A Ferry Long Day

Today we had two boat rides and a van ride, each of which was an hour long, and that was just in one direction! I have to say it was a little painful, because we had to do the same three transfers on the way  back to the hotel! That’s why I’m calling it a Ferry Long Day. It all started out with a lovely breakfast at our hotel, right on the waterfront. You can’t tell from our cheerful faces that it was 6 a.m.!

Ed got the cutest breakfast ever-- the Maya Temple pancakes!

Our first boat ride took from the San Pedro, which is on a coral island, back to Belize city. We enjoyed seeing a few private islands along the way, including Larry Flynn’s island with its own 18 hole golf course.  There is even one man making his own island one bag of sand at a time. It was only about a half acre, with a shack and a tree on it.

We were with 11 others who had chosen to go to Lamanai, so the van that picked us up was uncomfortably  tight.  On the way home they tried to make us forget about the discomfort by offering rum punch. This just made us a little more irritable. Smoothies would have made me happier!

Our favorite boat ride was up the New River with our guide Carlos. He stopped along the way to show us different birds and plant life.

The baby heron was so cute!

We had a lovely lunch under the palms when we reached Lamanai, and then took a tour of the site. Carlos was our favorite guide so far. He had a passion for the place, and told about the time period and the excavations, but didn’t bore us with extraneous information, or crazy theories.

The largest temple at Lamanai is called El Castillo. Here’s proof that we climbed to the top of it.

One nice part about having a guide, is you having someone to take your family pictures. Carlos waited at the bottom and took a picture of us at the top. We’re the tiny people on the right!

Going down was a little intimidating, but fortunately. We held onto the rope for dear life!

On the way back Carlos stepped on the gas. It was fun seeing how fast he could take a boatload of tourists through the meandering turns of the river.  We finally got back to our hotel just in time for a dip in the ocean and dinner at El Patio, which was al fresco, with sand on the floor. Hopefully, after a good night’s sleep we’ll be ready again for the adventure to continue!