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! :)

Snorkeling with the Norsharks

Yesterday morning we got picked up by a little Guatemalan, name Tito, in his boat to go snorkeling around the barrier reef for McKenzie's 18th birthday.

We took pictures on the underwater camera of all the fish in the reef...but we have to actually get the pictures developed before I can see them.

After the barrier reef, we went over to Shark Ray reef to go swimming with sharks!

Just a bunch of Norsharks swarming our boat...

Mac, Grant and me snorkeling looking for some Norsharks 

 

Felt like sandpaper!

6-8 feet long!

We were in the water for about 20 minutes and then it seemed like all the sharks disappeared, so we started swimming towards the boat. Tito starting yelling something at us and apparently a group of sharks starting going towards Mac and I thinking we were chum for them to eat! Mac jumped in the boat quicker than I've seen anything move in my life and I had to kick a few in the face so they wouldn't accidentally bite me :/ Apparently Norsharks don't have the best eyes...or noses!

Shark attack hair :)

Mac's dad and uncle stayed back from snorkeling because they got sea sick easily. When we got back, they had a mini surprise party for her at the condo.

Later that night, we went out to dinner at a Caribbean restaurant called Red Ginger to celebrate.

Flaming Cheesecake 

My delicious dinner :) 

A very well decorated birthday cake!

Xunantunich Mayan Temple and Cave Tubing

On Saturday, we went on a trip to the Guatemalan/Belizean border to see the Xunantunich Mayan temple and go cave tubing.

Our tour guide tarantula hunting for us 

Grant holding the spider! 

Mac crying on the inside 

spider in my hands! :o

After our tour around the Mayan temple, we took a 1 hour drive to go to the caves we could float through. Right before we got to the river area, we stopped and got some Belizean home made food...mmmm :)

Ferry across the river 

Our tour guide, Roberto

When we got to the bottom of the river, we had to leave everything in the car so I didn't get to take any pictures :( But it was so beautiful! We took a 45 minute walk up the trail at the other end of the river. The water was so clear from all the minerals dripping down from the caves...we ended up floating through 3 completely pitch black caves and a couple of mini rapids and it was so cool! It took us about an hour to float back down to the bottom of the trail. Then from there we had about an hour and a half drive back to the airport to catch the plane back to the island! It was a VERY long but fun day!