Belize to Guatemala - Day 4

This was another great day!  We swam at our hotel before checking out and then spent the day at Xuantunich, which is a large Mayan site that is still undergoing excavation.  We had to cross a river on a hand-crank ferry to get there.  Because much of the site is still being excavated (the larger structures in the pictures below were excavated from 2001-2003), we got to watch the archeologists work at several sites.  They uncovered two tablets about 3 days ago and we got to see one of them. The other one was being protected under a tarp.  It hasn't even been catalogued and transported for study yet!  In fact, we were not allowed to take pictures because they did not want them revealed (for example, on social media) before the archeologists had time to study their origins and meaning.  We also saw several large and interesting lizards and a termite nest.

In the late afternoon we crossed the border into Guatemala (an experience in itself) and tonight we are staying in a remote village way off the beaten path and way off the paved road.  It's so remote that the water is turned off for the entire town at 9:00 PM.  However, it is across Lake Peten from Flores, an island-town.  We took a water taxi across the lake to have dinner.



 

 Termite nest

 

 

 Watching some archeologists at work.  The newly discovered tablets are behind the green board on the left and under the blue tarp on the right.

These two are special pictures for Grandma.  Mom is the spec sitting at the top of the temple in the second picture. :)