This excursion had many different things going on. First off, the ship could not dock in this port because of the fragile coral reef. The Mars had to anchor over 30 minutes away from port. This meant we had to get into little boats and get taken to shore. Then, we were gathered by group # to get on a bus. Our tour guide, Shanna, was quite the bubbly fountain of information. We know more things about Belize than we ever wanted to know. I mean political, economic, you name it. A few things struck me as surprising…

They are the only Caribbean country where English is the primary language.

They have security checkpoints that we had to clear before we could proceed. Shanna told us that they are constantly looking for contraband. Things like Ham, Turkey, Alcohol, Cigarettes, anything from somewhere else. They tax all imports 12.5%. If you bring anything in that doesn’t go through customs, it’s contraband. She explained that because Belize did not produce anything, everything had to be imported. Tourism is the country’s number one industry, supported by cruise lines, snorkeling, and deep-sea diving companies.

The purpose of our 1 1/2 hour bus ride was to see the Altun Ha, Mayan Temples. These were not ruins, but partially excavated pyramid-like buildings.

These temples are only 2 of the many temples that were built in a circle surrounding a large flat area. I would have liked to take a photo of all the temples, but alas, there was no vantage point. There may have been one after climbing one thousand stairs, but we had to get back on the bus. We did have 10 minutes of shopping time on the way to the bus. I was disappointed that the wares were mostly trinkets and not clothes or hats.

Stay tuned for our last port, Cozumel, Mexico.