Veggie Vacations

Belize day 3 – Mayan temples and ziplines

We were once again woken up by a knock at the door earlier in the morning than I care to remember.  I was pleasantly surprised by the prompt addition of soymilk to my breakfast of granola and fruit this morning.

It was a long and bumpy ride to Tikal, Guatemala, but our tour guide Miguel helped pass the time by telling us about the history of the area.  There were only four of us on the tour that day, so we all got ask plenty of questions.  Passing through customs, we added a stamp to our passports and continued on…

First stop:  Ziplines!

The view from this height was absolutely breathtaking!  This was by far the most nature-inspiring-awe day of our trip.

The zipline tour company provided lunch at their onsite restaurant, but in hindsight, I should have asked the chef to pack me a lunch.  The corn tortillas and vegetables seemed innocent enough, but the “vegetarian” soup definitely wasn’t vegetarian (looked like chicken broth), which made me nervous about the rest of the food.

Once we entered the national park at Tikal…

…we were greeted by some local wildlife

There are literally thousands of temples buried underneath the ground at Tikal, but only about 40 have been uncovered so far.  Once they are uncovered, the maintenance is extremely labor-intensive.  We were able to climb to the top of some of the buildings:

This picture is of the Grand Plaza, thought to be the center of the Mayan society that lived in this area

Two beautiful birds graced us with their presence that day as well – a wild turkey

…and a toucan!

My day felt complete when I saw the toucan!  But we were still in for a fabulous dinner when we got back to Belize.