Day 1 – Departure → Arrival in Cancún

Today you will fly directly to Cancún, arriving the same day. You will be collected at the airport and be driven 20 minutes from the airport to the tranquil little village of Puerto Morelos, squeezed between the coral sand and the rainforest on a lovely beach where you will fall asleep to the lap of the waves. It’s the perfect spot to recover from your flight.

Location: – Puerto Morelos            Hotel: The Fives, Junior suite                      Board: Breakfast, Dinner

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast
• Dinner

Day 2: Mérida

After breakfast you will be picked up for a drive away from the busy coast through the Yucatan forest, passing through Mayan villages to the old Spanish capital of colonial Yucatan, the white city of Mérida. The drive takes about 3 hours. Mérida is a beautiful place, with stately avenues of whitewashed 16^th and 17^th Century mansion houses leading to a tree-shaded central plaza watched over by a vast, stately cathedral. Completed in 1598, it is one of the oldest in the Americas. The city grew wealthy on sisal – used to make much of the nautical world’s rope until the discovery of plastics, and it became famous in the 19^th Century for its beautiful textiles and lace hammocks; a melding of Mayan artisan skill and Spanish design. They are still made here to this day; and Mérida’s myriad markets are a delight to wander. At night mariachi troubadours in huge sombreros serenade diners eating from white linen in restaurants perched in Spanish balconies over the city squares.

In the afternoon you will take a guided tour of Mérida. This will take in Paseo de Montejo, Mérida’s grandest avenue lined with opulent mansions, local markets where you will find those hammocks, and embroidered textiles, together with stalls selling regional Mayadishes like panuchos (refried tortilla that is stuffed black beans & meat) and cochinita pibil (zesty, tangy slow-cooked pork in bright orange anchiote seed paste).

Transportation, guiding and Mérida city tour included

Location: – Mérida                          Hotel: Casa Italia, Junior Suite                     Board: Breakfast

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 3: Ria Celestún Unesco Biosphere Reserve

This morning you will be drive to the Celestún Estuary Biosphere Reserve, a designated Unesco Biosphere Reserve and one of the best places in the Western Hemisphere to see flamingos. The reserve is formed by the freshwaters of the Celestún River where it oozes out into the shallow seas of the coastal Gulf of Mexico, forming vast wetland shallows and mangrove forests. It’s an important nursery for Caribbean reef species, and home to some 1,150 species, including American crocodiles, several species of nesting sea turtles and more than 300 resident and migratory birds. These included threatened or endangered species like plumbeous kite, brent goose and Muscovy duck as well as nearly 25 000 breeding American flamingos. On arrival in the morning, you will take a guided boat trip. You will then have the afternoon at leisure, with the option to lunch in a beachside seafood restaurants set right on the reserve’s wild, pearly white Caribbean sands, before returning to Mérida in the late afternoon.

Transportation, guiding and Celestún tour included

Location: – Mérida                          Hotel: Casa Italia, Junior Suite                     Board: Breakfast

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 4: Uxmal & the Puuc Route cities Unesco World Heritage Site

After breakfast you will have a full day guided visit of one of the most important archaeological sites in Mexico – the towering pyramids and intricately carved temples of Uxmal. In its heyday, some 1300 years ago, Uxmal was an important sacred site, with a town of some 25 000 people congregated around a vast plaza watched over by a unique, curved temple, which the Spanish called the Pyramid of the Magician. The city was surrounded by satellite villages, along what has come to be known as the Puuc route after the intricate architectural carvings – at Kabah, Labná and Sayil. Taken together, they are artistically the most striking Mayan ruins in Yucatan Mexico; the triumph of the classical period of Mayan culture and the apex of their art and architecture. Uxmal has a very well preserved ball court – used for a Mayan sport where rubber balls had to knocked through hoops using only the hips and shoulders. You will discover that it was literally a game of life and death.

Transportation, entrance fees and guiding included

Location: – Mérida                          Hotel: Casa Italia, Junior Suite                     Board: Breakfast

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 5: Izamal, Valladolid

Today you will visit two more of the Yucatan’s colonial ear gems – the village of Izamal and the little town of Valladolid. Both lie in the heartland of the living Maya world – where the Yucatec Maya culture is preserved, little-changed in terms of religious belief and practice since the time when the Spanish first arrived in the Maya World some five hundred years ago.

