Lamanai

Sunday is our one day off each week when we don’t go into the field. This past Sunday, a day trip was organized to the nearby archaeological site, Lamanai.

Lamanai is a beautiful site, basically situated in the middle of a rainforest. As we entered the area, we could hear howler monkeys all around in the trees above us. The atmosphere was just wonderful.

We broke off into smaller groups to explore the area. Our first stop was the Jaguar Temple. It was very impressive. The temple was very large, with jaguar faces cut into either side of the stairway leading to the top. At Lamanai, visitors are allowed to climb the temples, so of course we did. The view from the top was amazing. You don’t realize how high up you are until you get there.

The most impressive temple, however, was the High Temple. Simply astonishing. I don’t even know how high this one is, but it is LARGE. I climbed to the very tip top and felt like I had reached the top of the world. From the apex, you can see jungle stretch for miles in every direction. It was truly breathtaking.

Unfortunately, as we were descending the High Temple, it started to rain. This of course made it more difficult as every surface became slippery. Already the steps to the temple are hazardously steep. The slickness only made it more dangerous and a little terrifying. But we all made it all right and it was fine in the end.

The other interesting temple that we saw was the Masked Temple. It was probably the smallest of all the temples that we visited, but it was adorned with giant face masks on either side of the center staircase. It was a cool temple.

After we were done exploring the site, we all went to lunch. A bunch of us went to this little empanada place in the nearby town. It takes a while for the food to come, but it is well worth the wait. Delicious empanadas for only 1 Belize -- talk about deals.

Then we all hung out at the Lamanai Outpost Lodge for a bit. They serve food and drinks and things and are situated right along the body of water there (I believe it is a river, but don’t quote me on that). It was all really wonderful until it started down pouring again. We all scrambled inside, drenched, and had to wait out the worst of the rain before we could go home.