Orange (Tangerine) Walk - Lamanai Ruins
Trip Start
Jan 31, 2010
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101
185
Trip End
Aug 03, 2010
Orange Walk, Belize
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
So with trepidation we walked along Victoria Street (named after the queen) and approached the Jungle Tours Office situated adjacent to Queen Elizabeth II park in the centre of Orange Walk which was no more than a wooden hut with a few big intimidating guys sat outside. It was at this point, I began to really think that there was no way we were going on a boat trip, when out of nowhere the gentleman who we had booked the trip with welcomed us into his office with open arms. He even allowed us a brief go on his internet before escorting us to our docking station via a tortilla factory where the workers were busy making tortillas surprisingly.
As we reached the dock, we were greeted by a local Mayan man who went by the name of Hilberto who gestured for us to board our boat for the day. The boat itself could be described as nothing more than a tin bath with a couple of decrepit benches on board and an engine at the back to power it. We would be sharing our jungle river cruise experience with a young gentleman called Dan who came from Chester. So with our introductions made, we set off at quite a pace down the New River Lagoon, in fact to begin with he was taking corners so fast that I was sure the boat was going to go on it's side and I think Hilberto did too as he requested that I nudge along the bench a little bit to balance the boat up.
As we sped through the jungle passing by a huge sugar cane factory that used to be responsible for 80% of Belize's economy we came to a sudden halt under some trees where our eagle eyed host had spotted a couple of spider monkeys, one of which he called Chinga. For the next 20 minutes we got up close and personal with Chinga as she entered our boat, where in response Hilberto gave her a banana, which she gladly ate on the side of our boat. Having seen this and being very impressed, especially when Chinga started hopping all around the boat. The rest of us decided to sacrifice our bananas so that they could be given to Chinga and her partner. Her partner was quite shy as he just collected his banana and returned to his branch to devour his treat, meanwhile Chinga had quite happily settled down next to Dan on the front row of our boat to eat her banana. After exploring the boat a little more, Chinga decided she had had enough of our company and left us to continue our journey up the river towards Lamanai.
For the rest of the journey, we sat back and enjoyed our surroundings which included viewings of a green headed sea snake and the founder of McAfee's anti virus holiday home, before eventually reaching the archeological site of Lamanai. Lamanai Yin which was it's original name actually means submerged crocodile where as Lamanai means submerged insect however although the "Yin" has been lost from the name the site still claims to be site of submerged crocodiles as many crocodile remains have been found during the excavations.
Once on land we were given a guided tour around the site from Hilberto who informed us about how, why and when these ruins were made. It was quite obvious he was very passionate about these ruins as he went on and on about how they were built on top of each other and how the Mayan calendar comes to an end in 2012 which apparently means the end of Venus. At this point I could see Amy yawning and looking a little disinterested, so instead of trying to hurry things along I couldn't resist asking many more questions just to make sure my wife received the full educational experience. The main highlight of these ruins was the high temple which had been completely excavated to it's original state and more importantly gave us the opportunity to climb to the top where we were able to view over the whole rain forest. However it wasn't quite that simple as it was quite high up and the steps were extremely steep which meant that Amy had to be coaxed to overcome her fear of heights, which she successfully did even though it meant that when she came down,she did so on her backside.
As the heat started to really pick up and the tour came to an end it was universally agreed that lunch was a good idea. Hilberto informed us that lunch was a typical Sunday lunch in Belize, mainly consisting of rice, beans and chicken which was served with homemade Papaya or Lemon juice and I have to say that "Mama's" cooking was gorgeous. Having had lunch we set off back towards Orange Walk spotting a couple of turtles out of nowhere. My mind at this point at started to wander far away from the jungle where I was situated and more towards events in Nottingham, where Blackpool were playing their play off semi final second leg. It was then with good timing that my best man (Steven) phoned, this brought the boat to a halt as he excitedly started to talk to me. I could tell immediately he was about to deliver good news and after affectionately addressing me as a "sad ba**ard" for not watching the match, he gladly gave me a full match report and informed me that the "mighty tangerines" had reached the play off final to be played at Wembley stadium next week. It was at this point I realised that the boat was still standing still, so I allowed Steve to get back to celebrating, whilst at the same time allowing Hilberto to safely guide us back to shore.
Back on land we immediately headed to a local ice cafe for a couple of ice cool refreshments before heading back to our room to chill out before heading back out to the ice cafe for our tea, well I say tea but I was still stuffed from "Mama's Lunch" so I just settled for a "Banana Boat" (Banana split to us)
