Lumanai Temple

This morning, we all took a trip to the northern part of Belize to visit the Lumanai Mayan ruins. We took a 20 minute flight from the island to meet up with our mayan to tour us around where we took a river boat for an hour and a half through the jungle.

25 miles on a boat to the ruins

Rum facotory...made from the molasses made from all the sugar cane growing in the area 

Next to the rum factory, we saw spider monkeys! One of the two species of monkeys in the country (the other one being howler monkeys, which we saw plenty of at the Xunantunich temple)

 Mini mosquito-eating bats sleeping on the trees on the sides of the river

Grant taking control over the boat :) 

Strangling fig tree slowly devouring another tree or two... 

First step into the jungle 

The Mask Temple

view from the top of the Mask Temple 

 The High Temple...very steep stairs and 100 feet tall!

Dalton and Kristal climbing up 

Everyone at the top 

View of the jungle surrounding the lagoon 

Going down! 

We're so little next to this giant temple! 

The poc-a-toc ball courts. Played for religious purposes or to settle disputes...not as a sport. The loser would usually have their head chopped out and then the Mayans would take the decapitated head to the top of the high temple and roll it down the stairs.

Archaeologists found liquid mercury in a capsule under this rock when excavating the ruins 

Stela 9. Under that stone, they found the bodies of several children buried together.

 View of the courtyard and some of the rooms in a residence

The Jaguar Temple 

The rock jaguar view from the front 

And the side... (how it is suppose to be viewed) 

After we toured all the visible ruins, our tour guide brought out some home cooked meals from the cooler for us to stop for lunch. Once again, another delicious Belizean meal! 

Belizean style chicken, red beans, rice, salad, cole slaw, papayas and salsa

MMMMM! :)

After lunch, we went and looked at the mini museum at some of the artifacts found during the excavations

The homes the ancient mayans would live in that surrounded the temples and other ruins that remain today 

I liked these ruins more than the last. I think the land was more well protected than the one we visited a couple days ago and the importance of preserving the ruins was emphasized more. It takes a lot of working bodies to slowly uncover each and every temple that is covered in these "hills" and mounds we see today covered in grass and trees. I hate seeing people come and vandalize these 2000+ year-old pieces of ancient history...but this place was awesome and I'm glad we trekked through the jungle and storms to see it! :)