Lamanai

This morning I went on a boat tour of New river and the riverside ruin of Lamanai. There dense jungle lined the river bank, and we saw many birds despite starting around 9:30. We also saw couple small crocodiles. We also saw pass the Mennonites community of Shipyard and saw few of them fishing. Apparently Mennonites are not as strict as Amish, they do use some machinery like boats and tractors.

We arrived in Lamanai just in time for lunch, as I was told before, the lunch is very good indeed. Our guide is pretty knowledgeable and has travel to Russia (study) and parts of central Asia when he was young. The name Lamanai means submerged crocodile and was occupied as early as 1500BC. It flourished in the late-classic period, growing into a major ceremonial center with big temples long before other Mayan sites. The river is used as commerce by the Mayan for trade goods flowing from highland to lowland. Also unlike many Mayan sites, this site was occupied until coming of Spanish in the 16th century.

Although the site is big, only few temples have been excavated/restored. We also saw black howler monkeys, which I believe only exist in Belize. They were pretty quiet today and one small one came also within touching distance.

All in all a good end to my time in Belize, time for Mexico and bigger Mayan, Aztec, and maybe even a little Toltec/Olmec ruins.