The jungle is wonderful this time of year!

The jungle is hot and you sweat, but it was so beautiful it was worth it. We ate lunch in Lamanai, it was delicious there was chicken, salads, salsas, beans. They had park pavillions and a museum to walk around and a few small shops. You cannot see the pyramids in this area but they are a short walk into deep jungle. Surprisingly saw no bugs just monkeys and a toucan. The Jesus Christ Lizard or the basilisk made an appearance, he was too quick to get on camera.
Here is one of an adult and a baby monkey...

Here is the national flower the Black Orchid...I know its purple and yellow but this is what they call it.

These monkeys were quiet when we were near them but we heard some from the top of the N10-43(the pyramid we could climb), it sounded like either a tyrannosaurus rex roaring or a hundred king kongs.

Here is the national bird, the keel-billed toucan it was huge...


Here is the N10-43...it was surreal. It is 108 feet high and a steep climb, most everyone made the climb young and old.



Climbing up, going up was much easier than going down the stairs were very narrow so you had to side step.




The view was spectacular you see over all the trees to the lagoon...it literally gave me goosebumps.


Climbing down...can u see the teeny people on the ground?

Welcome to Lamanai!

These are pics of the first temple we visited, known as the mask temple...it had many reconstruction phases, the Mayans were constantly changing these structures. The archaeologists uncovered masks all over the temple which had been covered by stone for protection, they archaeologists left only the one you see out and covered the others back up. The carvings are limestone and deteriorate quickly. The Mayans built everything equal so if you see it on one side it will be exactly the same on all sides.




Mask close up, he is about 7 ft high.

Lamanai-almost there!

Here we are boarding the second tour boat, which has a different guide...our guides did come with us. This guide was an expert on Lamanai and the area and he had an eye for crocs and birds.

Here is one of the cooler birds we saw, the Northern Jacana aka "Jesus" bird, he appears to be walking on water but he is really able just to walk on the floating vegetation...

Lamanai Journey Part II

Before we got on the second boat we made a pitstop at a boat launch area, there were many locals hanging out under a pavillion, with semi-automatic weapons, I snuck a shot of one of the machine guns and the ammo...not quite sure why they had these but probably 15 out of the twenty people had guns like this one...




more to come..

Day 6 in Paradise

Hello, we are still here having fun and relaxing...went to the Mayan ruins, Lamanai yesterday it was hot but fantastic. Here are some pics from our journey.
It is about an 1 hour and a half to the mainland by boat, we left at 7am, we ate breakfast on the river. We had fresh fruits and journeycakes (johnnycakes) some with ham and cheese and some with four-legged chicken (iguana) (it was really chicken, I think they were just trying to freak people out). The boat ride was fast and very the river was full of twist and turns.


We then made our way to Bomba village a very small place with no power or running water. There were also no schools or churches there, but they did have a giant central american rat and very clean batrooms surprisingly.

Giant Rat, a woman thought it was a rabbit believe it or not...it was bigger than Cosmo. By the way, this was not a pet, but DINNER!

The restrooms...not quite the Four Seasons...



After our bathroom stop in Bomba we all packed in a school bus, the guide had told us this bus ride was going to be remniscent of Romancing the Stone, but fortunately it was just very bumpy and there were no goats or chickens on board. The bus trip was about another a hour and half in "Belizean" minutes (as our guides called them).


On the bus trip we saw the sugar cane fields, very skinny cows and we also played chicken with oncoming traffic, the bus always wins by the way.



Once we got off the bus, we got on another boat that would take us to Lamanai. We saw crocodiles, bats, termite nests, all sorts of birds and Mennonites (which are kinda like the Amish), but more colorful, they waved and gave us weird stares...we all felt guilty about taking their pics but they are most likely used to it with all the tourism...apparently they moved to Belize in the 1950's from Germany.

The mennonites on their wagon...


more to come later...

San Pedro Holiday

Here is a pic from our favorite bar spot Fidos (pronounced Fee-dohs)...this fish head was awesome!
Gotta Go bike riding up north...when I get back I will post more!

more pics from San Pedro

This is the super market behind our resort, we picked up a 14.60 box of special K which is abour 7.30 US ...it better be real SPECIAL for that amount of money!




This a pic from the plane (island hopper) which only sat 8, there were 7 of us...it was the tiniest plane I have ever been on and was only scary wen we hit turbulence but the view was so amazing it didnt matter!


Another pic from the plane...it was so amazing, you see right to the bottom of the ocean it is so shallow and clear!




Here I am on the balcony sipping my Belikin, loving life!

Greetings from San Pedro!

This pic is of a dog we saw on the beach last nite who started a losing battle with a crab!

Hi...it is our second day in San Pedro, Belize and it is wonderful! It is 2 hours earlier here and it seems like the day is lasting forever but I am sure it will seem like it is flying by in no time. Becky is out getting certified for diving right now and I am in the condo relaxing having a Belikin beer...I will try to post as much as I can while I am away, since the internet is pretty much our only way to communicate down here! :) janna