First stop is Izamal – one of the oldest continually inhabited towns in the world, with a history stretching back to pre-Mayan settlements founded in around 750BC. Today it is a sleepy place which at first sight looks very Spanish. Cobbled streets lead to large squares topped by 16^th Century churches and town houses, all painted in deep, buttery yellow. These are surrounded by what at first site look like hills. They are in reality the still unexcavated remains of the Mayan town which the Spanish built Izamal around. You can see one of the larger temples, now partially uncovered just outside the town centre – the great pyramid of the Maya Sun god, Kinich Kak Moo, whose base covers over 8 000 m2. The descendants of the Maya who built these temples still live in and around Izamal. You will see them everywhere, dressed in distinctive, beautifully embroidered huipil cotton gowns.

In the afternoon you will arrive in Valladolid, still one of the most important Mayan towns in the central Yucatan, with a stop and a beautiful cenote along the way. Cenotes are natural sinkholes, usually filled with water as clear as air. They dot the entire Yucatan, which like a giant pumice is pocked with holes, and they lead into what is believed to be the largest underground river system in the world.

Transport and guiding included

Location: – Valladolid            Hotel: Meson del Marques, Junior Suite                          Board: Breakfast

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 6: Valladolid

You have a leisure day today to explore what is very much a small, local town, extending around an attractive Spanish colonial centre and surrounded by low jungle. Like Izamal it was once an important ritual centre. As well as some impressive 16^th and 17^th Century Spanish buildings, there’s a lively local market (which sells among other things, delicious Mayan snacks and famous, fiery chilli sauce), plenty of craft shops and the best traditional Mayan restaurants in the Yucatan. The most celebrated of these is Ix Cat Ik. We recommend their Kay Tikin Xik (mak’ulan leaf marinated marine fish in a sour orange, achiote sauce, served with Yucatan vegetables) and their delicious Kaax Píibil (spicy chicken n anchiote and sour orange sauce, cooked in a banana leaf). There’s a cenote in town too – Cenote Zaci, right next to the main market, set in a stalactite-filled cavern, with a hole in rocky roof, through which a beam of sunlight illuminates the deep blue natural pool.

Valladolid is ringed with still more lovely cenotes and is 45 minutes away from the famous Toltec-Mayan ruined city of Chichén Itza; another World Heritage Site. We have not included this in your programme as it is very heavily visited by coach parties. But having a leisure day in Valladolid also gives you the option of visiting this famous attraction should you wish to in the early morning or the late afternoon, when it is less busy. Your hotel can easily organise transport there.

Location: – Valladolid            Hotel: Meson del Marques, Junior Suite                          Board: Breakfast

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 7: Coba and Jungle birds; transfer to Bacalar

This morning you will transfer to Bacalar – one of the great natural wonders of the Yucatan. As you leave Valladolid, the scrubby low Yucatan forest gradually becomes lusher and denser as it extends towards the coast. You will stop at Coba to walk through it – on a series of jungle paths leading to towering Mayan temples with canopy views. That’s not the only reason you will stop here. Coba is a fabulous spot for birds and butterflies. Bright-blue Morpho butterflies float through the trees. Yucatan Jays, Ocellated Turkeys, Keel-billed Toucans, Collared Aracaris, Snail Kites, Limpkins and myriad various hummingbirds and tanagers flit in the foliage around the ruins and the adjacent lake. And there are wonderful over the canopy views from the towering Nohoch Mul pyramid. You will take lunch nearby before continuing to Bacalar, arriving late afternoon.

Transport and guiding included

Location: – Bacalar            Hotel: Rancho Encantado, Garden View room                     Board: Breakfast

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 8: Lake Bacalar

Bacalar is astonishing – a freshwater lake, set in tropical forest and wild orchid meadows, whose brilliant blue, chalky waters are fed by a series of giant cenotes. They lake surface looks like a cloud-filled sky. There’s superb kayaking and swimming here, in a completely unspoilt, natural environment. Where the lake meets the sea at Chetumal Bay you might spot manatees, dolphins and American crocodiles.

