Falconview Bak Pak Hostel, Hillview, San Ignacio, Cayo District, Belize

Falconview Bak Pak Hostel is BASE CAMP #1 for expeditions
into the BELIZE ALPS, the daily trip to the Mountain Pine
Ridge 1600 ft Hidden Valley Falls and a daily trip to the most
popular two Mayan hilltop pyramid ruins of XUNANTANICH
and CAHEL PECH, 3000 years old.

Falconview Bak Pak Hostel is a small Spanish style Hacienda.
There are dormitory bunk bed accommodations and
cottage sized tents used as cottages for privacy for couples
out back.

Hillview is a small quiet suburb of a hundred houses on the
side of a small valley of the small agriculture town of Santa
Elena here in the foothills of the Maya Mountains. Ranches
and citrus farms abound in the area. It was only a couple of
decades ago that the main industry was jungle CHICLE and
mule trains were common.

The local Mayan hilltop pyramid temple complexes are
about 4 miles apart. Similar to the forts of the Khyber Pass,
between Afghanistan and Pakistan. They are 3000 years old,
built long before the Roman Empire was invented, or the
Greek Civilization. These Mayan temples were built about
the time the ancient Minoan civilization in the Aegean
disappeared from a massive Volcano blast on the island of
Santorini. ( Some claim this was Atlantis) The Mayan pyramids
cover the choke point of trade in the valley here, where two
rivers join to form on the edge of town, one river as a trade
route to the Caribbean Sea. The Macal River drains the Belize
Alps and the Mopan River drains the Peten area of
Guatemala. They form the Belize River flowing down to the
coast over a hundred miles away.

We meet the bus at the downtown bus station in San
Ignacio for prepaid guests coming from Caye Caulker on
the Barrier Reef, a few hours away by water taxi and bus
inland. Or you can just take a cheap taxi ride here to the
hostel from the bus station. We make this 2 mile walk
regularly, but don't recommend the walk for GRINGOS in the
hot midday sun going uphill, with a backpack.

Local tour operators offer myriad other opportunities to go
back into history, or experience the beauty and other
adventures of this WESTERN BELIZE. Lots of small hotels and
campgrounds abound for your price range, in this area.
There are other caves, other ruins and canoeing, archery
and expensive jungle lodges around. We just cover the main
places of popular acclaim. The things you MUST experience,
in this Western Belize area! The icing on the cake as it were!

HOW TO GET HERE FROM CAYE CAULKER / BELIZE CITY:
Take the local bus from Belize City WEST and when you leave
Belmopan the capital of the country it is about another 45
minutes ride. You pass a Police Checkpoint 1/2 mile before
Santa Elena town and you watch for Plasmet Hardware on
the right and at the next slow and stop for a speed bump in
the road a hundred yards on, you exit the bus.   There will be
a new sign up at the highway junction, green and white, for
the new, EXIT 66 1/2 Santa Elena Bus Terminal.
Tourists are asked to leave the bus at EXIT 66 1/2 in Santa
Elena Town. Hike the half mile up the hill to Hillview on the
slope of Green Parrot Valley. Falconview Back Pack
Adventure Hostel is half a mile to the left up the hill past
Eden High School. Turn left at the T junction and over the hill
past a telephone booth on the right and an Adventist
Church on the ridge to the left. Falconview is three streets
down to the right from the Church and, or telephone booth.
On the corner of Earth and Pluto street in the middle of
about a 100 houses on the side of the small valley in a quiet
suburb. A 30 minute walk to the twin towns center straddling
the Macal River.

Other website links: http://falconview0.tripod.com/