Day 8 - San Ignacio

GREG: This morning we took a cab down the Western Highway to a "jungle lodge" called Chaa Creek. I'd ever heard of a jungle lodge until I started researching our trip, but there are a bunch of them in Belize and all over Central America. Basically they are pretty pricey getaways in the middle of the jungle with many of the amenities those who can afford to go there would expect (the "cabanas" at Chaa Creek are about $300-$400 a night, and some lodges are even more). It seems to me that it gives guests the experience of being on a safari and being pampered at the same time. OK, so that's my one-sided view. The owners of Chaa Creek have also done a lot to preserve the surrounding ecosystem, and were one of the first of the "ecotourism" movement.

Anyway, Chaa Creek also has lots of activities that the peons from other places can enjoy (for a price), so that's where we went this morning. The cab ride was fun because our cabbie narrated his take on Belizean culture and politics the whole time: "See that house?" he said as we passed a lavish mansion. "The toilet paper man lives there. That's his business. Toilet paper. Pretty good business." He was full of insight and local trivia.

LISA: One reason I really wanted to go was because they have a medicinal trail created by Dr. Rosita Arvigo. I hadn't heard about her until we began reading about Belize but I was immediately interested in her work. About 20 years ago she became an apprentice to a Mayan healer, a "curandero" who lived very close to San Ignacio, He healed with different plants found in the Belizean jungle. I'm currently reading her biography and it is fascinating. Growing up my parents had (and still do) a lot of faith in natural healing, especially in using herbs to heal different ailments. I vividly remember my mom giving me various teas to treat my cough, colds, stomach cramps. So it's always felt natural to me to turn to the plant world to find remedies. Even though we were hot, sticky and being bitten by mosquitoes, walking the medicinal trail was amazing. It was so cool to see the different plants and read about their many uses. Western science is finally paying attention and there is currently a lot of research on the healing properties of many of these plants.




























GREG: While at Chaa Creek we also visited their Blue Morpho Butterfly Farm, which is dedicated to preserving the presence of the Blue Morpho in this region. It's a stunning butterfly, with wings that look electric blue when the sun hits them.


While we were in the butterfly house two Blue Morphos landed on my head and stayed there the whole time. I tried to summon one to land on my finger, but it didn't work.



LISA: We decided to canoe the 7 miles back to San Ignacio instead of taking a cab. We were going with the current so that helped but it was still definitely a work out. However, it was totally worth it.




The Macal River was beautiful and peaceful and we saw some pretty birds that we hadn't seen yesterday. When we were almost at San Ignacio we even saw a river otter! It was so exciting (but the camera was unreachable so we missed getting a picture). We were starving when we finally got back and we had another one of our great Belizean meals.

GREG: We leave early tomorrow on a bus to Belize City and then a water taxi to Caye Caulker, a tiny island off the coast. We'll spend the next four nights on the island.