Bacalar is home to the largest freshwater microbialite and stromatolite reefs in the world – rock-like structures made by thousands of microbes that precipitate carbonate minerals. The stromatolites resemble cauliflower – big, pillowy beige structures that grow upwards from the lagoon’s limestone bottom of the lake. They look like rocks, but they are actually living things. The sediment layers itself millimetre by millimetre, with the aid of photosynthesising organisms called cyanobacteria, until the structures turn into a rocky underwater growth that can be seen on the surface of shallow water.

Bacalar’s microbialites have an age range between decades to more than 9,000 years old, and their living fossil counterpart, the stromatolites, date back to over 3 billion years old, making Bacalar’s population the oldest evidence of life on Earth.

There’s plenty to see in the vicinity. In Bacalar Town there is an atmospheric, ruined 17^th Century Spanish Fort, built to keep out British pirates. You will enjoy a boat tour on the lake, optional use of kayaks and a visit to the old town. The kayaking is very easy and suitable for novices

Boat tour included

Location: – Bacalar            Hotel: Rancho Encantado, Garden View room                     Board: Breakfast

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 9: Calakmul World Heritage Site

After a leisurely morning a leisure on the lake, you will drive southwest to the huge El Peten Rainforest and the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve Unesco World Heritage Site (around 3 hours), which is astonishingly both a World Heritage site for archaeology and a Biosphere Reserve. The vast reserve forms part of the largest area of primary tropical forest in the Americas north of the Amazon. And at its heart, in jaguar-paced jungle is one of the largest ever Mayan cities ever to have been constructed – the imperial city state of Calakmul whose towering pyramids sit over the tree canopy, offering monkey’s eye views of the rainforest as far as the eye can see. It is an extraordinary location; yet it receives a fraction of the tourists of sights on the Riviera Maya. In the early morning and late afternoon on the road into Calakmul there is a chance of seeing larger wild animals, like white-tailed deer, coatimundis and if you are lucky tapir, ocelot or jaguar.

Your hotel sits on the edge of the reserve in forest rich with birds and small mammals. Tormmorrow you will have a day in the reserve itself.

Transportation included

Location: – Calakmul            Hotel: Casa Kaan Standard room                        Board: Breakfast

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 10: Calakmul World Heritage Site & Biosphere Reserved

Today you will have a full day in the reserve, seeing the astonishing runs and the great forest, Calakmul is the largest protected area in Mexico at over 720 000 hectares. It is estimated to hold over 1,500 species, 10% of which are endemic (found nowhere else). There are over 80 mammal and 380 bird species in the reserve – many endangered. Look out for primates, macaws and toucans in the canopy form the tops of the pyramids and paca and agouti in the forest surrounds.

To reach Calakmul you leave very early to maximise you chances of seeing large animals on the drive in – which runs for some 60 km through primary rainforest. At the site itself, there are

over 100 ruins covering 2 km² in wild forest, busy with birds and animals. It’s an astonishing place, few tourists visit and the view from the top of the pyramids is simply wonderful.

In the afternoon you will return to your hotel where you can relax in the pool, explore the small jungle paths and enjoy the sounds of the Peten wild.

Transportation, entrance fees and guiding included

Location: – Calakmul            Hotel: Casa Kaan Standard room                        Board: Breakfast

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 11: Belize and Bermudian Landing

This morning you will drive from your jungle lodge towards Chetumal where you will cross the border into Belize. Our Earthtrip representative will meet you at the Belize border where you will be transferred south to your hotel right on the banks of the Belize River. Look out for howler monkeys in the trees. There’s wildlife all around.

Transfer included

Location: – Bermudian Landing           Hotel: Black Orchid, Garden suite                    Board: Breakfast

Day 12: Lamanai & the New River Lagoon

This morning you will take a boat trip along the wildife filled rivers and lagoons that run north of Black Orchid to the New River Lagoon and Lamanai. This is a wonderful wildlife location with a crumbling Mayan ruin at its heart and five distinct habitats. More than 400 bird species have been recorded around Lamanai from 8 rare Yucatan endemics to Agami and black-crowned night herons, Jabiru stork, Aplomado Falcon and Bicoloured Hawk, four trogons, 11 woodpeckers and myriad wood warblers.

