Today I got the chance to take a trip with my Maya Culture and Civilization class to the Maya site known as Caracol. It was made all the better since we were lead there by the Belizean government's Minister of Archeology, Dr. Jaime Awe, who also happens to be our professor. The ride was long and over mostly dirt roads that I am surprised an old school bus could navigate. As we approached the site we passed through a number of security checkpoints filled with Belizean and British Army folk. There are still a lot of British troops in the country, since it only gained its independence about 25 years ago and is still involved in border disputes with Guatemala. The Brits have stationed a lot of troops here to maintain the Belizean borders and the site at Caracol is only three miles or so from the Guat border, although it is one of the undisputed sections. We did pick up a couple of troops on our way in, assault rifles and all, although to be honest I still don't know why since they left the bus at the site and we never saw them again. It was intriguing at the time though.
The site was very impressive and Jaime really knows his stuff so it was a great chance to pick his brain and learn about excavations and Maya sites in general.
Jaime Lecturing --->
We walked across the entire site checking out differing levels of elite buildings. Jaime has been in charge of most of the excavation that happened here about 15 years ago and had plenty of anecdotes to share about it.
<-----An example of a 'Medium' temple at Caracol. We eventually made it around to the main plaza, not-so-creatively named Plaza B. Thanks to Belize's nearly complete lack of regulations, I had the chance to climb the face of a yet-to-be reconstructed temple to get a better view of the real prize of Caracol.
The main temple at Caracol, which also was the site of not one, but two palaces on top, is a building beyond massive. It is still currently the largest building in Belize in both height and footprint area!
Even from the top of the building across the plaza, I still couldn't get the full view of the top of the main temple in the photo!
It took 100 workers an entire year to uncover the whole building.
It was a lot of fun to see a site that isn't quite as touristy as some of the others that I've been to. Definitely topping the charts for best field trip.
