Today our main objective was to visit the Mayan ruins at the Caracol National Monument.  This trip had been on our radar for a while but we dithered waiting to see what the weather forecasts might bring and to decide when to go and whether we should join a tour or drive and guide ourselves.  In the end we decided to join up with a tour and, with rain forecast for the next two days, to go for it today.  Good decision.  First there are no local guides just hanging around at the entrance to the ruins as access is simply too difficult.  Because this would likely be the best Mayan site we would visit, we felt it important to have someone who could give us information.  These sites are not really set up with written information for a self guided tour.  

Second, and in the end most critical, it was really best that we not be driving ourselves on this road. The first half of the road is a beautiful new paved road with excellent driving in all weather.  The second half is an eventually-to-be-beautiful paved road but presently a road under construction mostly covered with red clay that is very slippery when wet.  That is, wet like today after 2" of rain last night.  Our tour company of choice was MayaWalks, and we were joined by Raul from the Azores.  While our driver/guide Giselle performed admirably, we did at one point, on the way back, slide off the road into an embankment from which she had to enlist help from a passing truck to haul us out.  Interestingly that incident was pretty much identical to sliding on ice in Alaska, complete with a 360-degree spin.  If not before, we were convinced at this point that the choice to leave the driving to others was one of our better decisions.

Caracol itself was a nicely developed Mayan site although, as our guide noted, recent lidar scans have revealed that only a small part of the site had been uncovered.  Caracol was one of several competing Mayan city-states in the region, which includes the famous Tikal in Guatemala.  Caracol defeated Tikal and was top dog for over 100 years between 563-680 CE, with a population of over 100,000.  This site was its headquarters and, as mentioned, is a vast complex.  Use of lidar revealed that only about 13% of its estimated 75 square miles has been excavated or mapped.  The large eastern plaza, the Caana or Sky Place, contains the Caana pyramid temple, which is 140 feet tall, the highest structure in all of Belize.  We went there straightaway, to beat any other tour groups who had braved the road.  Of course we all climbed it.  Giselle gave us important information along the way until we reached the "top" which opens into a courtyard with three temples in it.  We then explored those on our own, which included several tombs.  After that we visited the rest of the site, admiring the view of Guatemala obscured by rain and mist from what is thought to be an observatory, and went through some residential plazas.  Raul turned out to be an excellent tour companion, as he had a degree in biology and was keen to make note of all manner of local biota as we walked.  And he happily held the tarantula that Giselle found after it was coaxed out of its hole.  

After concluding our visit at the reservoir and elite housing sites we trooped back to the entrance where we had a pretty good lunch of chicken and rice and were introduced to the legendary Marie Sharp's hot sauce.  Craig thought it was pretty darn good; Phyllis thought, well, it's hot sauce; not her forte.  Our guide mentioned that whenever they travel to the U.S. to visit family they always bring a couple of the largest bottles they can find.  It reminded us of how we bring large bottles of Carolina Treet back from NC when we visit.  The taste of home.

After the lunch repast we packed up and headed back to San Ignacio with two planned stops on the way.  We were to stop at the Rio On pools, a series of pools formed by cascades on the Rio On River and then at the Rio Frio caves.  As it turned out we did have two stops but one was the aforementioned slip-sliding incident.  Our planned stop at the caves could not be accomplished due to the condition of the roads.  Apparently access involves a steep hill and as Giselle said, we could get there but probably not back.  That left the pools where Craig and Raul donned swim suits and ventured across the slippery rocks to splash around in various pools and get pounded under waterfalls.  We had fun and no one got hurt so it was considered a success.

We ended the day with no further adventures and walked over to the Craves restaurant for tasty meal of shrimp in coconut cream sauce (Craig) and chicken in some kind of sauce (Phyllis).  All in all a wet but good day.