The boat ride in courses and along the northern reaches of the New River, which runs through gallery forest where you will see numerous water birds, including limpkins, various rails, tri-coloured, agami and chestnut-bellied herons and myriad kingfishers. Lamanai’s huge pyramids tower over the tree canopy (offering great birdwatching; look out for the country’s national bird the Keel Billed Toucan). Heliconia-filled lawns drop down to a lagoon, replete with waterbirds. The New River Lagoon in front of the ruins is a great location to see primates including white-faced capuchin monkeys and iguanas.  Full wildlife checklists are available for Lamanai and you will visit with wildife guides.

The ruins at Lamanai itself have one of the longest histories of any Mayan site. We know from ceramics unearthed here that the site first occupied in at least the Middle Pre-Classic period (1000–400 BCE). It was finally abandoned by the Maya only in the 18th Century. Lamanai lies on one of the most crocodile-filled rivers in Central America. And the river was clearly home to many of the reptiles when it was named. Lamanai is a Spanish rendition of the Maya Lama’an ayin, meaning ‘submerged crocodile’. There are crocodile motifs all over the site. Most spectacular are the Cyclopean fifteen-foot high fibreglass renditions of the 6th or 7th Century stucco carvings uncovered (and re-buried) on the on the west side of the magnificent pyramid that lies in the extreme north of the site. One shows a mask wearing a crocodile headdress. There are other astonishing carvings too: notably the haunting stone jaguar masks on the Jaguar Temple.

Guided tour and shared boat ride included

Location: – Bermudian Landing           Hotel: Black Orchid, Garden suite    Board: Breakfast & Lunch

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast
• Lunch

Day 13: Black Orchid at leisure

There are many options for other tours at Black Orchid and we leave today at leisure for you to choose to take one, or to rest around the pool. You could take a boat ride out along the Belize River to the cayes and reefs for marine bird watching, snorkelling or kayaking. Belize has the third longest barrier reef in the world and the marine wildlife and seascapes – with myriad cayes and three atolls is as stunning as the landscapes of the mainland. There’s horse-riding on offer too, bird-watching, scenic flights over Belize’s World Heritage site – the Great Blue Hole (a giant circular fissure in one of the country’s three atolls), Belize river trips, tubing and zip-lining.

Location: – Bermudian Landing           Hotel: Black Orchid, Garden suite                    Board: Breakfast

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 14: Black Orchid to Black Rock

After breakfast you will be transferred from Black Orchid to Black Rock – a wilderness lodge in the wild Macal River Valley. It’s about a two-hour drive and on the way you will visit the Community Baboon Sanctuary, a black howler monkey reserve. Howlers are called ‘baboons’ in the local Creole dialect and CBS is a pioneering project preserving a key habitat for the primates and other lowland rainforest species while the promoting economic development of the participating communities through ecotourism engagement. Over 200 private landowners in seven villages, stretching over 20 square miles, have voluntarily pledged to conserve their land for the protection of howler monkey habitat. They benefit directly from the Sanctuary through ecotourism. Many more benefit indirectly through the educational programs. The population of howlers has risen dramatically to over 2,000 monkeys. Now free of any fear of humans, CBS is the best place in Central America to these wonderful primates in the wild. You will arrive in Black Rock in the early afternoon.

