While I scoured Stann Creek District, updating the text of my book, Moon Belize, Shanti was living it up on the beach at Sittee, down the coast from Hopkins. While Daddy sweated buckets and inspected a few dozen hotels, restaurants, bus stations, and parks, Shanti played in the surf, sand, and swimming pool, then tried her first papaya and giggled at the lizards. The next morning, we were back on the road, Punta Gorda–bound.
Shanti slept through our visit to the village of Maya Centre, gateway to the Cockscomb Jaguar Preserve, but was up and ready to rock by the time we reached the Maya ruins of Nim Li Punit.Â
She posed in the middle of a 1300-year-old ball court, atop the center stone where sacrifices may once have been held. I took notes and photographs, then took a turn carrying her through the ancient site where nature and human ingenuity battled it out for our attention.
Shanti gave the site a big smile and round of applause before we headed southward still, 25 more miles to Punta Gorda—PG—the southernmost “city” in Belize and, quite literally, the end of the road …
