Combo: Cahal Pech & Xunantunich

Visit Cahal Pech: Overlooking the town of San Ignacio is an ancient Maya City called Cahal Pech, the "Place of Ticks." It was called this name because before the archaeologists arrived to do some serious excavations in the area, it was being used as a pasture for cattle and there were loads of ticks in the area. Walking uphill, it's 20-minutes from downtown San Ignacio, while driving only takes 5 minutes. Cahal Pech sits under a canopy of trees on top of the “Cahal Pech Hill." You will also typically see excavations underway by the Belize Valley Archaeological Reconnaissance team, under the license from the National Institute of Culture and History. Cahal Pech is a small city whose history started as far back as 1200 BC. It collapsed by 850 AD, but new finds suggest that people came back to do some infrastructural work on the site afterwards. This little city has produced many Maya figurines and it is also the city where the oldest Stela in Belize was found. It’s a very intimate experience, and you will feel like the people who once lived there while you easily explore the palaces and climb to the tops of the temples - the tallest is 77 feet high. And Then Visit Xunantunich: Sitting majestically on a hill, El Castillo (the castle), stands guard over 22 acres of ‘down town’ Xunantunich and its three to four square kilometers in radius, where its farmers lived and planted, beans and squash, the trinity of their nutrition. You will explore the incredible monument and enjoy its views. At this site, you will also find one of the most majestic pieces of artwork that is known as a frieze. This was once wrapped around the entire building, but we have lost the North and the South sides of the frieze, and more than half of the West frieze. Fortunately, however, the East frieze and a part of the West frieze still remain. They are a testament to how spectacular this art would have been at the time of its creation in 800 AD.