The Lodge at Chaa Creek

COMPLETE

Our friends Gordon and Barbara Russell, of Boston, told us about this place and that's why we booked a four night stay here. It was our last stop in Belize and one of the best.

We had a very modern suite. No TV but we did have A/C.

A patio door to the deck and jungle beyond.

We had our own private spa tub which we used once. It was raining when I took the pic below.

A nice bright bathroom.

There was a low cost camping option just down the hill from us - no electricity - no plumbing - no bar - no restaurant - NO THANKS!!!

A fairly decent restaurant.  We were happilly surprised to find out that our breakfast and evening meals were included.  That saved us some bucks.

They had pretty good activities right at the lodge.  Hiking, horseback riding, canoeing, etc.  One afternoon we did a guided (which mean the guide did all the paddling) canoe trip down the river to the nearby town. You see below the guide has a clear plastic poncho on - this is because when we started the trip it was pissing down rain. Really coming down.

It was a very calm river and as we were going downstream not too much paddling was required.

The lodge is not far from town but is in the jungle and there are lots of jungle animals there.

Here's a wee video of a couple.

One of our planned adventures was a trip to the Mayan ruins at Tikal, Guatemala. It was a pretty good drive from our lodge so it was a full day adventure.

This is a model of the Tikal site. It's a massive place and many of the buildings shown on the model below have still not been uncovered. In fact there are no plans to uncover most of them because it's only the roots of the trees growing on them that are holding them together. The forest has grown so much that only the tops of many of the buildings are visible.

Climbing certain of the ruins, but not all , is possible. We climbed a couple. The shot below was taken in the rain and that's why it's dark. The sky was so dark and the rain so strong I didn't think it was going to let up but within minutes after taking these next pictures it stopped.

Here we are after the rain stopped - note the puddle at the bottom of the picture.

Our guide. I don't recall her name but she was quite knowledgeable about the site.  She was a Guatemalan.

Apparently there is a large pyramid under the mound in the picture below. This is one they tried to excavate but it was falling apart and only the tree roots were holding it together so they stopped the excavation.

And as I said earlier - only the tops of some ruins are visible as shown below.

This is one we climbed.

And the view from the top.

Just a few more shots of various ruins.

A peacock type of bird we saw at Tikal.

At one point we came across a huge group of coatimundis crossing the road.

And at lunch I got to try Guatemala's beer, Gallo, and it was pretty darn good beer.

The day after Tikal we were supposed to visit a place called the ATM Cave.  We were actually supposed to do it the first full day we were at Chaa Creek Lodge but there had been so much rain that the cave was flooded and no one was allowed to go in. For that reason we visited Tikal instead.

So the next day we were going to go to the cave but it was still flooded - so we in the morning we visited another nearby Mayan ruin called Xunantunich.

It's a different kind of place from Tikal but pretty spectacular as well.

The views from the top are amazing.

All in all a pretty cool place.

To get to Xunantunich you have to cross a river on a ferry. Check out the small video below to see how it's done.

Our third and final day at Chaa Creek we were again supposed to visit the ATM Cave but once again the rain prevented it.  We were offered an alternate adventure that turned out pretty good - a guided pontoon boat ride with picnic lunch on Vaca Lake which is a man-made lake created by damming the Macal river.

Our pontoon boat - with the tarp. The one next to it was much larger and we would see it on the lake later in the day with a large group on board.

We saw some fantastic scenery on the lake.

A couple waterfalls.

The boat captain tying up the boat so we could climb up a mossy covered  waterfall.

Our guide Mike from the lodge.

The larger pontoon boat with a crowd.

It was a very good day - we saw a lot of sun and it was nice and warm.  As soon as we got back to Chaa Creek we were in the rain again.

So we never did get to visit the ATM Cave and it's unlikely we ever will as, while we had a pretty good time in Belize, it's not very likely we'll go back anytime soon.

Too many other places to see.

That's it for Belize.