Getting to Lubaantun and Nim Li Punit, Belize,
January 2001
I knew it would be a simple matter to get to Nim Li Punit. However, I also wanted to get to
Lubaantun and I suspected that that would take some doing. These are
Maya sites from the Classical Period that are more or less near Punta Gorda.
However, Lubaantun is well off the Southern Highway and the nearby town, San
Pedro Columbia, has very limited bus service. I
decided it would be best to see them while leaving Punta Gorda and heading north toward Placencia.
There were only three daily buses north out of Punta Gorda, at 5 and 9 am and 3 pm, so I met the earliest one with my pack on my back. The bus dropped me off at the Southern Highway junction of with a road that is two and a half miles from the actual turnoff for the village near Lubaantun. Hitchhiking did not work and there was little traffic anyway, so I walked to the road and headed down it. On this road, there was even less traffic. Eventually a truck did stop to give me a ride into town.
The village of San Pedro Columbia seems large, but it is spread out and consists of around 700 residents. However, it is the largest Kekchi Maya village in Belize.
The fellow driving the vehicle went right past the turnoff for the ruins. When I finally got his attention and he stopped, I was near a small grocery, where I was able to buy some cookies. These would pass for breakfast and lunch that day.
From where I left the truck it was around two miles to the Lubaantun ruins. It was a pleasant day and it was still early, but not so early that the site would not be open. When I hiked in, there was no one at the ruins. In my travels often there are no other tourists at a site besides me or people with me, but there was no one there at all. It was with some joy that I wandered around the place without having to pay an entry fee.
The ruins at Lubaantun are the largest in Southern Belize, although
the site had a
relatively short history
in the late Classic period, dating from 700-900 CE. The
site is remarkable for its unusual style of construction in that the large
pyramids and residences are made of stone blocks with no mortar binding them
together. Instead they were cut to fit the adjoining blocks. However, later when
the ground subsided, the stones fell, giving rise to the present name,
This is also the supposed location scenario in which in 1926, 17 year old Anna Mitchell-Hedges allegedly found a crystal skull there. However, vacation photos taken at the time showed no such thing and there was no mention of its existence until the '40s.
Once I had wandered through the ruins, I headed out to the road and back to town. I walked almost completely through the village when two fellows in a pickup came through and the driver offered me a lift. The miles seemed to fly so quickly from my vantage point in the back and shortly I was back at the Southern Highway.
Waiting there for the next bus was not an option, because I hoped to see Nim Li Punit and be waiting for it there. Not long afterward, a Ministry of Health pickup truck almost filled with workers in the back stopped and the driver offered me a ride. He said he was going past Nim Li Punit and could drop me off there.
This was a welcome and I found a spot among the mix of Belizeans and Hispanics. The truck was full of workers who soon left the truck at houses along the way to spray for mosquitoes. After the last worker left, the driver went on just a short distance and left me at the entry to the site. There is a long driveway that leads uphill, but in around 15 minutes I was there.
Nim Li Punit lies along the top of a ridge in the foothills of the Maya Mountains. A flat coastal plain lies to the east and south of the site. The center consists of two plazas, one raised a bit higher than the other. It is here that the 25 stelae and a ball court are located. The largest structure stands 33 - 40 ft. above the plaza level. A second shorter structure is 215 ft. long. Though the site is not a large one, its architecture is very similar to that of Lubaantun and it makes for a pleasant place to visit.
Once at the site, I bumped into a tour group of four who had just arrived. While talking, we realized that one of the couples lives in Wilmington, Delaware, and the wife of the other couple and I both used to live in Delaware. It is a small world. Although they had come in a van and I had been dropped off from the back of a Ministry of Health pickup truck, they invited me along for their guided tour of that ruin. Afterward they went off for lunch and were to see Lubaantun in the afternoon.
Heading back to the highway, I eventually got onto a bus that wasn't the one heading toward Independence and a boat for Placencia. Although the fellow did not charge me anything, during my ride the bus I wanted must have passed us in all the dust. Eventually the last bus of the day arrived and I gladly got on it.
The best way to see both these ruins would be to rent a car. From Placencia there are tours, but you would need four people to arrange one.