August 7th - Lamanai

August 7th was our trip to Lamanai. It started at 7 am with a boat trip to the mainland. Then, we had an hour-long bus trip, followed by another hour-long boat ride. On the boat rides, we saw some cool birds, and the boat ride was pretty fun too, lots of turns and going fast. Breakfast was biscuits with meat & cheese - Johnny cakes I think? - and fruit. Once we got there, we had an "authentic Belizean" lunch, with rice, beans, chicken cooked with all-spice, peppers, and salad. It was pretty good, and we were really hungry.

Pic from the boat ride:


Then, we started the guided tour of Lamanai. We saw 4 different temples that have been excavated, out of the 700 or so still covered. It rained for about the first 15 minutes after the 1st temple. Then, we saw another temple, the ball court, and then we came to the biggest temple at the site, that you could see from the river when we drove up. It's called the "High Temple," and we climbed all the way to the top, where the view was amazing. The stairs were super steep and I can't even imagine those 3-4 foot Mayans climbing the stairs! At the top, we could see all around the jungle and the river. The last temple had the famous mask/head that had been unearthed. They uncovered all 4, but ended up covering 3 of them back up, to preserve them. The 4th one is still there, but they have it covered with a tarp, to protect it from the weather. At this temple, we also saw the howler monkeys that we'd heard throughout the whole tour.

Climbing the High Temple:


At the top of the High Temple:


In front of the Jaguar Temple:


The mask temple:


The trip back was just as long, but we had some rum punch and beers on the way back. I also bought a really cool two-toned wooden bowl from the villagers in Bomba, where we transferred from the bus to the boat. The final boat ride back was super choppy, but still fun.

After we got back, we had 1/2 price margaritas at Cliente and ate some dinner. The coconut-shrimp was awesome! After that, we had a few drinks at Wet Willy's, the bar right by our hotel.