Advertisement
Published: February 12th 2007
I am falling in love with the country of Belize. It is so beautiful and there is so much to see and do there. It’s the port I’ll see the most frequently over the course of my contract and I’m delighted.
Bright and early (7:30am, after a long night out at the guest disco the night before), I left for a shore excursion. Ricky, one of the production dancers, went with me. The tour was phenomenal. We went in a motor boat and cruised along the coast line, then for 24 km down the Rio (River) Wallace. The scenery was stunning. Lush tropical trees, plants and palms lined the river. The water was so still it looked like a long sheet of glass cutting through the land. The scenery reflected perfectly on the water. The clouds looked painted or cut out and hung up in the sky. The sun shone and sparkled on the water behind us. Along the river we saw tons of iguanas in the trees - green ones and bright orange ones. There were blue herons, crocodiles and tons of little birds in bright colours of yellow and blue - we even saw wild parakeets!
Both
Ricky and I were in complete awe. We felt so relaxed, peaceful and serene. Such a perfect morning.
We had lunch at a little restaurant overlooking the river, then sat out in the sun.
Our guide on the bus spieled for about 45 minutes, then we arrived at Altun Ha, a Mayan ruins site. There we had a 2 hour tour of the site. Wow did our guide know his stuff! He spieled almost too long but was still cutting back on how much he actually knew. I was mesmerized by the place. To thin it was once a booming city, then it spent hundreds of years buried by the rainforest. Now the ruins have been dug out for us to see, but only the main plazas where it’s believed the royal family lived and major rituals took place. There are many many buildings still buried beneath the earth, brush and plantation.
I know almost nothing about the Mayans and I’m determined to learn more! I look forward to visiting sites in Mexico and maybe more in Belize.
What happened to the Mayans? Nobody knows for certain. Baffling. It’s crazy to think of Toronto or London
or New York just buried by nature, abandoned by people. But nothing is permanent. And that’s what happened to the Mayan cities.
I admire and respect the work of archeologists, but it’s crazy how many of their findings are educated guesses. “We believe” often started the “factual” information. 1000 years from now will people just be guessing away at trying to understand us? We like to think of ourselves as so advanced, but (if we haven’t destroyed the planet) will people look back at us and think we knew nothing? And why do we think of ourselves as so advanced when people like the Mayans created things we can’t begin to understand or figure out. And they created things we depend on, like the concept of zero. It’s bizarre to think of something so fundamental to everything we know - zero - as being a created concept.
Being in places like the Mayan site remind me of what a tiny small part of the world’s existence I am. And realizing how small I am in it all, makes trivial problems within my life not important at all. When the world and time is so vast, it seems impossible
to ever truly make a difference in it at all. But then, I feel like it’s even more important to learn about history and culture and the world, to understand where we fit into this infinitely big world.
On the bus ride back to Belize City, Ricky laid his head on my lap and I leaned against the window and we crashed. So tired! Back on the ship we laid out under the sun on the crew deck, wanting to sleep but unable to. So we drank champagne with Kristina (production singer) and her boyfriend.
Such a phenomenal day. And as we cruised along the river, I said to Ricky, “Moments like this make everything and anything else worthwhile.”
Advertisement
Tot: 0.055s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 13; qc: 28; dbt: 0.0261s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 2;
; mem: 1.1mb
Zee
non-member comment
You're oh so lucky missy!
Hellllo Jeanette, OMG...I can't believe how many adventures you've been on since you left! It looks like you're having a absolute BLAST! I'm sooooo jealous. Here we are freezing in Canada while you're parading on every beach possible! Do you love it or what...working on the the BIG ship, the food, OMG and I hope the people are good to you...any hotties for you????? You must tell us everything when you get back. I was catching up on all your entries and got to the parts about you being sick and dizzy and I totally felt your pain..it's the worst feeling being sick away from home. Have you gotten home sick yet??? I hope not, cause I would trade you places any day...miss you lot's hun, stay safe and bring us back lot's of stories! Zee xoxxoxo