A Wayward Journey

“You can’t leave tomorrow!” Stacey and Jack protested when we told them we would be taking off in the morning.  “You need to take the river tour – you need to!  Please go – be our guests on the river.”

 

So this morning found us climbing into a boat for a day on the New River.

 

As the boat navigated the narrow channels of the river, we saw crocodiles, iguanas, and birds by the hundreds.  The kids ever got to feed spider monkeys!

 

2.5 hours after taking off, we arrived at the ancient Mayan city of Lamanai.  Lamanai isn’t nearly as spectacular as Palenque, but I think we all enjoyed it a lot more – because of the weather. It was a relatively cool day, which made wandering around the old stone buildings delightful.

 

We typically avoid organized tours like a plague, but we were very glad we didn’t avoid this one!

 

An egret on the New River

 

We passed a lot of fishermen because it’s Lent - and people here eat fish during Lent.

 

A huge sugar processing plant on the river.  They make something like 10 tons of brown sugar every day!

 

The boys got to feed spider monkeys during our tour.

 

There are lots of crocodiles in the New River.

 

Lamanai Mayan Ruins

 

The huge tree we’re by is a guanacaste - they used to use them to make dugout canoes.

 

Mask Temple - this is the only temple they  have actually taken apart.  They dug away part of the temple to find the layers underneath it.

 

After they took off three layers, they discovered this head, which indicates the temple originated during Olmec times.  Notice how this face resembles the colossal heads we saw at Villahermosa.

 

The High Temple - it’s the highest temple in Belize.  We climbed all the way up!

 

The view of the river from the top of High Temple was magnificent!

 

Davy lets himself down using the rope attached to the temple.

 

A temple at Lamanai

 

We should have named him Tarzan instead of Daryl!

 

Jaguar Temple - this was the only temple still in use when the Spanish arrived in the 1500’s

 

The New River

 

More fishermen

 

 

We saw lots of iguanas