Altun Ha

As mentioned, we had the chance to go Altun Ha on Thursday.

We took a road called the Old Northern Highway (OLH). It looked to save us a half-hours driving (can you have an idea where this is going?). On the map, the road looked the same caliber as the New Northern Highway (ONH is the one that heads east just south of Orange Walk). No one here mentioned any difference - though of course, we didn't ask. Picture 1 from above gives you an idea of what it was like - and the road got worse from there. We drove on it for over an hour. We saw ONE vehicle.

I may have mentioned before that Belize is a very multi-cultural country. Our area is primarily of Mayan descent, though the local shops are run by the Chinese (huh?). There are large pockets of Creole folk, mostly in the South and Belize City. There are several Mennonite settlements. They fled Canada and America to avoid military service and now have established a nice little home for themselves. More on them later. There are also "East" Indians. And finally, there are many Americans and Canadians who are here vacationing, retiring or escaping.

Back to our Mayans. There are scores of excavated Mayan settlements throughout Belize (it is a major tourist attraction here, besides scuba diving), and indeed throughout Central America. Though their descendants still exist, the civilization largely fell apart several hundred years ago. Theories are numerous as to why this happened - the only we can know for certain is that God directs the rise and fall of civilizations and He had His reasons concerning this one. Hudson thought maybe it was because they didn't worship the one, true God - but then, what does he know, he is no theologian :)

As excavated sites go, Altun Ha is relatively small. But it is in close proximity to Belize City, the docking site for cruise ships. So tourists can get from their ship to the site, have a short tour and then back on their boat in less than half a day.

Our boys had a good time running and climbing.

The history of the presbyterian ministry amongst the people Mayan descendants in Northern Belize can be found here.