San Ignacio

There seems to be a stronger Hispanic presence in San Igancio, on the first day we arrived I heard more Spanish than I did in the ten days we spent in Punta Gorda. There were also many more tourists in San Igancio; few were from the United States there seemed to be a lot of British accents. The city still had a friendly, safe atmosphere compared to other major cities I’ve been too.

We arrived on a Saturday, which usually is the day of the week where there is the most amount of people out and about in the city. We saw kids and families playing and swimming in the river that splits the city into two parts, the market was larger and busier than the usual weekday. We did a scavenger hunt that was designed for us to explore the city and to talk to locales; for example, we were to find a fruit we have never seen at the market and we were to find out the current mayor.

The next day we went to Xunantunich, Mayan ruins located not too far from the city. We needed to take a ferry across the river, our tour guide and bus driver took us throughout the ruins and educated us on the Mayan culture; such as the purpose of the ball court, the story of the creation of the sun and the moon and how society functioned.

The third day we went to visit the Green Iguana Project; which is attached to the San Igancio Resort where our tour guide Ted works. We hiked up to the greenhouse, where the iguanas are kept. The adults and the adolescents need to be kept separated; at night they lay on top of each other for warmth and the adults can kill adolescents that way. We were given bananas to feed the iguanas; whenever we would hold a banana many would come and climb on you. They had pretty sharp claws, but were very gentle about how they took the banana from you. The adolescents didn’t have nearly as sharp claws as the adults, but acted identically.

Overall the San Igancio was a faster pace city than Punta Gorda; where there are more things to do and less vegetables!

Guest Post By: Elizabeth Miltenberger
West Virginia University