It consists of 11 structures, grouped around five main plazas, all built with limestone blocks and no visible mortar binding them together! You’ll learn about the famous Crystal Skull which was ‘discovered’ at the site, and talk to Mr Santiago Coc, the caretaker who assisted with the 1970 Cambridge excavations of the site. He will happily show you any of the latest ‘finds’, as well as tell you some of the local Mayan legends.

It’s then on to Uxbenka, a Maya Site approximately 8 miles east of Lubaantun. The existence of Uxbenka was first made known to the Belize Department of Archaeology as recent as 1984 when Mr. Palacio Ash, the caretaker at Nim Li Punit, came to the area following a report of looting near the village of Santa Cruz and found two sculpted stelae.

Uxbenka is best known in professional circles for its Early Classic (AD 200- 500) stelae, which are free-standing, upright slabs of stone that contain figural imagines of kings and hieroglyphic texts. It is also regarded as the oldest known site in southern Belize. Uxbenka’s stelae are thought to be some of the earliest erected monuments in Belize, dating to the late 4th century AD. The carved texts suggest that Uxbenka’s aristocracy enjoyed close cultural and political ties with Tikal, a massive site located more than 100 km northwest of Uxbenka and one of the most powerful ancient Maya kingdoms to have ever developed in the Maya Lowlands.

We leave the hills and you begin your return journey to Punta Gorda, with the option of swimming in the pools of the San Antonio Waterfalls.