9 Days in Belize: San Ignacio Belize

Sharing is caring!

Last Updated on January 23, 2025 by Carolyn

Note: This post may contain affiliate links. Full disclosure here.

This is the 2nd part of our 9-day Belize itinerary, where we visit San Ignacio, Belize. The first 3 nights were spent on the island oasis Caye Caulker, the next 3 in the mountains and jungles of San Ignacio, and the last 3 beachside in Hopkins experiencing the Garifuna culture.

Day 4: A Change in Plans, Belize City

The only tour we booked before visiting Belize was a Crystal Cave tubing adventure. We’d heard great things about the cave and didn’t want to miss seeing it. To our dismay, the tour operator contacted us the day before our booking to inform us that the tour was canceled due to high waters in the cave, aftermath of hurricane Lisa’s romp over the country.

This itinerary change threw our whole Sunday into disarray: We’d booked our car rental pickup at 5:00 pm to coincide with our return from the cave tour and had booked a room in Belize City as we didn’t want to drive to San Ignacio at night. The room wasn’t cancelable.

Alton Ha

The tour operator, Epic Mayan Tours was happy to take us on an alternative tour so we opted to go to Alton Ha. Our tour guide for the day, Junior was super knowledgeable, and to our surprise, we were the only ones on the tour. He picked us up from the ferry terminal and asked if we needed anything. I was craving a coffee and hungry as well. Junior took us to a local bakery where I could satisfy my coffee craving and grab a bite to eat.

The drive from Belize City to Alton Ha is 50km and takes about an hour. Along the way, Junior enlightened us on the history of Belize and how it became the Country it is today.  His insightful narrative made the drive interesting.

Alton Ha is a Mayan archeological site dating back to 250 BC. It was a ceremonial and trading center frequented by powerful Mayans. It featured two main plazas, thirteen other structures, and an amazing rock pond (for which the site is named, “Altan Ha” is Mayan for Rock Pond).

Today the site also features a museum where the famous jade head of Kinich Ahau, the sun god is displayed.  

Climbing up the ruins was interesting and Jr’s stories about how Mayan women were buried with their dead husbands even more so. The women were honored to accompany their husbands to the afterlife ( and per Jr had enough hallucinogenics not to be frightened).

And then since the Mayans were sun worshippers they made sacrificial offerings to their sun god. Seeing the place where such ceremonies occurred was intimidating and if that wasn’t unsettling enough we lay on the tables where the sacrificial offerings were made!

Once done exploring the Mayan site, we strolled through the vendors selling various souvenirs. Is it me or did it seem odd that the handicrafts that the women in the first stall said she’d handpainted were identical to the offerings in the next? It’s so hard to tell what is authentic when buying souvenirs.

When we were done Jr dropped us off at “Car One” rentals where we’d reserved a car. This rental agency rents cars that are shall we say, “broken in”. Their prices reflect this, making it an affordable car rental option. Our ride for the week was a Jeep Patriot.

 When I sat in the driver’s seat I couldn’t find a way to raise the seat high enough to see properly so I went back inside and asked if they had a cushion.  They came up with a lawn chair cushion for me to sit on! I also asked about the “check oil” light that illuminated when I started the car and they said “not to worry! “.

Since it was only just past noon, we needed to find something to do for a few hours. We would have liked to have visited the Belize Museum but being Sunday it was closed as were many other establishments. We decided to head to BACAB eco-park.

We got to the park and were disappointed to find the trails closed due to hurricane recovery efforts. We spent most of our time playing in their lovely pool and people-watching. 

Belize City

Once it was closer to check-in time we headed back to Belize City. We were dismayed when we saw the locale of the Belcove Hotel, we feared we’d find the car without wheels the next morning.  We checked in and the room wasn’t as bad as anticipated. 

Then we tried to find dinner. When people say everything is closed on Sunday in Belize City, they mean it. We found a restaurant listed as open not too far away. We opted to walk as I despise driving and parking in the city. I questioned this choice when we were halfway there and in a very shady neighborhood. I questioned it more when we got to the restaurant and it was closed! 

