Blog #1: Just Flipping Start (Caracol)

The thing about a blog is…you kind of just have to start. Or so I’ve been told. So here we go. I’m just gonna…write, I guess.

I think my initial idea was to start at the beginning and write about what insane life choices got us to this moment, but that seems more than a little daunting at the moment, so I’m going to start with something more recent. We’ll get this first one out of the way and then maybe I’ll dive into the Florida->Mexico->Belize adventure.

We try to explore a little bit of Belize every week. Sometimes it works out, sometimes the mundanities of life get in the way. But last week we were coming off of a week of sickness in the Team Treyla household. Trev and Kaya had caught a funk from the flight back to Belize from the US (we were in Florida so I could co-host the Universal Epic Universe Grand Opening Livestream) I managed to escape it only to be sick this week (whomp whomp). So we were coming off a week of living in an infirmary, tons of TV time, and a lot of laying around. I thought some fresh air and a fresh perspective would do us good, so we decided to make the trek out to Caracol.

Caracol is the largest Maya site in Belize, and honestly, it’s wild that more people don’t talk about it. It’s hidden deep in the Chiquibul Forest Reserve—like, you’re bumping down mountain roads (some paved, some not) for a couple hours to get there—but once you arrive, it’s incredible. The main temple, Caana (which means 'Sky Palace'), is still the tallest man-made structure in Belize. It’s flipping HUGE. In its heyday, Caracol housed over 100,000 people—more than modern-day Belize City. There are palaces, tombs, ball courts, howler monkeys, so many birds, and the most incredible carvings you’ve ever seen.

To get there you’ll drive through Mountain Pine Ridge (make sure you check in at the guard station when you enter), drive for about an hour through some crazy scenes and construction (they’re working on paving the road all the way to Caracol, but this means go SLOW and watch for directions), check in at another military base, and continue for about 20 mins to Caracol. It’s $25BZE for non-resident adults (Kaya is 3 and we didn’t have to pay for her). There is a museum (do not skip, it’s so informative), clean bathrooms, and a large covered area with picnic tables.

It’s a quick hike to get up to the ruins, but brace yourself…it’s a pretty epic reveal. The bonus of Caracol being so far away from any towns is that it is probably the least visited major Maya site in Belize. We showed up around 2pm on a Monday and there was one other car there. Some resorts and tour companies do day trips, but they are mostly there in the morning.

We really got to wander around and explore the grounds. We were climbing the main structure when we saw some of the groundskeepers who waved us over and showed us some howler monkeys hanging out right overhead! Howler monkeys (the locals call them baboons—confusing, I know) can be very private when there are a lot of people about, so it was such a treat to see them just hanging out and eating as a family.

We could tell some rain was rolling in and the jungle was ACTIVE. We walked past the old groundskeepers barracks and it sounded like a 2 troupes of monkeys and hundreds of birds were all around us. Very Jurassic Park. And as we all become avid bird-watchers as we approach 40, I found a thrill in seeing some Montezuma Oropendola nests! They honestly look a bit like hanging nutsacks in the trees (sorry for the visual, but like…it’s not untrue).

And then, just on cue, rainy season started (June 1st is the start of rainy season in Belize). We took refuge in one of the structures and listened to the monkeys and the birds. It was such a cool, grounding moment. I feel like when these places are so empty there's an energy and a connection to the Earth that you feel. And the rain made it so much more special. I had a genuine moment while running though the rain with Kaya where I really thought, “this is it. This is living.”. We got absolutely soaked to the bone, but it was so worth it to stand there and catch raindrops on our tongues where an ancient civilization once thrived.