When we arrived at the dock for the river cruise, I took this picture to remind myself to mention something that was different about Belize. When using the restroom… you had to put your toilet paper in the trash can!
It was interesting to see the different sights along the river including termite nests, snake cactus growing on trees, bats and a Mennonite community.
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| Termite mound on a tree |
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| tranquil view |
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| Greenish yellow Snake Cactus growing on a tree |
It’s hard to see in this picture, but the darker spots on the tree trunk below are bats. Our tour guide hit the tree and several flew away.
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| Bats on a tree trunk |
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| Mennonite community |
When we arrived at the Lamanai Mayan Ruins, we deboarded the boat and followed our guide up to the first temple, Temple of the Jaguar. On the way to the temple, he showed us a rubber tree.
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| Rubber Tree |
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| A strip of rubber taken straight from the tree |
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| Temple of the Jaguar |
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| Martin and me with the Temple of the Jaguar behind us |
From there, we saw an ancient athletic field and then continued on to High Temple, and climbed to the top to see a view of the jungle below. Whew! The hike to the top felt fine at first, walking up a few flights of a modern staircase, but quickly we found ourselves having to scale ancient stones without anything to guard from a falls.. thankfully we made it to the top OK!
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| High Temple |
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| On top of High Temple |
After High Temple, we saw Mask Temple and took a picture with the 13-foot mask carved in the front of the temple. The mask shows a man in a crocodile headdress and dates back to about AD 400.
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| Martin and me at Mask Temple with a 13′ mask carving |
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| Sitting on the steps of Mask Temple |
After seeing Mask Temple, we made our way back to where we had entered the park to have the lunch that our tour guide had prepared for us. Back in the park, we saw Spider Monkeys in the trees! It reminded me of when I saw monkeys in the wild in Morocco.
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| The walk back through the jungle |
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| Spider Monkey in a tree |
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| River cuise back |
That evening once we were back in Caye Caulker, I wanted to do something water-related and since there wasn’t really a beach, we rented a couple of kayaks. We didn’t have much daylight left, but we paddled over to where the island splits in half and were able to see the pretty sunset.
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| Two women paddle boarding in the distance |
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| A dock in Caye Calker |
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| View of The Lazy Lizard |
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| Me in my kayak in the distance |