We returned to the hotel, got in our car, and headed to the tourist district where a pizza place “Moes” was supposed to be open. Thankfully it was. Service was slow but we weren’t in a rush, the food was decent though the Pina Colada we ordered was odd.

We retired to our room early as we had nowhere else to go. We both had some emails to catch up on which proved difficult as the wifi kept cutting out. We called it a night early but a sound sleep was not to be had. I could hear someone in an adjacent room upchucking all night. To say I was in a hurry to get on our way the next morning would be an understatement.

Day 5: San Ignacio Bound

 We set off for San Ignacio as soon as we were up, no dawdling whatsoever! We had to find breakfast but I wasn’t stopping in that neighborhood. We stopped at a cafe on the way but they didn’t serve food. The cashier pointed to a house and said we could get something there. We dubiously walked over and sure enough, there was an order window with a menu posted.

Belize is known for many of these hole-in-the-wall restaurants, where only those who know about them find them! Most of them serve traditional Belizean food and this one was no exception. The menu was entirely in Spanish but we made our choices and ordered. The food was not remarkable but very cheap so we couldn’t complain.

The drive from Belize City to San Ignacio is 115 km and takes just under 2 hours. We had planned to stop at the Belize Zoo but it took a beating from the hurricane and hadn’t reopened yet.

Instead, we stopped at Guanacaste State Park and hiked its two short trails. One of them, the Living Cycle trail was a bit adventurous due to mud. We found the 2 km Living Cycle trail a bit noisy due to its proximity to the highway. The 1.3 km Riverview Trail was more enjoyable with the trail taking us to a nice overlook of the Belize River.

Nabitunich Farm Stay

We arrived at our bed and breakfast, Nabitunich mid-afternoon. Nabitunich aka “the Stone Cottage” is a bed and breakfast farm stay. It’s a working farm with cattle, horses, goats, and an orchard. The farm has been in the family for over 100 years, with Dominic operating the farm stay and his sister Carla operating the horse and other tours on the same road.

Nabitunich farm-stay boasts acres of neotropical gardens and farmland overlooking the jungle growing along the Mopan River, and also boasts a view of the sacred grounds of Xunantunich. 

There is plenty of wildlife and space to hike and savor the tranquility of this rural oasis. I particularly enjoyed the rain tree that presides over the common area. This massive sentinel was host to monkeys, keel-billed toucans, o,ropendolas, and many other birds and mammals. I spent much of my time at Nabitunich gazing up into its branches.

The accommodations at Nabitunich are quaint individual cottages tastefully but simply decorated . The basket with snacks and a jug of fresh drinking water were a nice touch. Our cottage was accessed by a short walk through the orchard.

After dropping our bags off in our room, we met up again with Dominic and advised him of our plans to take the horseback tour to Xunantunich. He said he’d arrange it with his sister and asked us what our dinner plans were for the evening as the farm stay also offers dinner. We had a restaurant we wanted to experience in San Ignacio so declined dinner.

San Ignacio

We then headed to San Ignacio. We stopped at the San Ignacio market before heading to the restaurant. We wandered through the stalls for a bit looking at the wares. At this market, you can find souvenirs, clothes ( tables and tables of unsorted clothes to pick through), produce, baked goods, jewelry, soap, woven goods, and just about anything you might be looking for! Since it was later in the day many of the stalls were closed up so we made plans to return the next day.

Dinner tonight was at KO-Ox Han Nah (Mayan for Let’s Go Eat!). This is a very popular restaurant in the Cayo District and even on a Monday night was very crowded. We waited a bit, and when room became available we were seated at a partially occupied table.

The food was good but not exceptional, I’m not sure it was worth the wait and crowd. 

Back at Nabitunich, as we were parking our car we saw an opossum cross the driveway. We had a quiet rest of the evening at the cottage reading.

Day 6: Xunantunich

We had breakfast in the dining room the next morning, it was plentiful and delicious. Carla picked us up at 8 to take us down the road to the stable at St. Leonard’s Tours.

