As Easter approaches, Belizeans become even more superstitious with age-old instructions to not go swimming on Good Friday or else you’ll turn into a mermaid.

But no folklore is involved in the recent activity being reported by guests at The Rainforest Lodge at Sleeping Giant.

Guests have stumbled upon never before seen carvings in the natural limestone near Rope Bridge 5. While The Rainforest Lodge is expansive, it is unusual for carvings to mysteriously appear with no knowledge by onsite staff or management. Guests excitedly showed photos asking for the background story, but unfortunately, we have no answers.

Secondly, visitors have been alarmed by the sound of children playing coming from the trails at night. While our lodge is family friendly, we never recommend children being near or on the trails unsupervised, especially in the dark! Our staff quickly went to find the children, but not a person was in sight.

Even stranger, guests have been coming to our front desk staff with handfuls of cacao beans. We’ve been informed that guests have been waking up to cacao beans on their doorsteps. While we’d love to be the source behind this – we’re simply not! (This has, however, drummed up great interest in our Maya Chocolate Tour.)

We’re hard pressed to believe this is real paranormal activity, but we’re heeding the stories of our ancestors and looking into the signs. The cacao beans are a strong cultural connection to the Maya as they were once used as formal currency in the Maya civilization.

Historically, Belize was once home to massive and booming Maya kingdoms. Is there a possibility that the lodge was built upon one? Our onsite Maya Ceremonial Cave may provide clues about this.

For everyone’s safety, we’ve called in the professionals to help us solve this case. Our management team has reached out to Zak Bagans, American paranormal investigator, who will team up with Belizean archaeologist Jaime Awe, just in time for April Fool’s Day.