Lamanai

Mark and me soaking up the shade!The Jaguar Temple at Lamanai.

The High Temple at Lamanai.

Our first big adventure on the mainland was to the city of Lamanai. It is one of the best places in all of central america to see Mayan ruins. It was really a fun, and intellectual, excursion. Our guide told us that many mormon groups from Utah come through Lamanai on tours, and that many scholars believe that Lamanai was the city of Zarahemla in the Book of Mormon. Who knows about that, but it was really inspiring to see these ruins and imagine the civilization that was there 2000 years ago. One of the locals told us that Mayan history accounts say that a Great White God appeared at the High Temple at Lamanai.
From Belize City, we rode in a van for about an hour up north to Orange Walk Town. There we loaded into a river boat for a 32-mile ride up the New River to the ancient city of Lamanai. It was very amazing to pull into the New River Lagoon and see the tops of Mayan ruins sticking out above the jungle.

Along the river we saw many birds we had never seen. Snowy and Great Egrets were everywhere. It seemed that their favorite game was to flock up and try to stay just ahead of the boat at river level. We also saw jacanas, tropical king birds, a snail kite, a common black hawk. The most amazing one of all was the jabiru stork. It flew across the river only about 20 feet away from us. The jabiru is 5-6 feet tall and has a wingspan of 14-16 feet. Mark watched it with his binoculars as it landed in a very cool tree on the river bank and started feeding its baby jabiru. We also saw several crocodiles and iguanas along the river.

Lamanai has been very well excavated. Although there are about 6 major structures to see, the guide said there are about 750 more that have been found, and await excavation. They are there and covered up by the jungle.

Me climbing the High Temple.

The view from the top of the High Temple.What you have to do after to get to the top of the High Temple!A long way down.We climbed the High Temple. It was very, very steep. I couldn't help thinking as we were climbing the stairs that Zachary feels like that every time he goes up our stairs at home. Literally, you were climbing on hands and feet to get up. They Mayans did this to instill humility as the people climbed on hands and knees to reach the top of the temple. The center section of the temple is so steep that they have anchored a rope into it to assist people climbing to the top. Once on top, it was spooky to look down and think about how I was going to get back. From on top, there was an unmatched panoramic view of the jungle below. You could see nothing but jungle canopy all around, and the New River Lagoon running through the jungle. It was one of the most beautiful places I have seen--coming in a close 2nd to the Valley of the Ten Peaks in Alberta. Just stunning. We finally had to go down, and I looked like a freak climbing down, but I made it.

We got to watch a family of howler monkeys climbing, teasing and chasing each other around in the trees just over our heads. It reminded me of the circus of crazy kids I had left home.

Our guide was very knowledgable about archaeology, botany, ornithology, and Mayan history, language and hieroglyphs. He had 4 masters degrees in different areas. I was glad he had such a nerdy group--I can't imagine a lot of people being interested--or polite--as he expouded on minute details. We all thought it was very interesting, though. I can't wait to go back someday. We'll have to find a less scholarly guide if we have the kids with us, though.