from 3 reviews
6 hours
Daily Tour
Unlimited
English, Espanol
Your Belize Cave Tubing and Altun Ha Maya Ruins tour starts with pickup from your Accommodations in or around Belize City or the Water Taxi or Municipal Airstrip. We depart for the Mayan Ruins if Altun Ha, a short 45 minute drive from Belize City near the village of Rock Stone Pond.
On arrival your guide will pay all entrance fees and its off on tour.
Altun Ha was a wealthy ceremonial center boasting two main plazas, thirteen structures (including the Temple of Sun God or the Temple of the Masonry Altars). Altun Ha is not very far from the Caribbean Sea and it formed part of a unique cultural zone along with other coastal sites. There are also no stelae at Altun Ha but the discovery of rich tombs indicates that the ruling elite enjoyed access to substantial amounts of exotic goods.
Another interesting part of this site is the presence of a large, water reservoir called “Rockstone Pond”. The bottom of this reservoir is lined with yellow clay giving the bottom firmness capable of retaining water.
Altun Ha, named after the modern day village that was developed there (Rockstone Pond), was first recognized in 1957 by A.H. Anderson, the Archaeological Commissioner of that time. In February of that year he had followed up on a report made by the Public Works Department of some questionable mounds in the area where they were planning to push some roads. He found them to be archaeological mounds.
The earliest evidence of settlement at Altun Ha dates to 200 B.C., although it is likely that nomadic hunting-and-gathering tribes lived in the area long before then. The first major construction took place around A.D. 100 in the form of a temple near the principal reservoir, but by the beginning of the Classic Period (A.D. 250) the focus had shifted to the area which the visitor sees today. This was to be the central core of the site for some six centuries. The northern plaza (Plaza A) was the primary ceremonial precinct until close to the end of the Early Classic (around A.D. 550) when construction was begun on the Plaza B.
After your tour of this Magnificent Maya Archaeological Marvel your Belize Cave Tubing and Altun Ha Maya Ruins Tour continues, re-board your van and head to Nohoch Che’en Archaeological Reserve, the hub for your Belize Cave Tubing adventure a short 1 hour drive away. In route you will stop and have a delicious Belizean Lunch.
On arrival at the park your guide will once again pay all entrance fees, you then adorn your cave tubing gear while your guide give you a safety orientation.
After orientation, grab your tube, life vest and caving light, and walk a leisurely jungle trail through two dry cave systems and under beautiful primary broad-leaf rain-forest to the entrance of the cave system and the most popular tour in Belize – cool and comfortable floating through gorgeous stalactite and stalagmite filled caverns where the ancient Maya people once practiced the important rite of traveling through the underworld, ruled by the nine dark lords of their cosmological religion.
Your guides will take you safely through the system, and then, at the end of the caves, enjoy a beautiful outdoor float under the canopy of the rain-forest, with some sunshine coming down through the canopy. At the end (this is actually a circuit – you float back to where you started hiking!), enjoy a fabulous local lunch, and then back to your original start point.
7 Hours
US145 per person
Belize Cave Tubing and Altun Ha Maya Ruins Tour departing from Belize City. Learn the history of the ancient maya and visit the underworld.
Product SKU: cv-al
Product Brand: Belize Tours
Product Currency: USD
Product Price: $135.00
Price Valid Until: 2023-05-31
Product In-Stock: InStock
We pickup from your hotel, AirBnB, Vacation Rentals, Homes
Roughly and hours drive west to St. Mathews village is the turn of into the Nohoch Che’en Archeological Park. On the way your guide will explain the history of Belize and flora and fauna of the surrounding area.
Upon arrival at the park, change and use bathrooms, gear up and its off to your cave tubing adventure. A short 45 minute hike into the rainforest to the top of the caves, on the way your guide explains the surrounds, flora and fauna. Unlike Cruise guests that go only to cave 3 you make your way to 4, as you have enough time. At the caves entrance your guide latches all tubes together and your off, on your float back in time your guide explains the history of the caves and its importance to the Ancient Maya. At the end float back to the initial start point.
At the end of your tour we make our way back to the parking lot where we sit and have a delicious local Belizean Lunch.
An hours driver east bring us to the small village of Rock Stone Pond which shares its name with the ancient Maya city of Altun Ha. On arrival you take a quick bathroom break all who need and its off to learn the history of the Ancient Maya who once occupied the city. The city, an important trading post on the coast of Belize at its peak housed more than 10,000 Maya. After your tour, we return to Belize city.
Member Since 2019
0 review
Kelly G
Great Tour!