Cahal Pech Mayan Ruins in Belize are well kept secret, online and on the ground. Despite years of study, excavation, and tourism, even the pyramids’ signboard doesn’t advertise their grandeur.
The truth is that few of their mysteries have been resolved. Ceramic figurines and evidence of ritual sports and sacrifices abound, but exactly who lived here and the site’s original name have vanished.
It’s perfect for casual archaeologists looking for wonders off the beaten path in Belize.
Arriving at Cahal Pech
San Ignacio is a reggae-paced jungle town in Belize’s interior. From Belize City Bus Terminal buses leave every 30 minutes for San Ignacio. Riding these converted school buses kind of feels like going on a field trip. The ride is only around two hours.
My friend Sasha and I arrived after a golf cart taxi driver in Caye Caulker recommended it. We didn’t know what we’d find other than his promise of “a completely different culture in Belize.”
We had no idea that culture would be Mayan.
The massive pyramid city of Tikal, a wonder of the world, is just hours away across the border in Guatemala. Yet, the ruins San Ignacio are much older and you won’t find crowds of tourists here.
“Just walk up the road and you’ll find some ruins,” our hosts in San Ignacio advised.
Some ruins? It didn’t sound like there was much to see, but the intrigue of how little anyone said about the site led us onward.
A typical suburban neighbourhood surrounds Cahal Pech, so we stopped at a corner store to grab a picnic lunch on route.
Residential ruins
We walked off the side walk and into a parking lot. Not even the sign board at Cahal Pech hinted that the ruins were impressive. It only read its name alongside a scribbled archaeological map.
Clearly, a great secret was being carefully guarded, or the Belizean no-big-deal mentality had reached a new level.
A fellow hotel guest, a retired teacher from Germany, came along. Everyone kept asking him if he was our father.
“I’m your jungle daddy!” He joked, and we almost hyperventilated from laughter. Some things get lost in translation splendidly.
Thus, escorted by our jungle daddy, we wandered into the first plaza of Cahal Pech. It took us a few minutes to even find a park guard and buy a ticket.
The place was as abandoned today as it had been by the Mayans.
A forest of stones
“The trees are still holding onto the walls,” I said. As we reached the first plaza, we were surrounded by stairs, stones, a one large wedge-shaped pyramid.
Roots weaved through the brickwork, full trees perched atop the walls.
Nature’s grip hadn’t fully been torn from the ruins it had claimed.
“This is…” The silence spoke for itself. We wandered up the first pyramid and looked over the square in awe.
Cahal Pech was once an estate for an elite Mayan family and up to 15,000 people may have lived here. Of course, all of this information I learned during post-trip research.
Walking in and out of rooms and hallways we found that some had long rock slabs: obvious sleeping quarters. We laid on them to take a breather from the humid jungle climate outside, and shut our eyes. The stone was nice, cool, and cave-like.
Who else had dreamed here, and what did they dream about?
Another courtyard opened up after the maze of homes. A towering pyramid divided a plaza from sports courts. I remembered how much Mayans loved handball games from a trip to Mexico. The matches always ended in blood: the sacrifice of the winning team’s captain. It was a high honour — and they played to win.
A time travel picnic
“Shall we?” The best place for lunch was clearly at the top of the site. Each step we took had been there for thousands of years. We knew the place was ancient, but had no idea just how ancient yet.
We sat at the summit, overlooking a geometric floor plan of shapes. Birds cheered from the rainforest. We ate fruit and fry jacks, fried dough empanadas, and drank Belikin beers (pretty much the most Belizean lunch, barring rice and beans).
Sasha and I had the most ancient picnic of our lives, unintentionally. Cahal Pech ruins date back to 1,200 B.C.E.
Nearly 3,000 years of human history extended in front of our oblivious eyes. The scattered grey stones, wrapped in vines and topped by trees, made the buildings seem organic.
“Cahal Pech means ‘place of ticks’,” our jungle daddy told us back at the hotel.
Immediately, we ran and checked ourselves for the burrowing bugs. Thankfully, there are no ticks there now. The temple got its name during excavation in the 1950s. Locals were using it as pastureland and had been calling it Cahal Pech.
Clearly, the archaeologists and farmers had some unwelcome guests.
A worthy wonder
We may never know its original name, but Cahal Pech certainly deserves more credit than being just “some ruins,” a “place of ticks that no longer has ticks,” and having a sign with its name and a faded drawing of the site.
Perhaps, it’s Belize’s best kept secret. We’d had the ruins to ourselves except for one three person tour that we eavesdropped on.
“It was abandoned in about 900 A.C.E.,” we caught. “It was part of the overall Maya Collapse, when the culture simply vanished from many large cities. Despite research and theories, no one knows exactly why.”
If you go on a tour, they’ll also take you to some caves nearby where ceramics of female figures were found (but were taken to a museum) as well as the sacrificial remains of babies. I imagine there may be some good ghost stories.
There are other Mayan Ruins in Belize but this pyramid town is literally “a walk up the hill” and has a history dating back 3,000 years. It’s also a great place to picnic with ancient history.
I can see why locals keep it so hush hush. It’s rare to have time alone to really experience historic sites.
So, don’t tell anyone.
Visit Cahal Pech Mayan Ruins in Belize:
Take a bus from Belize Bus Terminal City to San Ignacio (a 2.5 hour trip leaving every 30 minutes).
If you have four or more people, or a lot of luggage, a shuttle to San Ignacio isn’t too expensive.
Walk or book a guided tour “up the hill” from town. The ruins are near the Cahal Pech Resort Hotel, where the shuttle also arrives.
You can also help rescue iguanas and go on a bird watching (including toucans!) hike at the Resort.
Map:
