Mayan Ruins And One Last Night

River tour
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With one last day in Belize I decided to make the most of it and do the Lamani Mayan Ruins. This is a tour done on the island that takes you inland to see the ruins made by the Mayan people dated 100-500BC. Jackie, still not feeling well opted out so I was left to do the 10 hour trip without her. The majority of the tour was done via water taxi, and bus and consisted of a total of 6 hours transportation. Leaving at 7 am we climbed into the boat to take us on a tour of the water canals that connect the Carribean and Belize rivers. Pretty much was a fresh water lake that connects with the ocean. We traveled through the winding river canals and were able to stop at a village on the way and see wild life in their natural habitat. There wasn't alot to see, and the only excitement was the baby alligator and howler monkeys. It didn't really live up to the jungle river tour as advertised, but I still tried to be optimistic. That was until the flash flood that started while we were still in the water taxi. Caught in a down pour we had no choice but to hide under a blue tarp while the boat still cruised along at full speed. We were drenched completely, but once the sun came out were dry soon enough.

A think it's a caged rat...
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When we made it to the ruins, the regrets I had about doing this tour vanished. The ruins were amazing and were better that I had anticipated. We were able to tour three of the mayan temples and even able to climb one of them. The temples were made of stone, and carved with faces of jaguars, alligators and men. Not much is known of the site which only started excavation in the 1980's. Climbing to the top of the temple was alot harder than I thought it would be. It wasn't that it was difficult, it was just alot higher than what it appears to be from the ground. Climbing the stairs, you use a rope to balance yourself, and once on top you have a view of the surrounding jungle over the tops of the trees. The ocean is in the distance. It ends up being a little humbling because no one really knows for sure the significance of all the temples or a lot of the secrets they hide.

The Ruins
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It took us another three hours before we were able to get home. Tired and exhausted, but knowing it was our last night I pulled through and was able to make it out one last time. We ended up meeting Steve, Taras, and Colin Beumont boys I had met while still in Edmonton, and John and Aron, Conneticut boys staying in the same hotel as us. We all ended up at Wet Willies for one last night of drinking on the pier, and watching the Belize men have dance offs. We laughed alot and were amazed at the womens underware that hung from the ceiling. The bar caters to women, but I still don't really understand the signifiance of the underware. When do the women take them off? How does one go about deciding that they would like their underware hanging from the rafters. Were the underware clean? We left the bar with our underware still on, and a lot of unanswered questions.

Climbing!
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Heading home we walked down the beach and waded in the water for one last time. We reminisced about our time on the island but mostly made fun of Taras and Steve for the complete mess they made of themselves the night before. Both had no recollection of the previous night, of falling in the sand, or where they slept or how they got home. Taras was pretty sure he had slept on the beach and woke up with sand in every orfice of his body. A lot of it probably had to do with him falling face first in the sand and having Steve walk on his back and head. Again, neither of them have any recollection of this, but we were more than willing to fill them in.