CBS Guided tour and transfer included

Location: – Macal River           Hotel: Black Rock, Classic Cabin                       Board: Breakfast

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 15: Black Rock; excursions

Black Rock jungle lodge sits in dense forest over the spectacular Black Rock Canyon which plunges down to the rushing Macal River. This sits on the edge of the extensive Noj Kaax Meen Elijio Panti National Park. The location is spectacular – with rainforest and winding river spread at your feet as you dine in the restaurant or lounge around the lozenge shaped, blue jewel of a pool. The Lodge is rated as the number one wildlife spot in Belize on the eBird website. Scopes, species lists, binoculars, and guides are all on hand and the lodge’s private reserve – abutting the national park, covers over 300 metres of elevation, providing habitats for five cat species, endangered Red Brocket Deer, Yucatan Black Howler and Red Spider Monkey and nearly 400 species of resident and migratory birds. The lodge also offers night wildlife hiking, canoeing on the river, tubing, yoga, massage and gentle caving in the Flour Camp Cave which is full of Mayan artifacts. All activities other than technical caving are included in your stay.

While at Black Rock today, you will also enjoy guided wildlife-watching, self-guided walking on the lodge’s myriad trails and other optional excursions.

Guided wildlife walk included

Location: – Macal River           Hotel: Black Rock, Classic Cabin                       Board: Breakfast

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 16: Black Rock; visit to Actun Tunichil Muknal Cave

From the moment you set foot in Belize you will hear about the Actun Tunichil Muknal or ATM caves. Today you will find out why. There really is nowhere like it. Anywhere. Imbued with mystery, this is an ancient Mayan sacred site which genuinely feels sacred, which seems to demand reverence, and which will leave even the most hardened cynic impressed. Even awe-struck.

The journey to the caves from Black Rock involves a 20-minute bump over a dirt road running through maize fields to the edge of the vast Tapir Mountain Nature Reserve. There’s bird life everywhere. A trail cuts into the lower reaches of this protected area, running through low forest and tracing the course of a gentle mountain river. You’ll have to ford the stream a few times – preparation for the big wade to come, for after a 30 minute walk the river disappears into a gash in a sheer rock wall – the gateway to ATM. From here you swim and then walk in the river itself, waist deep up a water-gouged passageway whose dimensions are hard to fathom in the inky darkness. After another 30 minutes or so you reach a rocky shelf. A clamber up and enter a vast and stalagmite-filled cavern encrusted with glittering calcite and which glistens in the torch light like a mithril vest. When the Maya civilisation was at its height, only priests were allowed in here. And even the brashest visitor seems quietened by the chamber, as if in a medieval cathedral. They call it a burial chamber. But it is nothing so prosaic. ATM is a temple to the gods of the earth, a place where the sacred and sacrificed were re-united with the court of Xibalba, the Maya underworld. Human bones melt into the shimmering crystal floor, giant earthenware pots over a thousand years old are coated in a sparkling carpet of crystallised stone, and ceilings and walls drip with twinkling flowstones and eerie speleological shapes – a shrouded man, a crouching woman, a swooping eagle. Taking pictures seems almost sacrilegious. It is certainly pointless. No camera can capture the sight, let alone the feel. After your visit you will return to Black Rock in time for some late afternoon and nocturnal wildlife watching.

Guided visit to ATM included

Location: – Macal River           Hotel: Black Rock, Classic Cabin                       Board: Breakfast & Lunch

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast
• Lunch

Day 17: Pine Mountain Ridge and The Hidden Valley

Today you leave for a short drive into the cool Belizean highlands, which are covered with tropical pine forests and dripping with waterfalls. The landscapes and wildlife are a captivating contrast from the Belizean lowlands. The upper broad leaf tropical forests and pine-covered highlands are home to big bands of peccary, rare Baird’s tapir puma, jaguars, paca, ocelot and white-nosed coatimundis, which you will see in large numbers. While the larger animals are tough to see, you can expect spectacular birds including Rufous-capped and Grace’s Warblers, Black-headed Siskin Lovely Cotinga and Stygian Owl.

Around the waterfalls which pour out of the hills you will see myriad soaring raptors, including rare orange-breasted falcon (who nest around the tallest waterfall in Central America – the 500 metre high ‘Thousand-foot Falls’), ultra-rare Solitary Eagle, King Vultures, and Black-and-White and Ornate Hawk-Eagles. And there is wonderful wildlife and bird-watching in the grounds of your lodge – which is one of the plushest wilderness lodges in Central America. A half-day guided wildlife watching hike is included and there a countless self-guided trails leading into the wilderness from the lovely lodge pool and grounds.

