Giant mosquitoes and friendly locals

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We left Mexico on Saturday morning and crossed the border by bus to Belize. Border crossing was a painless experience and after a very slow journey on the Belizean side (the bus likes to stop randomly about every 50m or whenever someone feels like getting on or off) we arrived in Orange Walk about 6pm.
Orange Walk is a tiny little town that feels a bit like you are in some american western movie...with ramshackle old houses with return verandas and Ma and Pa sitting outside on their chairs. The streets have the funniest names like Flambouyant street, Lovers Lane and the next town along is called Crooked Tree.. The only difference is the people. They seem to be a confusing mix of super friendly Jamican/Carribean/Mexican/Mayan and Asian. The only restaurants in the town are Chinese and Hong Kong food..very strange.
The place seems to be infested with giant angry mosquitoes, that will come for you even with 50% deet sprayed all over your body. They are so agressive!
We went on a tour to Lamanai today (the Mayan ruins site near here). It was pretty awesome, started off with a 1 1/2 hour boat trip up the New River to get to the site with crocodile spotting on the way. We managed to catch sight of two crocs, but they were too quick for the camera. The river was so still you could see the whole sky reflected in it and the site itself is pretty impressive. Of the 600+ structures discovered here, only about 4 have actually been uncovered, and them only partially. The tallest one is 34 metres and stands above the jungle canopy, which Jase climbed to the top. Some of the scenes in the original Star Wars movies (I think Return of the Jedi) were filmed in Belize. The scenes with the Ewoks on the moon of Endor and the space ship taking off from the jungle and an ancient temple in the background... pretty sure it was here. Trivia eh?
We were lucky and saw a group of Black Howler monkeys (only found in Belize) in the trees around us, making the most horrific sound - they sounded like some sick big cat..kind of growling at each other.

So we are planning on leaving here tomorrow and probably crossing over to Guatemala. We only have a month to get through Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica so time is tight!

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Comments

[Jenny]

Howler Monkey
I am surprised you managed to get so close to one of the Howler Monkeys and it smiled for the camera...