January 3, 2013

BELIZE

THE RAIN FOREST, LAMANAI ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE, THE MAYAN RUINS

We woke up at 5:30 a.m. and 6:00 a.m. (guess who woke up first) to meet the group touring the Mayan ruins by 7:15 a.m. at the Savoy Theatre.

We descended to the pier and took a tender to the port of Belize City, the capital of Belize. This port wasn’t as quaint and as pretty as the one in Roatan but it was still nice. It was large and busy.

From the port we boarded a bus which took us through part of the city.  There are hotels and embassies closer to the harbor. As we pulled away toward our destination, we passed a largely residential area. Homes are made of stucco and are either white or painted in different colors; in some cases, they are a dingy gray.

We also passed the home of an Amish family. Apparently, the Amish have been living in Belize, farming the land. They have been known to move, buying cheap land  on which to farm.

Like Jazzy, our driver told us some facts about Belize. It was once a British colony and was called British Honduras. Belize is now a part of the British Commonwealth and has a Parliament and a Prime Minister. (Its current government is similar to Canada’s.)

Education is compulsory up to the age of 14; wearing uniforms is mandatory.  Some students go on to high school and from there to college. English and Spanish is spoken as well as Mayan. The Spanish spoken in Belize includes some Mayan words.

Most consumer goods are imported.  Short on resources? Tourism, of course, is big.

Like the British, drivers here used to drive on the left side of the road. When cars were imported (mainly American cars) with the wheel on the opposite side, the authorities decided to switch to driving on the right side. They, like the Hondurans, haven’t adopted too many traffic signs and signals to continue the um….upgrade.

It must be fun, driving in Central America. (My husband had fun driving in Rhodes years ago and they don’t utilize signs, either.)

We finally arrived at the restaurant/ gift shop/dock where our boat awaited us at the edge of the rain forest. We were served coffee, really good lemonade and ginger cookies while everyone took a potty break:)

We boarded a flat boat with a white canopy overhead.  At the time, I thought it was great to have that so the sun wouldn’t bake our heads.

We snaked our way through a calm winding river. We saw monkeys, exotic birds, a variety of trees and crocodiles. Everyone would get excited when our tour guide pointed them out to us (the crocodiles, not the trees).

After about 45 minutes or so of fast driving in a drizzling rain (which sprayed our faces and everything else with a fine mist), we reached the archaeological site of Lamanai, part of the ancient civilization of the Mayans. There was a greenish gray cast over the buildings. Although a lot of the vegetation was bright green, the denseness of some of the trees and the periodic rain gave almost everything that shade of color, too.

The rain abated and we followed our guide to the ruins. It wasn’t a flat walk, either. Steps (similar to terraced steps) led to leveled ground that led to more steps until we reached the first pyramid. Before we reached the first pyramid, it began to rain heavily. I guess they don’t call it the rain forest for nothing.

Four pyramids remain standing here; two are in better condition than the other two. Even so, stories are missing even on the ones in good shape. This only underscored  how tall the pyramids truly were.

The one in the best shape is the one tourists climb the most.  All the steps including the ones which bring you up to the level of the pyramids are steep. As I started to go up one steep step to hear the tour guide talk about the history of the ruin, I slipped and fell. I don’t know if the soles of my sneakers were worn to smoothness or I didn’t anticipate the steepness of the step but I sustained two bruises. The one wasn’t a deep cut although I bled but the other bled and instantly swelled up, too. One of our tour guides was trained in First Aid so my wounds got treated. Fortunately nothing was broken and I was able to walk without a problem.

We reached the pyramid that was almost intact as the rain got more intense. It didn’t stop anyone from climbing it, though. Here the steps are steep but some are steeper than others. I guess precision wasn’t an issue or the steps have worn down unequally over time. There is a rope running down the middle of the steps so climbers can hang on, too, although some came down on their rear ends.

I didn’t climb to the top.  My accident told me not to but I had climbed the pyramids in Mexico years ago. Andrea climbed to the top. She said the view up there was awesome. You could see the rain forest for miles around.

It was a nice gesture to her Mayan heritage. She stayed up there for a little while, too. Some day, we’ll go to Copan in western Honduras to see the Mayan pyramids there.

It started to rain again as we went on to the other pyramids. There was one more pyramid that some people climbed although it wasn’t as tall as the previous one. Several stone bas relief at all the pyramids provides photo opportunities for anyone who doesn’t want to climb or is done climbing.

The rain abated as we walked back to our boat. Then it started to rain again on our journey back and this time, it rained harder. (I guess this is the definition of a rain forest: start, stop, start, stop…) Our driver – a NASCAR candidate if he would ever want to pursue that career path – drove so that the spray from the winding river got us even wetter. The back of his loose white shirt billowed behind him. It was fun, though. It felt like the boat was going to tip sideways as he swerved to the right or left.

We passed the Amish farm and farmer on our way back. I’m so used to seeing them in Pennsylvania and Ohio, that the sight was almost incongruous.

The restaurant had a buffet lunch waiting for us: delicious spicy chicken; homemade cole slaw; rice; rice and beans; chips and homemade salsa; rice pudding and cake for dessert and beverages. Alcohol was available at the cash bar.

I bought a hand-carved wooden bowl. Hand-carved wooden products are typical crafts found in Honduras and Belize. Then we drove back to the port in Belize City.

Of course, there are an abundance of trinket, crafts and T-shirt shops here. The tender took us back to the ship. We had a little bit of down time so I got to see Dark Shadows with Johnny Depp.

For dinner that night, I ordered chilled strawberry soup; lamb shank with mashed potatoes; low fat chocolate cake with mint chocolate cream; wine and coffee. Andrea selected tomato mozzarella caprese salad; lamb shank with mashed potatoes; tiramisu and Coke.

RC staged a ‘70’s Dance Party on the Promenade that night that was a lot of fun and later, a song and dace concert which was very good, too.

We returned to the casino afterwards where Andrea lost her $20 and stopped to hear Latin Music.

Tomorrow: Cozumel