We were fitted with helmets and mounted up. It was just our guide and us for this tour. My daughter Katie’s mount was a bit willful with a mind of her own but our guide told Katie to let her know you’re boss and all would be good.

The mare was quite reluctant to cross some mud on the trail but with some urging from our guide rushed through splashing mud everywhere and on everyone. We rode along the Mopan river to the swing ferry which would take us across the river.

We dismounted and led the horses on board the ferry. They were very nonchalant about it and stood quietly as we crossed. On the other side, we remounted and headed up the road to Xunantunich. 

Just a little way up the road,  the strap on my bag broke and the bag fell to the ground. I started to get off to grab it but our guide said no, he’d get it which he did. But as he was picking up my bag his horse pulled back and got loose and cantered away up the road with no intention of stopping. The guide said “ he does this, he’ll be waiting at the corral” and so he walked the rest of the way to Xunantunich.

Sure enough, the horse was waiting for him at the corral outside the ruins. I swear the horse had a smirk on his face. Carla was waiting for us at the entrance to the ruins, she would be our guide for Xunantunich and the horses would wait in the shady corral for our return.

Xunantunich is known for “El Castillo” the 130 ft tall stone temple that presides over the plaza, and which is still the 2nd tallest man-made structure in Belize!

Touring Xunantunich with Carla was an incredible experience. She is a member of the local archeological society and the deep-founded and heartfelt knowledge which she shared with us made our tour of the ruins come alive.

We climbed the stairs of El Castillo up to the top and took in the glorious view of the jungle below. Carla pointed to some cows not too far to the west and said “Those are Guatemalan cows” showing us just how close we were to the Guatemalan border.  Not able to suppress her proud farming roots as an aside she added “Guatemalan cows aren’t as good as Belizean cows”.

The word Xunantunich means “stone lady”, alluding to how Xunantunich was discovered in the 1800s. Rumor has it that a local hunter encountered a mysterious woman dressed in white with fiery red eyes. She led him to El Castillo, ascended the stairs, and disappeared into the stone wall.

Since then there have been several sightings of this mysterious Mayan maiden, often at sundown.

Though people have inhabited this site since 300 BC, the Xunantunich structures date to around 700 AD.  The inhabitation of Xunantunich was short-lived only about 200-300 years. Why it was abandoned is unknown, it’s speculated that drought may have led to famine or overpopulation resulting in social unrest.

Xunantunich is comprised of 32 structures, and 6 plazas spread out over approximately a square mile, with more structures still lying beneath the dirt. The city served as a civic ceremonial center for the 200,000 people who occupied the Belize Valley at that time. There is also a ball field where the Mesoamerican game of Pok Ta Pok was played. The stakes for these games were very high: The losers were sacrificed as an offering to the gods.

We toured the site for about two hours and then returned to our mounts for the ride home. On the ride home our guide told us more about the area of Succotz and recommended a restaurant, Benny’s for good local food.

After our lovely morning ride and tour of the ruins, we headed back to San Ignacio. Upon a recommendation from Carla, we went in search of a local cobbler who set up his cart on the main street. We found him and in my broken Spanish arranged for him to repair my purse for the next day. While on the main street, we stopped for refreshments at Spot One, a rather trendy cafe.

We revisited the San Ignacio market to explore it while everything was open. Tuesdays are known as one of the best days to buy produce at the market, and the market was bustling with activity.

Once done with the market we went on a self-guided mural tour. San Ignacio has many breathtaking murals depicting life in Belize. We found ourselves near AJAW Chocolate and popped in to see if they had any tours or tastings. Sadly they were done for the day but I did buy some roasted Cacao beans, a treat I love but rarely find.

Bennys Kitchen

By now it was dark so we decided for dinner we’d take the recommendation of our guide and go to Benny’s Kitchen in Sucottz. 

We found the restaurant in a residential part of town, and inquired whether it was open or not as there were no other guests there. It was open. We ordered some traditional food. I couldn’t believe the prices. For the grand sum of $22 BZD, we had tasty Belizean food and non-alcoholic beverages. Katie sampled the Pibil and I had a selection of appetizers: Salbutes, Ganache, and Tostadas.

