Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE
BURRELL BOOM
1
By bus
Burrell Boom is served by
4-5 daily buses from
Belize City (Mon-Sat; 1hr 10min).
By tour
Numerous tour companies offer trips to the
Community Baboon Sanctuary, including S & L Tours (see
p.24). Also,
Black Orchid Resort
(see below) and
Maruba
Jungle Resort
(see box opposite) can arrange trips here.
ACCOMMODATION AND EATING
★
Black Orchid Resort
2 Dawson Lane
T
225 9158,
W
blackorchidresort.com.
This lovely resort maximizes its
perch on the river, with leafy grounds that gently roll down
to the water. The restaurant and patio bar have riverfront
views and serve a menu of excellent Belizean specialities. A
kidney-shaped pool presides over the centre of the resort
and a rooftop jacuzzi and spa invites soaking and
pampering. Spacious rooms are outfitted in native
hardwoods and have well-appoint
ed bathr
ooms. Transfer
to and from the airport is included.
US$150
Altun Ha
Daily 8am-5pm • Bz$10
Thirty-four miles north of Belize City, and just six miles from the sea, is the impressive
Maya site of
Altun Ha
. With a peak population of about ten thousand, it was occupied
for around twelve hundred years until the Classic Maya collapse between 900 and 950
AD. The site was also inhabited at various times during the Postclassic period, though
no new monumental building took place during this time. Its position close to the
Caribbean coast suggests that it was sustained by trade as much as by agriculture - a
theory upheld by the discovery of trade objects such as jade and obsidian, neither of
which occurs naturally in Belize; both are very important in Maya ceremony. The jade
would have come from the Motagua valley in Guatemala, and would probably have
been shipped onwards to the north.
Plaza A
Around five hundred buildings have been recorded at Altun Ha, but the core of the site
is clustered around two Classic-period plazas, with the main structures extensively
restored, exposing fine stonework with rounded corners. Entering from the road, you
come first to
Plaza A
. Large temples enclose it on all four sides, and a magnificent tomb
has been discovered beneath Temple A-1,
The Temple of the Green Tomb
. Dating from
550 AD, this yielded a total of three hundred artefacts, including jade, jewellery,
stingray spines, jaguar skins, flints and the
remains of a Maya book.
Old Northern Highway (2 miles) & Maskall (9 miles)
ALTUN HA
Toilets
Visitor centre &
entrance
Plaza B
he adjacent
Plaza B
is dominated by the
site's largest temple, B-4,
The Temple of the
Masonry Altars
, the last in a sequence of
buildings occupying this spot over the
centuries. If its exterior seems familiar, it's
because you might already have seen it on
the Belikin beer label. Several priestly
tombs have been uncovered within the
main structure, but most of them had
already been desecrated, possibly during the
political turmoil that preceded the
abandonment of the site. Only two of the
tombs were found intact; in 1968
archeologists discovered a carved jade head
of
Kinich Ahau
, the Maya sun god, in one of
them. Standing just under 15cm high, it is
the largest carved jade found anywhere in
A-6
N
A-7
A-1
PLAZA A
A-5
Temple
of the
Green
Tomb
A-3
A-4
A-2
B-1
PLAZA B
Temple of the
Masonry Altars
B-4
B-2
B-6
B-5
B-3
0
metres
50
0
yards
50
Rockstone Pond
Rockstone Pond
