The last time I was in Belize I did the Lamanai Mayan Ruins tour. This time I had Xunantunich and Altun Ha to choose from. Xunantunich is the more impressive ruins between the two. It’s also a longer excursion and costs about twice as much.

I decided to book Xunantunich this time for a couple of reasons. First off booking the more expensive tour this trip made financial sense considering I had a lot of onboard credit to spend.

Secondly it’s a long tour and I prefer to get the long ones out of the way in the winter when it’s cooler.

I don’t know when I’ll be back to do Altun Ha. But if it happens to be an August cruise, I’ll be happy to have the shorter excursion that time of year.

Since I was using onboard credit, I booked the excursion my first day on the ship.

My ticket was delivered the next day.

Since the meeting time was so early I ordered room service for 6:00-6:30 the morning of the excurison.

Like the last time I was in Belize, they had all excursions meet in the main lounge.

As you walk in they give you a color coded sticker with the name of your excursion on it. They call you to the water shuttles by excursion. Typically the longer excursions will be called first. Mine is seven hours so I expect to be on the first boat out.

Mine was the first excursion called at 7:25am.

We walked downstairs from deck 4 to deck 0. You can request an elevator if you need one.

We reached deck 0 at 7:33am.

The shuttle left at 7:50 and arrived at 8:30. Here is a time lapse video from the ride.

My excursion meeting place is terminal 4. You can see the person with the sign out in front.

The building with the purple roof is the restroom. There’s an extremely long line for it. I’ve been here and done this with Lamanai so I know there’s another restroom inside where we line up. I’m going to check that one out.

There is no line at the restroom inside the terminal.

The Lamanai line is to the left. Mine is to the right.

Looking back the Lamanai line is much longer than mine.

My line is catching up to Lamanai now. I guess all my peeps were in the long bathroom line outside.

The buses have arrived.

I picked my seat in the back by the window. I’m hoping nobody sits next to me. It’s a two hour bus ride.

The microphone on the bus wasn’t working. We stopped to switch buses so everyone could hear the tour guide.

Since I picked a spot in the last row, I would be the last person to pick a seat on the new bus. 

The ones in blue I call The Brady Bunch. They’re easy to track because of the blue and they happen to pop up in every picture.

Fortunately everyone took about the same seats on the new bus so I was able to retain my seat.

The purple people are back in front of me.

We pulled out again at 8:57am.

There are three employees on the bus. A driver and guide in the front and a guide in the back.

Mr. purple in front of me grabs the window screen and says “I like this.” If he pulls that down and blocks my view we’re going to have a problem.

The hand is on the screen.

Some facts from our guide:

-Belize City is five square miles with 80 thousand people.

-Xunantunich is only two miles from Guatemala. 

-Belize is the second smallest country in Central America behind El Salvador and has the smallest population in Central America at 370 thousand.

-Tacos here are 3 for 50 cents. 75 cents with orange juice.

-Most of the cars and buses here come from auctions in Texas. Dealers buy them damaged, fix them in Mexico, and sell them in Belize.

-In the beach and island areas the population is 80% American and Canadian. It’s a popular retirement location. In Belize your 401k becomes an 802k.

-$6 for a gallon of gas here.

-They don’t have any fast food. The Chinese own most of  the stores and restaurants. At the end of the month it’s popular to make a 2 1/2 hour drive to Mexico. They get 7 pesos to a Belize dollar. They like to do their shopping and eat in the restaurants in Mexico when the borders are open.

-Long John Silver and Red Lobster seafood comes from Belize. Tropicana orange juice oranges come from Belize. 

-The dominant religion is Catholic. Schools are religious based. Teacher salaries are paid by the government. Ages 4-14 have mandatory school.

-They can get 200 TV channels for 22 US dollars per month.

Back to them getting their vehicles from us. We just passed a school bus that said Knox county schools.

They are in the Guiness book of world records for having a highway run through the middle of a cemetery.

They passed out free Belize maps.

They are talking about switching buses again. I guess some people are complaining about the air conditioning. I’m comfortable and don’t see what the problem is.

The group voted not to change buses.

They passed around several visual aids. This is one of them.

It was said that this is our midpoint and they cut off the talking portion of the tour.

This is my seat mate Fred.

I believe this is the first time I’ve seen an orange iguana.

This is the Mopan river we’re going to have to cross to get to Xunantunich.

One of the guides said we would stop by his mother’s store. If anyone needs water she sells them for $1. I don’t know about store. It was more like an ice chest on the side of the road.

There are lot of people here to sell you various crafts. They will wait here until you leave if you want to buy something on the way out.