Transfer and Reserve entry fee included

Location: – Mountain Pine Ridge                Hotel: Hidden Valley, Garden Cottage   Board: Breakfast

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 18: Pine Mountain Ridge and The Hidden Valley

You have today at leisure to enjoy activities in and around the Hidden Valley. There are many trails – running to secret waterfalls (with pools deep enough for swimming) and to lookouts. Mountain bikes and species lists are available at the lodge and there are a range of bird-watching, Mayan cultural and wildlife tours and excursions.

Location: – Mountain Pine Ridge                Hotel: Hidden Valley, Garden Cottage   Board: Breakfast

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 19: Crooked Tree Reserve

After breakfast you will transfer to the Crooked Tree Bird Reserve (about 2 ½ hours drive), where in the afternoon you will enjoy a shared bird and wildlife watching excursion.

The wonderful Crooked Tree wildlife sanctuary is a Ramsar site protecting an extensive area of wetland and forest set around a large lagoon. It is one of the most important locations in Northern Central America for waders, shorebirds and primates. You will take a slow boat ride and walk through some 6700 hectares of lagoons, creeks, logwood swamps, broadleaf forests and pine savanna, packed with a wide array of wildlife. The Sanctuary protects globally endangered species including the Central American River Turtle (locally known as Hickatee), Morelet’s Crocodile, Mexican Black Howler Monkey, and Yellow-headed Parrot and waterbirds including darting Ringed Kingfishers, Boat-billed Herons which look like a shoebill stork, Roseate Spoonbills – which gather in the hundreds and mingle with Purple Gallinule and Northern Jacanas in the shallows.

Transfer, shared tour and reserve entry fee included

Location: – Crooked Tree               Hotel: Bird’s Eye View, Deluxe Room                       Board: Breakfast

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 20: Crooked Tree transfer to Tulum, Mexico

This morning you will travel north to the Mexico border (around 2 hours) where you will be met by our Earth Trip representative and transferred north to Tulum (around 3 hours). You will stop along the way for lunch and if you would like to visit or swim in a cenote. You arrive in Tulum in the late afternoon. Your hotel is right on one of the most beautiful beaches in the Americas.

Transfers included

Location: – Tulum                             Hotel: Zebra, Deluxe Room                           Board: Breakfast

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 21: The Si’an Kaan Biosphere Reserve

You wake to the sun rising over the Mexican Barrier Reef, warming the talcum-powder fine sand of Tulum beach and greens of the palm trees. Tanagers and barbets sing, cicadas whirr and the sea is deliciously calm and warm. After breakfast you will be collected by our English-speaking guide for an excursion south into the Si’an Kaan Biosphere Reserve.

Si’an Kaan, which is one of Mexico’s largest protective areas, preserves coral reefs, wetlands, clear-water rivers, mangroves, lowland tropical forests and Mayan ruins. It is Mexico’s Everglades and the largest protected area in the Mexican Caribbean.

The biodiversity is exceptional. The tropical forests are home to large mammals including Jaguar, Puma, Ocelot and Central American Tapir as well as manatees and dolphins. Four species of marine turtles nest here and there are more than 300 species of listed birds. The wetlands and lagoons are dotted with myriad small, forested islands or Petenes. You will have half a day to explore the preserve; after which you have time at leisure to spend on the beach.

Transfer, shared tour and reserve entry fee included

Location: – Tulum                             Hotel: Zebra, Deluxe Room                           Board: Breakfast

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast

Day 22: Tulum Ruins and homeward bound

After a leisurely morning you will be picked up for your transfer to the airport in Cancún, with a visit to the spectacular clifftop ruins at Tulum en route. This small Maya settlement dating from between AD 564 and 1450, probably served as a port for the larger inland city of Coba, which you visited earlier in your tour. The buildings, which cluster around a 30m-high stepped pyramid, are modest, but the site has become emblematic of the Riviera Maya because of its magnificent location – perched dramatically on a craggy cliff top overlooking a pristine, white-coral beach and an aquamarine sea. From Tulum it is about 90 minutes’ drive to the airport.

• Board Includes:
• Breakfast