Today we woke up at 6 am and I decided to go try out a local speciality for breakfast called fry jack, which is fried bread with a stuffing of your choice. so I got a fried ham and cheese fry jack. we then went back to the hotel and I grabbed all of my stuff and headed down to the reception where we met with the whole group and walked to the pier to catch our ferry. The ferry took about one hour to bring us back to the coast, and after picking up our luggage and throwing it onto the bus we got in for a 2-hour drive to our next stop San Ignacio.
after arriving at the hostel and taking a nap, we took a van and drove to a nearby archaeological site called San Antonish where we got to see beautiful temples overlooking Belize, where you could see the entire countryside. From there we visited another archaeological site called Cahal perch, which unlike the temples at San Antonish was a king’s palace. There we were able to walk amongst the ruins and visit all the various different rooms, courtyards and sections of the temple to experience what living in this palace would have been like.
After the archaeological sites, we drove 20 mins outside of the city through the jungle to a local cooperative community where they told us a bit more about how pottery used to be made by the Mayans and demonstrated how they do it now, using a pottery wheel. They then invited volunteers to try out, with the first few people making beautiful pots before I had a go. I moulded the clay into a pot, trying to push against it to make the shape I wanted, but the clay was fighting me so it started wobbling the potter told me to stop the wheel, so he could help me fix it, but I accidentally pressed the wrong way on the pedal, and turned it to high gear, which threw the clay everywhere on the wheel.
Following that catastrophy, we were shown how they cook tortillas and got to eat one right off the fire, the way it is traditionally consumed with oil and salt. Next came dinner, which was this delicious chicken soup with rice and tortillas that was very enjoyable.
Feeling well fed we headed back to the hotel where we played a few rounds of cards against humanity before going to sleep.