Lamanai or Bust!
Today was our cultural excursion to Lamanai National Park to visit the Mayan ruins. We took a very short ride from the hotel and were brought to a resort with boat launches on the river.
Sadly, this is where Dave and Nate had to leave in order to make it to the airport. Roldán was kind enough to take them. Farewell and blessings for a safe journey home!
This is the boat we took up the river. Our guide told us that this river is one of only two in the world that flow from south to north.
The boat ride took just over an hour in the blazing sun. Thankfully the driver was a speedster so we had a fun and breezy ride!
As we traveled up the river, our tour guide, Hermanio, talked to us about the wildlife, the history of his ancestors (he is an indigenous Mayan descendant) including an ancient Mayan sport named pok ta pok that is still played in competition to this day!
A jade religious artifact.
Stringray barb used to draw blood fr a female chief for sacrificial offering. 🤢
Hermanio also had a red band to wear as part of the resistance - protecting the heritage of his ancestors.
Hermanio frequently blew on that conch shell coming to, during the tour, and returning. And, after a while, I think someone finally asked him about it because he told us about how there were a couple of ways the Mayans would communicate between cities. One was the use of mercury as a mirror so they could send messages from the tops of the temples from many miles away. The other was blowing the conch because it could be heard a couple of miles away, especially when traveling down the river. One could let folks know they were coming. And believe me, he did exactly that. Many times!!!
When we got to the site, we stopped briefly at the museum where there were some artifacts and history placards.
We passed several fellow travelers heading the opposite direction and were warned: make sure you have mosquito repellent. That was an understatement! We needed Kevlar suits! There were so many mosquitos and honestly, repellent didn’t work. We were waiting to be carried off like those flying monkeys in “The Wizard of Oz”! Next came the rain. You could hear it coming as it hit the leaves and rolled toward us! It was not a mild rain, but a torrential downpour!
We were troopers though and slogged on to the temples. They were beautiful. It was fascinating to listen to our guide share cultural information about a lost society. Hermanio even did a traditional Mayan worship ceremony while we waited for the rain to slow down.
At the end of the tour, we were treated to a wonderful lunch of chicken, rice and beans, American potato salad, fried plantains, and their version of boneless ham aka, avocado!
Yep, totally drenched. Little did we know it was just the beginning…we still had the ride home 😱
And we had someone’s (Carol lol) hat fly off into the river! Between Dean and our driver Vladimir, it was a successful retrieval 😜
Sorry for finger shots in the pictures. I was trying to protect my phone while taking pictures and video.
There is nothing quite like being pelted by rain doing 35-40 miles per hour in an open boat! For an hour! Thankfully the weather and rain drops were not too cold. We actually were laughing from the thrill of the experience! I think Hermanio got the worst of it with his white suit! Thankfully he had shorts on under his clothing!
We looked like drowned rats and we didn’t even mind 🤪that we had wrinkly hands and feet for hours. The poor van drivers will most likely have damp seats for a couple of days. We had so much fun!
We spent the following hours attempting to dry ourselves and our clothing as we were heading home the next day.
Thank you all for prayers for the medical issues. Everything was resolved and everyone was able to prepare for the journey home what a blessing. I know I’ve said this a few times already, but to God be the glory!
Tomorrow will be the final leg of this weeklong journey.
Blessings,
Darla
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