Any ideas besides cave tubing?

[loriliz]

My family and I are going on the Explorer of the Seas January 30th. I'm looking for something to do besides cave tubing. We are not big water people so snorkeling and scuba are out too. Has anyone been on any of the ancient ruin tours?

[mbisson]

I did an Altun Ha tour a couple weeks ago. I was afraid that Altun Ha would be a "lesser tour" as the price was so low compared to the other ruins available. But I thought it was a great excursion and a real bargain.

There are pictures on my webshots page. The address is below.

-Monte

[BobbieSu]

Loriliz, hi we will be on the EOS jan 30th as well. We decided to do the Lamanai ruins tour. We get a trip through Belize, a boat ride through the jungle and a tour of the best ruins available on the trip (well, so that's what I keep telling myself

Come join us on the roll call board and sign up for a meet and mingle EOS/jan30

[sandygll]

Monte,
What tour quide/service did you use. We are interested in a tour to Altuna Ha for our Jan. 22 cruise. Thanks!

[mbisson]

sandygll
I booked with Belize Cruise Excursions

http://belizecruiseexcursions.com/AltunHa.htm

I paid $35 and the others on the excursion paid for the Rain Forest trek as well (which I hadn't). That was an additional $7.50, but the guide just told me to join in. What the trek was was about 1/2 mile walk through the rain forest to the reservoir (that was in one of the photos) and back.

-Monte

[Brianinidaho]

Originally Posted by loriliz

My family and I are going on the Explorer of the Seas January 30th. I'm looking for something to do besides cave tubing. We are not big water people so snorkeling and scuba are out too. Has anyone been on any of the ancient ruin tours?

Mr previous thread got buried, so hopefully, this might be of help to you.

posted a comprehensive 11 page review of our cruise on the Carnival Miracle trip of 11-28-04 on the ship review part of this site, and included the following information on Belize. I hope this information is helpful. Brian in Idaho

Friday at Belize. As you may know, there is a great reef and lots of atolls in the waters outside of Belize City. So the ship parks a few miles out in the harbor and high speed boats shuttle you into port, about a 15 minute ride. You land at a gated, policed “Tourist Village” with lots of shops and tour guides available. There was a good internet café that charged $3 for 15 minutes in this village.



We met up with Douglas Gentle of Belize Taxi Tour Guide Association at the dock and hired him to take us to Alta Hu Mayan Ruins for $30 each. Doug is a former New York City resident who got laid off from his job at the World Trade Center a few months before 9/11 and decided to return home to Belize to care for his ailing parents. He gave a most excellent tour. www.bztaxitourguidesassociation.com or email Douglas at betta@btl.net



There are licensed (and more expensive) tour guides inside the village, and you can leave the gated area and go with cheaper unlicensed ones. After driving around Belize, there is no doubt in my mind that the extra few bucks was worth it to go with a licensed guide.



A few words of opinion about Belize City: “Second World.” It is poor, run down, and there are bars on nearly every window of every home and business that we saw on our 4 hour tour. Crime is high, and our tour guide said the bars on the windows are not for decorative purposes. We did not feel very safe downtown Belize City. We have felt safer in South Chicago or East Los Angeles than here.



We took the nearly 4 hour tour which included a city tour in Douglas’s older, beat up mini-van, and a ride out to Alta Hu, about 40 miles. The roads are terrible (full of pot holes) so it took an hour and a half almost. The ruins are really neat. You pay a $5 tax at the pier for a ticket and take it to the ruins for admission. Douglas handled all this for us. Douglas acted our tour guide at the ruins (besides just our taxi driver) and told us all about the ruins, history, and local culture. There were several large buildings that were discovered in the 1960s by accident and have been partially renovated. He noted the similarities between these buildings and the pyramids in the old world. It was as if some of the people might have traveled back and forth between the old and new worlds. A discussion arose about how some people believe an ancient record was found and translated into English that tells of such a people who left the old world and came to the Americas anciently and built cities here. The record is religious in nature so it is controversial, but a free copy is available at www.mormon.org and it is called the Book of Mormon. Anyways, back to the tour. We stopped and saw iguanas out on the side of the road and caught a giant tarantula in the middle of the road and picked up with a piece of cardboard and looked at it. Very interesting! Douglas was well worth seeking after as a tour guide.