Visiting the Cahal Pech Archaeological Reserve – Mayan Ruins in San Ignacio, Belize.
I spent 5 days backpacking in Belize in October 2022.
I crossed the Melchor de Mencos border from Guatemala to Belize with the idea of visiting the Xunantunich Maya Ruins. But they were sadly closed due to flooding caused by Hurricane Julia.
The Cahal Pech Archaeological Reserve in San Ignacio made a great alternative.
Opening hours at Cahal Pech (information taken from the official NICH Belize website 2025):
- Open every day, including on Sundays and Public & Bank holidays
- 6:00 am – 6:00 pm (April-October)
- 6:30 am – 5:00 pm (October-April)
Most tourists make a beeline for Caye Caulker, for the Belize Barrier Reef and the cheap diving. Cahal Pech doesn’t get too many foreign visitors, which is a shame, because this is very impressive!! Maybe they have just seen too many ruins. Central America has a lot of them: Tikal, Chichen Itza, Teotihuacan, Edzna, Monte Alban, Mitla.
History of Cahal Pech
Cahal Pech was first occupied around 1200 BC. The first settlers established their small village at the summit of one of the highest hills overlooking the Upper Belize River Valley.
Their houses were simple, consisting of low platforms with tamped clay floors and pole and thatch superstructures. They planted corn, beans, squash, chilli peppers in the surrounding hills and hunted local game and caught fish, iguanas and crocodiles in the rivers.
By the Late Pre Classic Period (300 BC – 300 AD), Cahal Pech had grown substantially and had become one of the primary centers in the Upper Belize River Valley and had a population of 10,000 to 20,000 people with the majority of the people living in the periphery of the site with a much smaller number of elite, living in the center.
Archaeologists have found several ‘house mounds’ surrounding Cahal Pech, but many have been destroyed by the expansion of the modern town of San Ignacio.
At the end of the 9th century, after more than 2000 years of occupation, Cahal Pech was gradually abandoned. It is hard to determine what caused the city’s demise, and, intriguingly, several other sites in the valley continued to prosper after the fall of Cahal Pech.
When the Spanish arrived in the 15th Century, Maya culture was still in the process of adjusting to new social, economic and political systems. Taking advantage of this situation, the Spaniards soon dominated much of the Maya area. They established fortified communities in Campeche and Bacalar from where Spanish friars ventured into the interior to convert the Maya to Catholicism.
The Maya revolted against the Spanish efforts to try and dominate them. They killed the priests and burnt their churches.
The Maya of Belize continued to be defiant and were still free from Spanish domination when the British arrived in the late 17th century.
Enjoy the photos of Cahal Pech:
After a hard and hot day backpacking the Cahal Pech ruins, refreshing with a Belikin Stout:
