Today we were to make a day trip to Xunantunich which is situated close to the Guatemala border in the very west of Belize. We met our guide, Mario, in the lobby of the Radisson Hotel across the street from our hotel at 7.30 a.m. We boarded a large minivan as the only occupants and set off on the road west. We passed Hattieville, a village which had sprung up as a refuge from a previous hurricane (named appropriately ‘Hattie’), and the villagers who had fled from Belize City decided to stay even after the waters subsided. Then we passed the entrance to the Belize Zoo which we will visit on the return journey. We also passed the turning to Belmopan which is the ‘new’ Belizean capital city, (note: the name Belmopan is Bel, from Belize and Mopan from the river of that name, that runs through it). We passed the twin cities of Santa Elena and San Ignacio and soon after passing through the latter we came to the crossing of the river Macal River. The crossing is made via a hand-cranked