When he said we were going on a ferry ride I thought it was going to be more than this.

After the “ferry” ride we boarded vans.

It’s a short drive to the parking lot where there are bathrooms and gift shops.

There’s a bit of a hill to walk up. It’s a good calf workout. And I’m not talking about the one that was on the menu last night.

If you can’t do the incline they have vans.

This is an army camp since we’re so close to Guatamala.

There used to be a white road over there that connects to road we walked on. Our road was a part of the original road to the city.

Mayans traveled at night and their roads were made of white limestone which was lit up at night by the moonlight. That’s why they are referred to as “white roads.”

There’s a drainage ditch along the road that goes to the parking lot. The parking lot was originally a water reservoir.

Everything we’re going to see here is from the classic era which is 250-900AD. The pre-classic era (1100BC-250AD) structures are located 30 feet under ground.

This building had three rooms. It had one in front and two in the back. The back had rooms had utensils and fishing gear made out of animal bones. It’s believed that a family lived there.

The front rooms were welcome rooms. You had to stop there when entering the city. It is believed that the staircase to this building once came all the way down to this road we’re on.

These are the steps up to the rest of the ruins. In the Mayan times only the elites would be allowed to access this staircase. 1,000 elites lived up in the ceremonial area we’re about to enter. 9.000 commoners lived in the valley below.

This long building is where the king lived for 100-200 years before El Castillo was completed. No it wasn’t Elvis. I asked. 

From the top of El Castillo, I could see another structure on the other side of the king’s residence. We didn’t cover it during the tour so I snuck over there afterwards.

The tour actually didn’t cover the king’s original residence very well. This building is actually just the beginning of it.

This is what is behind the building our guide said was the king’s residence. My personal research says that this entire area is considered the royal residence and work area.

The two hills on each side are believed to be buildings that haven’t yet been uncovered. That far building was actually where the king’s primary residence was located. This grassy area is actually a courtyard in the middle of the four buildings.

This is a closer look at that structure. They found a tomb in the floor at the top of the steps. It’s believed to be the body of a king. They also found jade necklaces in the tomb.

On the left side you can see steps that go up to the the top floor. The top floor is believed to be the king’s primary residence. They found dishes, cups, and jars up there.

This is from the first building in the royal compound looking back towards El Castillo. We are going to move to that green mound in the middle.

This structure has a stair case on both sides of it. They determined there was a wooden wall separating this area and El Castillo. It’s believed that in order to access the El Castillo, you had to walk over this structure.

This is a four room shrine known by some as the stela house. The middle area in the back contains a stela they can’t read.

The stone in the ground used to be round. It is the alter. Cutting devices were found there.

This is where they would conduct blood letting ceremonies. After the blood letting they would light a fire in the pit and let the smoke go up to the heavens.

These three large structures to the left were used for the Mayan calendar.

This is the main structure also known as “El Castillo” which means The Castle. They call it a Castle instead of a Palace because there was no throne found inside of it.

El Castillo is listed as 130 feet tall which would come in taller than the 108 foot High Temple I climbed at Lamanai. It would be just under the height of the Nohoch Mul pyramid at Coba in Mexico. I have seen the Nochoch Mul pyramid listed anywhere from 137 to 141 feet.

Xunantunich was discovered in the 1890’s. One night a hunter was walking through this area when he reportedly saw a Mayan woman up on El Casitllo with red eyes. Others reported seeing the same woman up there at night. That is where the name Xunantunich “stone woman” came from.

The five blocks at the top of the El Castillo were used for study of the moon.

The 13 rectangular blocks in the middle section represent the heavens. The 7th is the largest and makes up what is believed to have been the original doorway to El Castillo.

If you don’t want to climb the main temple there’s a covered area you can sit at.

This is what the initial climb was like.

And we’re going up to the next level.

On the way up we see the face of Kinich Ahau – the Sun God. He is facing the direction the sun rises from. Kinich Ahau is here to welcome the sun.

And the next level.

Brady Bunch is making their way up to the next level.

This is a drainage system that sends rain water down to a water reservoir. It’s believed they may have had a reservoir inside the main part of the building to the left where they could hold water for a period of time, then release it to to main reservoir when they were ready.

Up on this next level they found what appears to be drawings done by children. It’s believed to be where the king’s (not Elvis’) kids were tutored. They have more work upcoming in that area.

These carvings on the side are actually fiberglass replicas protecting the original carvings. The original carvings are actually one meter behind the replicas which were placed there in 1996.

The carvings depict the birth of a god associated with the royal family, gods of creation, and the tree of life which extends from the underworld to the earth and the heavens.

