cicada -they were here in the thousands and VERY noisy.

View to Lake Yaxha from the top of a temple.

Jim at the temple's top

That skinny path was created by the ants.

A strangler fig well on its way to killing its host.

Howler monkey

Bright orange centipede

Plastered artwork originally hidden under a layer or 2 of
more recent construction.

Luis pointing out three layers of building.

Lynn at the top of a temple, staying away from
the outer edge.

Central plaza

Black-headed egrets (?)

 After lunch, we headed to Belize, where all our luggage had to be removed from the roof of the bus and walked past immigration before being reloaded on the bus. The roads in Belize seem to have greatly improved since we were here for Dan's wedding in 2006, but the landscape is still pretty dull. The population here is quite small -- only about 350,000 -- even though it is a bit larger that El Salvador, which has a population of 6 million. Literacy in these two countries is the best in Central America -- 91+% in El Salvador, 90+% in Belize. It appears that most people live near the coast, however.

Belize City, where we stayed, has one third of the country's population and is located right on the Caribbean Sea. Our hotel faced the sea, and the lighthouse below was about 100 feet from the hotel.