Scorecard

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It is hot in this country!
Good thing we expected that, so its not a huge shock.

Lets see, quick summary. We got into Belize city early afternoon yesterday and took a $25 (non-negotiable, it says so right on the official sign) ride into town to the bus station.

There is no ticket counter because you pay the driver right on the bus. No ticket counter means no one to ask questions. Good thing the schedule is posted right on the wall. After figuring out that the bus standing with the designation "Chetumal" would pass through where we wanted to go, we got on. The guidebooks did not lie, the buses are old American school buses, although they are a bit spruced up with tinted film on the windows.

The bus ride was uneventful. Loud rap music unfit for the ears of the many children riding the bus; people getting on and off in the most random places; the wind that dried our eyes but mercifully kept the heat at bay. After a little bit over an hour and a half we arrived in Orange Walk, our first stop. We made a beeline for the only decent hotel mentioned in the Rough Guide, St. Christopher's hotel. It was painted a beautiful happy orange color and had several buildings. We checked in and got an air conditioned room for the first night and one with a fan for the second because the air conditioned ones were not available. We also signed up for the trip to Lamanai Mayan temples and ruins.

Today after a quick breakfast we were picked up by a car and driven to a boat dock. There were some other people there and after a little while we got going with Fernando, his son Leonardo and the other 5 tourists. The trip to Lamanai proceeds up a river through a lot of greenery where all sorts of animals and birds are hiding. On our way there Fernando pointed out quite a number of birds whose names I, of course, forgot right away. We also saw some small bats hanging in a hollowed out tree and a crocodile or two. One pair of the birds that we saw had long legs and we also saw a bird called the Jesus bird, because it looks like it walks on water (lillies really). Fernando also told us that the river used to be called the river of foreigners before the British renamed it the New River. The river was called that by the natives because Mayans would travel on this river which unusually flows south to north and they would trade with the people who lived there.

We arrived at the docks and had lunch - at 11:30. It was a bit early but worked out alright. It was a good thing too, because just as we were finishing eating 3 more boats with loads of tourists arrived. We were the first out so we did not have to jostle for space with other groups. We walked around for about 1.5 hours looking at the different structures that have been excavated as part of this Mayan city. The original site contains something like 700 structures, 3% of which have been uncovered. The rest are buried under trees and vegetation - mother nature taking back what was once hers, as Fernando explained. The Mayan temples are solid because they are not used to do something inside them. Instead the King would climb the steps and stand at the top from where he would "commune" with the gods and speak to the people. We saw several really large temples as well as the remains of the royal family houses and a ball court where the Mayans would play a very difficult sounding game. In this game there was a ball and a hoop like in basketball but you could not use your arms or feet to touch the ball, only thighs, knees, arms... Like I said a very difficult sounding game. And the bad news is, the winners or losers depending on the situation were often killed at the end.

While walking around we also saw the toucan, which is the national bird of Belize. It turned out to be smaller than I thought but it was quite colorful. We also saw an interesting tree called a 'give and take'. The reason it is called that is that if you touch the bark it will sting you with little needles which give you a fever. The way to take the fever away is th take some of the root of the tree and grind it up and make some sort of a paste that will draw the fever out. We also saw something called a 'strangler fig' which is basically a parasite tree which starts on a branch of a different tree when its seeds are put there as part of bird droppings. From there the strangler fig goes down until it reaches the ground and puts down roots. Then it grows more and more branches, eventually completely surrounding, strangling and killing its host.


Bus station shadiness (on a scale of 1-10): 8
# of mosquito bites Lizzie has: 27
# of mosquito bites Aleks has: 0 (go figure)
National bird seen (toucan): check
National flower seen (black orchid): check

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Comments

[Drew bacher]

sahweet
awesome. Lizzie you rock you travelin' fool... stayin shaven just for you! come back alive! -Drew da brew