December 7
We frequently write “today was a travel day”. Today really was— 11 hours door to door. An early morning 1.5 hour boat ride back to the mainland, then 1.5 hour drive to a local reserve. More on that later. After lunch a 2 hour drive to the Guatemalan border and then 1.5 hours to the Tikal Park. Our lodge for the next two nights is inside the park. After dinner we walked through a section of the park looking for frogs and other nocturnal creatures. We didn’t see a lot, but walking in the dark is always fun.
The highlight of the day was undoubtedly the hike through the local Belizean reserve to a beautiful cave. With hard hats and lights we went into the cave. Caves were viewed in Mayan times as portals to the underworld, and ceremonies included food offerings to appease the spirits on behalf of departed relatives. Our guides led us in a short ceremony (in the dark by the light of a natural incense wax collected during our walk up to the caves) thanking the spirits of the cave. One of the young men recited the prayer in the ancient Mayan language. Afterwards we had a lovely picnic lunch in the open portion of the cave.
Both at lunch and at dinner we learned more about WCS terrestrial programs in this region. In Belize the efforts are largely to re-establish corridors of protected land to connect the large reserves in the north and south of the country. In Guatemala, the issue is illegal cattle ranching and its relationship to money laundering for drug cartels. It can be dangerous to be a conservation advocate in Guatemala and several other countries in the northern part of Central America.
Pictured: small bat from the cave, cave scorpion spider, views inside the cave
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