San Ignacio and the whole western and souther parts of Belize are covered bits of the Maya. You can take a walk in someone’s back yard and come across pots and arrow heads. You can take a walk in the jungle and come across mostly untouched ruins. There were in fact more people living here when the Maya were around (somewhere between one and two million people) than there are now (about three hundred thousand in all Belize).

There are sites all over the country that are currently being worked on; in fact many of the sites around San Ignacio that you can visit are still in the process of being excavated by teams of amazingly gifted archaeologists. Caracol, Cahal Pech and Lower Dover are a few of these. The director of archaeology is a man by the name of Dr. Jamie Awe (hi-me awe-way).

Cahal Pech & Xunantunich

The vast majority of Belize used to be occupied my Mayans, so it shouldn't be too shocking that there are some pretty neat ruins in and very near San Ignacio - Cahal Pech and Xunantunich. They are both fairly easy to find on your own, but if you want a bit more, Maximum Adventure Tours offers a combined Cahal Pech and Xunantunich trip. You can refer to it as the Canantunpech trip. It's also possible to do a combined Xunantunich/river tubing trip. You can refer to this one as Xunantubing. Both these sites are largely excavated and Cahal Pech even has a neat little museum with excavated artifacts from the site.

Caracol

Caracol is a full day trip where you see one of the largest Maya sites in Belize. To find it you'll be heading through the stunningly, super amazing Mountain Pine Ridge and if you want, the Caracol tour can include stops at some of the pools and waterfalls. Once you arrive at Caracol, you'll spend the day wandering around bits of the ancient world - very large bits. This trip includes: lunch, the entrance fee, the guide and the transportation.

Tikal

This is by far the most popular trip we offer. There are a few options for seeing Tikal, depending on the amount of time you have. The first, quickest and easiest is the Tikal day trip. It's just a quick there and back, it takes about 8hrs. The other option is Tikal Overnight. On this trip you actually stay in the park and take morning and evening tours. The day trip covers your transportation, guide, lunch, entrance fee into Guatemala and the Tikal entrance fee. The only thing you need to pay is the $18.50usd Belize departure fee. Tikal Overnight covers all those things plus your room and board while at the park.