(EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the second of two parts of a story on the trip made by Gwen Machnee of Canora and her colleagues at Parkland College to work with the Unversity of Belize and local farmers in Belize to help farmers improve their productivity and command higher prices for their production. Part one ran in the September 22 issue.)
Oxmul Farm
On Tuesday afternoon Dr Aldana and I went with a driver in the UB truck to visit the Mayan community of San Antonio Village to discuss the plans for the workshop with potential participants. San Antonio is in the densely forested hill country, with small farms in clearings in the forest. The first stop was at Oxmul Farm (pronounced Ox-shmul), which is owned by James and his extended family, a total of 10 families (25 people) living on 25 acres. Their land was made up of 10 acres of forest, which gives them firewood, fruit and cultural identity. Ten acres of corn, beans and peanuts are for their own use and for sale, and five acres of fruit trees are also for their own use and for sale. They had chickens and sheep that grazed in the forest and under the fruit trees, and cleaned up the fields after harvest.
A recent addition to the farm is coffee. Until recently it was thought that coffee would not grow well in Belize. James and his family now produce small amounts of coffee for sale locally. James took us through the whole coffee-growing process from the shaded nursery beds for small seedlings to six-month-old, two-year-old and mature plants with ripe coffee cherries.
While we were talking, James’s nephew, Pablo, started preparations to roast coffee beans, a process that happens every second day. The whole process was manual, from chopping the firewood to turning the barrel during the roasting period of 90 minutes and later grinding the coffee. James talked about the importance of the land to his Mayan community, of the sustainability of farming, how his family had farmed this same land for hundreds of years and the importance of preserving the land to pass on to generations yet to come. I was able to try my hand at first hulling the coffee beans to remove the outer coat after they had been dried and then grinding coffee on a stone that had been used by James' family for an unknown period of years for grinding corn, beans, chocolate and now coffee. During the conversation a thunderstorm rolled over the area. We watched it pass over from under the shelter of the traditional thatched roof while the coffee continued to roast. Meanwhile, in Central Farm the storm caused the power (and air conditioning) to go out for the rest of the Canadian group and their workshop participants for an hour, leading to a very uncomfortable time.
The remainder of my week was spent at UB Central Farm working on the short courses. The rest of the Parkland team moved on to Belmopan, the capital of Belize, for more workshops and later onto Hopkins for workshops in the following week.
I had arranged to stay for four extra days at the conclusion of the work assignment. During this time, I took advantage of the opportunity to see some of the surrounding countryside.
This included the Mayan ruins at Cahal Pech, right in the town of San Ignacio, on a ridge above the town. The walk from the hotel, located on the river to Cahal Pach took about an hour and included some of the steepest roads that I have ever seen. According to my phone, it was a 12,000-step walk that consumed over 1,000 calories in the mid-30s heat and high humidity.
The ruins are some of the oldest Mayan ruins known and include two temples, three courtyards and a ball court. The name means place of the ticks, a name given to the site in the 1950s when it was a cattle pasture. The site had very few other visitors and it was incredible to walk around and see buildings still standing after many hundreds of years. It was still possible to climb the steps of the temples.
Achtun Tunichil Muknal Cave
On another day I took a tour to the Achtun Tunichil Muknal (ATM) cave. This tour started early in the morning with a 30-minute ride to the trail head. At the trail head, all members of the group were given hard hats with lights. Each group is limited to eight participants and must have one of the 23 guides licensed to take people into the cave. There was a 40-minute walk to reach the cave mouth. The trail was through forest that had many birds and some monkeys in the canopy.
The trail crossed a river in three different spots, at the first crossing the river was chest deep. There was a rope to hold onto as you crossed the 20-metre-wide expanse while the other crossings were only knee deep. When the group reached the cave entrance, each person had to swim into the cave through the river to a landing spot inside the cave. From there the guide gave the group safety information and instructions on how to use the lamps on their helmets.