Day 7: Gardens and Cave Tubing

While touring Xunantunich with  Miss Carla we learned that her business, St. Leonard’s Tours also does Crystal Cave tours and that we could do a tour on Wednesday before we headed out of San Ignacio to Hopkins. We arranged to meet up at noon in San Ignacio.

Belize Botanical Gardens

In the morning we went to the Belize Botanical Gardens in nearby Belmopan. Getting there was a bit of an adventure as the roads were still a mess from the torrential rains from the previous month. We bumped along the dirt roads praying that Google Maps knew where to go. Towards the end, we had our doubts as Google instructed us to go through a closed gate. We didn’t listen to Google, turned the other way and found ourselves at the entrance to the garden. Note if you plan on visiting the Belize Botanical Gardens signage is scarce so be sure you have a good GPS to follow!

The gardens had a nice self-guided tour divided into sections: The Maya Medicinal Trail,  the Rainforest Trail, and the Zingiber Alley. We were escorted for much of the tour by a local dog and met up with an old rescued horse that wanders freely around the gardens.  The gardens were gorgeous and the self-guide tour was both interesting and educational. The orchid house was closed due to damage incurred in the hurricane.

After we toured the gardens we headed to San Ignacio to pick up my purse from the cobbler and meet up with Carla’s van which we’d follow to our turn-off to Hopkins, and then ride with them to Crystal Cave.

I was alarmed when I arrived where the cobbler had been and there was no sign of him. I asked a nearby vendor what time he usually arrives, but they didn’t know.  We browsed some shops as we waited and then just as we were running out of time and about to head for our rendez vous with Carla’s crew,  sure enough, he returned and had my repaired purse.

We met up with Carla’s driver and followed them to a local truck stop where they said it was safe to leave our car, and then rode in the van with the rest of the tour group to Crystal Caves.

Crystal Cave Tubing

Crystal Cave (also known as Jaguar Paw cave) is another Mayan archeological site featuring ancient Mayan pottery shards, skeletons, and rock carvings.  The cave is accessed by tubing along the Cave Branch River. At the tour entrance you are given a life jacket, a helmet with headlamp and a tube which you have to carry along the 2km hike to the cave entrance.

Again our guide was great, stopping to educate us on various flora that grew alongside the trail.   Some memorable stops were eating Cohunes nuts (with some wisecrack to accompany the name) and when he stopped at a tree, pulled out a knife, and scraped something out.  He popped a sample into his mouth and then offered it to us “tropical termites” he said, “they taste like fruity nuts”. To my surprise several people in our group sampled the offering, my daughter and I declined the delicacy.

We had now reached the river and we tied our tubes together for our cave tour. The usual gentle waters were still high and he warned us there were some tricky parts.  We cruised through the waters admiring the cave and thrilling at our glimpse into the Mayan underworld. There was a cave pool that some adventurous souls in our group jumped into, not us.  Another spot we had to get out to navigate some treacherous areas.

We arrived at a sinkhole that opened into the most beautiful oasis with the sun flickering on the water,  vines curling down, flowers draping to the water and Mayan rock carvings watching over us.

Now came the exciting part of the tour. The waters were still high and parts of the passageway that usually could just be swam through, now had water to the ceiling and our guide had to pull us through the narrow passages feet first. One, two, three, dunk and pull, we were through.  There were two areas like this and it definitely pushed Katie and my fear thresholds. We ended up in a big open cave where the guide shone his headlamp on huge bats hanging above us.

This concluded the tubing part of the tour and we hiked back to the parking lot along a dirt road. One of our group had earlier asked our guide “ Do you see Tercipelos here” and he didn’t respond.  At this point in the tour our guide chose to answer the question “Yes about every 5 tours”.  The guy who’d asked the question asked when did you last see one? The response “about a week ago”. We processed that information in silence.

We piled into the van pretty exhausted from the adrenalin rush of the tour.  At the truck stop our guide dropped us off and we headed for the Hummingbird Highway which would take us to our next Belize destination, Hopkins.

Sharing is caring!