Lamanai

 A little tropical storm can't get us down.  I'm the weather girl, after all.  Plus, where we live rain is cold.  In Belize during a tropical storm the rain is actually warm.  Sure, it's a ton of rain, but it is warm rain, which actually is quite refreshing. This picture was taken at our hotel while the kids were eating their waffles for breakfast under the pool patio roof.  It doesn't do justice to the rain that was coming down, but it shows it was raining hard.

After breakfast we set off with David of cavetubingrus.com for a drive to Orange Walk town where we boarded a boat on the New River for Lamanai.  Nate was our boat driver and Lamanai guide.  He thought we were so funny for not being phased by the rain.  Nate was amazing, and the perfect guide for Lamanai.  He knew so much about the river, the birds, Mayan history and the city of Lamanai, but he shared just the perfect amount of information--enough to be interesting, but not too much to bore the kids.  He was spunky and awesome, and the kids loved him.

When we arrived at Lamanai we were served a delicious Belizean lunch of rice and beans with stewed chicken.  Fried plantains, too if you were feeling crazy.  Savanna decided then and there that rice and beans was her favorite meal, and she ordered it at almost every restaurant we went to for the rest of the trip.


The boat ride to Lamanai is an adventure in itself.  You cruise 30 miles up a beautiful jungle river to the New River Lagoon where you see the top of ancient Mayan temples peeking up over the jungle.  Even when it is pouring tropical rain, the boat ride is still incredible.  Fortunately for us the rain let up just before we got to Lamanai, and it didn't rain another drop for the rest of the day.  We were all soaked, but the rain kept every other person in Belize from going to Lamanai that day, and it was delightful to have the whole city to ourselves.  We climbed the three tall temples of Lamanai.

Nate showed us what a tarantula hole looks like,

 and how to get the spider to come out and play.  We also heard howler monkeys like I never imagined.  Turns out they are called "howler monkeys" for a very good reason.  The troops of howler monkeys were really talking to each other this day.  I would have been sure it was jaguars we heard, but it was really just these insanely loud and talkative monkeys.  We saw them all over in the trees, and near the end of the day we saw the 2 spider monkeys that live in Lamanai as well.

These pictures were all taken on top of the High Temple.

 

Climbing and exploring the temples.

David from cavetubingrus.com was such an awesome guy.

 

 
 We climbed and explored for the day, and then loaded back up in the boat for the trip down river.   The rain had stopped, so we saw a lot of birds.  Big birds.  Birds you don't see in the pacific northwest.  It was really beautiful.  As fun as the rainy trip to Lamanai was, I will say the dry ride back home was more enjoyable.

Some local guys out hunting fence posts.  This was a canoe made from a hollowed-out tree and they were using planks of wood to paddle.  It was surreal to see this ancient mode of transportation as we blew past in a motor boat.

I love Lamanai.  I've been there twice, and if we ever go back to Belize, I will go back again.  It is such an awesome place to see and explore.  The view of the world from on top of the High Temple is something you can just never get out of your mind.