| On the west bank of the Macal River, about
35km from Belmopan, San Ignacio is a friendly, relaxed town
that draws together the
best of inland Belize. Surrounded by fast-flowing rivers and
forested hills, it's an ideal base from which to explore the
region, offering good food, inexpensive hotels and frequent
bus connections. The evenings here are usually cool and the
days
fresh - a welcome break from the sweltering heat of the coast.
San
Ignacio town is usually referred to as Cayo by locals
(this is also the
name you'll usually see on buses), the same
word that the Spanish use to describe the offshore islands
- an apt description of the area, which is set in a peninsula
between two converging rivers. The early wave of the
Spanish Conquest in 1544 made little impact here, and the
area
was a centre of rebellion in the following decades. Tipu , a
Maya city on the Macal River about 9km south of the present-day
town, was the capital of the province of Dzuluinicob,
where for years the people resisted attempts to convert
them
to Christianity.
Spanish friars arrived in 1618, but for years afterwards
the population continued to practise idolatry - in 1641,
Maya priests
conducted a mock Mass to express their defiance towards
a group of visiting Spanish clerics, and then threw them out.
Tipu
retained a measure of independence until 1707, when the
population was forcibly removed to Lago de Petén Itzá in
Guatemala. Hostels in San Ignacio |
ROOMS BELIZE
