Day 3: Belize

 We had heard from coworkers at Ketchum, ID where we used to work that Belize was their favorite destination....It was so hard to choose!! We got on a bus for an hour drive through the scenic Belize River Valley. Our guide Bernie was one of our favorites! We passed through historic villages, which were the original settlements of the colony of British Honduras, on the way to Ayinha Eco Park. We then went on a speedboat for a 30 minute cruise of the New River Lagoon in route to Lamanai, once the largest Mayan ceremonial site in Meso-America and occupied as early as 1500 B.C. We were excited to explore these ancient Mayan ruins and climb to the top of one of the largest ceremonial temples in Meso-America, including more than 100 minor structures, a ball court and about 12 major buildings, most notably the Temple of the Mask, thought to be an Olmec God or Kinich Ahau, the Maya Sun God, the Temple of the Jaguar Masks and the High Temple. We absolutely loved walking through the jungle, climbing the steep temple all the way to the top. We saw howler monkeys in their natural habitat as well. We returned to Ayinha where we enjoyed a tasty Belizean style lunch. 

The Jungle was gorgeous!  That was one thing Joe really wanted to do, walk through the jungle. Though we had a sandy walkway to follow, it was still pretty cool! I am not going to lie...I would be too big of a whimp to wonder throught those jungles! Who knows what kind of insects, lizards, snakes, animals....Yah it would be fun but I'll stick to the safe route! There were strangler trees, which wrap around an existing tree that looked so neat. You could see some of the ancient writings on a rock. The Jaguar Temple, you can see the face where we are standing by totally looks like a Jaguar! We were the first couple to get our pictures taken by this and Bernie said to touch the face, and it would give us fertility!! Joe and I immediately let go! So funny!! Who knows if there is even a legend about that, but that's just an example of how fun our tour guide was.