The tour into the cave took about an hour-and-a-half to reach the Mayan ceremonial area, a distance of 500 metres through large caverns, narrow passageways and past amazing stalactites, stalagmites and flowstone formations. In places, the very clear river water was ankle deep and in others it was waist deep, there were only two spots that required a tight squeeze to pass. It involved a lot of clambering over boulders and watching where to place your feet.
The farthest part of the tour was at the Mayan ceremonial site, which was found at a climb of around 12 feet above the river into a large cavern. At this point, all the participants had to remove their shoes and leave them behind to prevent damage to the very old archaeological site. The cavern and passageways beyond contained lots of human and animal remains and many ancient pots. The pots had been deliberately broken in antiquity.
It is not known if the human remains were burials or offerings to the gods. One of the most spectacular sights was a complete human skeleton known as the Crystal Maiden. The nature of the limestone caves meant that periodic flooding had deposited minerals on all of the artifacts in the cave. The Crystal Maiden was covered in small crystals that glistened in the light of the headlamps. It is not known if the skeleton is male or female due to the level of crystallization on the bones.
The return journey out of the cave was faster than the trip into the cave, altogether the tour group was underground for about two-and-a-half hours. The final swim to get out of the cave and back into the sunlight was memorable.
When the group returned to the base where the vehicles had left us we were treated to traditional rice and beans and chicken for lunch with guava, papaya, pineapple and very good banana bread before the trip back to San Ignacio.
Tikal in Guatemala
Another day trip was to Tikal in Guatemala. The trip was an early start in a minivan to the Guatemala/Belize border city of Benque Viejo Del Carmen. The tour guide from Belize left us at the border and a Guatemalan guide, Reggie, picked us up at the other side of the border. We boarded the new (much older) minibus and began the two-hour drive to Tikal. Along the way we stopped at a roadside restaurant for breakfast, which we had preordered after crossing the border. Breakfast was scrambled eggs, ham, refried beans and fruit with freshly squeezed pineapple juice and coffee. The hens that laid the eggs ran in and out of the roadside dining room. Guatemala was noticeable less wealthy than Belize, the houses were poorer, there were fewer stores and the roads were not as well maintained.
Tikal, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is the largest known pre-Columbian Mayan archaeological site. Recently, National Geographic surveyed the area with lidar scanning equipment which showed that there are more than 3,000 buildings in the area, most of which are still covered by dense, almost impenetrable forest. The main site has been excavated, mostly by the University of Pennsylvania and the Government of Guatemala. There were at least nine large temples and many other buildings that had been cleared of vegetation to show the structures. The guided tour lasted around two hours and included walking up and down and around many buildings and temples on very slippery rock. The final stop was the tallest temple at over 55 metres high. A wooden staircase had been constructed to enable visitors to access the platform near the top of the temple. The views were breathtaking, and other temples could be seen poking up above the forest canopy that went on for miles and miles around the site.
All of the buildings were constructed from locally quarried limestone. The quarries were later sealed with plaster and used as catch basins for rainwater. The buildings were designed to channel rainwater into the catch basins and canals around the city to provide a water source for the inhabitants.
The site was first inhabited in 2000 BC and at its height is thought to have housed over 120,000 people. The population declined drastically during the 10th and 11th centuries AD for unknown reasons. The city was always known about by local people, but it wasn’t mapped by archeologists until the late 1880s.
The site was very impressive. The 10-minute ride through the ruins to get from the parking lot to the main site passed many tree-covered structures which were obviously temples and other buildings. The forest canopy was home to toucans and other birds and monkeys, both spider and howler monkeys. The weather was very hot and also very humid. The guide frequently reminded the group to drink water to prevent dehydration. The site was used for filming in the first Star Wars film, as the fictional moon Yarvin 4.
Other sights
In addition to the two day-long trips, I spent time at the large market in San Ignacio on Saturday morning, a major market day. The stalls sold everything from clothes, handcrafts, freshly prepared food and fruit juices to an impressive array of fruits, vegetables and spices grown in the surrounding farms and villages. I also visited a chocolate-making workshop and a green iguana conservation site. I was able to sample many local dishes and a number of different restaurants, with a strong theme around rice and beans with chicken.