That is Guatamala.

That’s the waiting area for those who didn’t climb.

This view makes it worth the trip.

Around the back side is a higher level you used to be able to climb. They have it closed down right now due to COVID. The guide seemed to think that excuse was a bunch of bologna sandwiches.

I would’ve liked to have gone up to the top, but I was happy they let us climb as far as we did. If you followed my Coba Mayan Ruins adventure in June, you know how disappointed I was to find the main pyramid couldn’t be climbed at all.

Inside those rooms is another staircase that takes you to the top level which is where it’s believed the king moved to after this structure was completed.

This is where you would come down from that highest level when they allowed it.

You can see all of the straight cuts on these doorways. The Mayans had not mastered arched doorways yet.

These rooms had no evidence of anyone having lived in them. It’s believed this was a meeting room where alliances were formed with other cities. This is the only Mayan structure in Belize with round pillars.

Iguanas.

These are the stairs you come down from. I wanted to get a picture with nobody on them. You can see the Brady’s up top conducting an extensive photo shoot.

We get down to one Brady left it looks like I’m about to get a clear shot.

This guy in the dark blue shirt. I thought he and his wife were also waiting to get the stairs with nobody on them. When he walked over, I thought he was going to help the older lady you can see trying to get down the stairs. Nope. He was getting in position to be in a photo once she cleared. But here come the Bradys again running up the hill for more pictures.

I just took a shot off to the side without the stairs and moved on.

This is the backside of ball court 2. Ball court 1 is on the other side of it. They are the least impressive Mayan ball courts I’ve seen. If you saw my Lamanai and Coba pictures you know what I’m talking about. I went into great detail explaining the game in Coba Mayan Ruins.

The opening in this structure is a tomb. 5-8 meters down they found an individual that was about 5’2″ to 5’3″. They were wearing a headdress which indicates it was a high-class individual.

Not far from that individual they found the skeletal remains of a jaguar or deer. Both of which were highly respected by the Mayans. The jaguar represented power to them. You may remember in Lamanai the first temple was the Jaguar temple.

The shattered stela in front of this structure is likely what would’ve told the story of the individual buried inside.

This stone next to the tomb came from a rival city in Guatemala. It’s believed it was brought as a trophy. It’s possible the person buried in the tomb was the one who brought it here.

I’m the last one from the tour here so I’m heading out before I get left behind.

We’re making our way back to the vans.

The ferry is going to bring this van over.

This ferry is operated by a crank and of course all of the Brady’s have to a turn cranking it on the way back. The actual ferry operator is in the white hat.

We get back to the bus and it’s a different bus. Mrs. Brady is flipping out over the new bus. Apparently they left things on the old bus. I believe she is correct that they indicated we could leave items on the bus.

This is definitely different bus. The air is so cool you may need a jacket on the way back.

We get on the bus to find the Brady’s items were indeed transferred to the new bus.

It was a short drive to the lunch restaurant, Hodes.

This is standard excursion food. Chicken, rice and beans with cole slaw. At other excursions I have had tang or fruit punch served with it. This time they actually have sodas and bottled water as options.

After eating I decided to grab a beer from the bar.

The beer was only $2.

About the time I got my beer we were heading back out to the bus.

This is the exterior of the restaurant. Everyone is out. Well except for the Brady’s as you can see.

After the third time of getting off and back on the bus I thought everyone understood where everyone’s spots were. I guess not because these two to the right swiped my seat.

I was able to finish my beer on the bus and I kind of wished I had bought a second one. But I wasn’t sure if the one I had was going to be allowed on or not.

3pm we go on the left side of the road to pass an 18 wheeler. He didn’t seem to appreciate it. He laid on his horn.

I actually took this from behind the sign and flipped it.

The ship won’t leave without us since this is a Carnival excursion.

We are passing our original bus.

We are back at 3:35. The last water shuttle to the ship leaves in 10 minutes.

I got a seat on the shuttle and so did the Bradys.

Since I was in the lower back portion of the water shuttle I was one of the last off. I was back on the ship at 4:20.

That concludes the tour. I enjoyed the tour. It’s a long day but worth it to me. I do wish we had more time to explore the site because I know they didn’t cover everything. I covered things in this article that the guide didn’t cover.

I personally would rather cut back on the lunch stop and just have a box lunch on the bus so we could spend more time at the site.

Unless you want to fly into Belize and spend a few days there, I think an excursion like this one through the cruise line is the best way to see these ruins.

• Belize
• Carnival
• Carnival Vista
• Mayan Ruins
• Vista
• Xunantunich