Belize

Our ship could not dock because of the reef in Belize so we tendered to the docks. See main notes. This was our entry point. As with all the ports duty free shopping rules and the ever present Diamonds International is a dominating presence.

We took a bus an hour and a half to this dock on the New Belize River where we picked up a 30 passanger boat with twin 200hp Yamaha outboards on the back. When we cleared the no wake zone the driver literally made that boat skip over the river. One exciting ride on a 40 to 50 foot wide river.

Belize was the first place we were really exposed to the wildlife in Central America. We saw one donkey in Costa Maya, a few birds in Guatamala, nothing around Cozamel. Enlarge and you can see the second Iguana.

Best shot I could get of this beautiful crane with the restricted view from the speedboat.

This was the largest home, just being built, along the hour and ten minute ride to the Mayan ruins.

This is a smaller version of the boat we were on. I think there were 16 people on this one. Unless you were coming up on a boat headed in the opposite direction or someone in a dugout, this was the speed at which these boats ran the river. About half way up the river we ran into moderate rain but never slowed down. Felt like BB's hitting us until we pulled out an emergency pancho and held it up in front of us. Hazard of sitting in the second row under the canopy.

Another of the birds we saw. This one had large feet to walk on the lilly pads.

This was our driver. I don't remember his name but we think he was A. J. Foyt in disguise. Through the rain that was killing us he sat up front running full tilt boogy into the rain with no sunglasses or any other eye protection.

The pyramid of the Jaguar. That's a Jaguar's face in the pyramid. The two squares at the top center are the eyes and you can build the rest in your mind.

Same pyramid from across the meadow in front. The Jaguar face is in the lower left row of the pyramid.

Same view a little further out from another part of the ruins. These are the ruins in the foreground of the living quarters.

Bad shot of a Howler monkey that was around the ruins. Dark animals are so hard to expose even with spot metering. These monkeys make a noise that sounds like a lion or other large cat growling. We heard them from probably a mile away. The guide said that in the calm of darkness they can be heard from several miles.

The second of the Belizian pyramids we saw. This one was not too high. The steps are approximately 12 to 15 inches high giving some reference to the height of the pyramid. The stone standing on the first landing is approximately five feet tall and tells about the ruler of the area.

This is the jungle we started through from the second pyramid to the third pyramid approximately one quarter of a mile away. The third pyramid had two masks on it that were about 10 feet tall but they were making resin molds of them so I kept pretty far away because of the smell.

The final pyramid! And the death of me. The steps leading to the top were around 18 inches tall all the way up. Hard to understand when the Mayans were such a short race of people. The guide warned us about the difficulty of climing to the top. That is a man standing on the top by the way. I'm 63 and in pretty good shape but I didn't want anything to do with climbing it especially when I saw that climbing the second tier you really needed to be aided with a rope in the center of the stairs. My wife, six years younger, and a veteran of two Susan G Komen 60 mile walks saw this as a chalange but wouldn't do it unless I went with her. We made it but for two days after that we could hardly climb the stairs on the ship. Proof wisdom does not come with age. The enitre excursion that day lasted seven and a half hours. Enlarge for a better view.