SAN IGNACIO FARMERS MARKET & MAYAN RUINS

It's Saturday & that means farmers market in San Ignacio. First though it's breakfast at Lower Dover everything fresh - eggs from their chickens, juice & fruit & the best coffee. Our first stop is Spanish Look Out a Mennonite community, it is possibly the most modern village in all of Belize & one of the few places to buy foreign goods. The one road through the area is better than the highways in the rest of Belize.

To leave we needed to take the "ferry" across the river. This was quite an experience. The raft is pulled back & forth across the river manually & holds 3 maybe 4 cars.

After this experience we were off to San Ignacio & the farmers market. After crossing the river on a single lane bridge we spent several minutes finding a parking place, finally found one down by the river. there were more cars here than any other place in Belize at one time. This was also unlike any farmers market I have ever seen. There were at least 100 stalls of people selling all kinds of fresh fruits & vegetables, places to by chicken & other meat, and so many places serving food & drinks I lost count. That was only the beginning though, there were vendors for everything imaginable. We saw people selling clothing (not sure if it was new or used) & shoes, household items, things like Avon & other perfumes & such & so much handmade items I could have shopped all day. We did buy some gifts & I spent some time looking at some Mayan jewelry that a lady was carving, I will go back one day a buy a necklace from her. There is a great deal of Mayan influence here as we were only 5 or 6 miles from the Guatamalan border & people come across the border to sell their goods. It was all pretty amazing.

It was a very humid day & on our way back to the car we watch the kids doing what kids everywhere do, swimming in the river.

Ron wanted to see the border to Guatamala, so we started driving, but after several warning signs, we turned around about a mile before the border. Back in town we found some fast food

 There are no fast food resaurants as we know them in all of Belize, this is fast food, so when in Belize.....
Ron wanted to see some Mayan ruins so we headed off to Cahal Pech, just outside of town on one of the mountains. I have to say I was pretty impressed.

What a busy exhausting day! Back to Lower Dover & a nice cool rain water shower. Ron went for a hike with the owner to see some newly discovered Mayan Ruins on the back of their property. It will be interesting to touch base with them in the future as these are studied & excavated. These ruins post date most of the other ruins & appear to be much larger, possibly an entire city on the bank of the river. After that it was dinner & early to bed. Tomorrow will be another busy day, starting with our drive to Placencia.