Touring The Temples

Before we get to the next exciting, informative, entertaining Episode of the New House Blog, we feel obligated to insert the write-up of our recent Christmas trip.  Wait, wasn't Christmas way back in December?  Yes.  This means we're a little late with this travelogue, and it also means that this write-up might not be quite as detailed as past trip write-ups.

We broke with tradition a bit by not visiting an island nation.  Instead we visited the beautiful Central American country of Belize.

Day One, December 24, 2017

Our first day in Belize began when we departed from our home late on Sunday, December 24, 2017, and arrived in Belize City, Belize, on the afternoon of Monday, December 25, 2017.  Our Christmas breakfast consisted of very good pizza at the pizza place in the D wing of Miami International Airport.  Maybe you've been to this pizza place.  They make a great stuffed-crust pizza, and...but I digress.

The Belize International Airport is quite small, with one runway and minimal taxiways, which means that airplanes must back-taxi to the terminal on the runway.  In Belize the signs are mostly in English, as English is one of the two main languages used in Belize (the other being Creole).  Driving through the rain on the way to the hotel we observed that the businesses all had heavy steel roll-up shutters over their doors and windows (they were all closed for Christmas), and there were a lot of fences and walls.  It reminded us of Lima and parts of Cuzco in this regard.

Our hotel had walls surrounding it, and a gate in the walls.  It also came fully equipped with a casino, games arcade (to teach the kids how to gamble), movie theatre with two screens, indoor restaurant, outdoor restaurant, pool, and armed guards.  One such guard especially stands out in my mind - he looked about 17, and he carried around a shotgun.  The rooms in the hotel were nice, but we had to switch rooms after the air conditioner in our first room sputtered and stopped working entirely.  We spent Christmas day mostly exploring the hotel and napping.  Belize City has a reputation as a high-crime area, and we did not wander outside of our hotel's walls.

Day Two, December 26, 2017

What to do on Boxing Day?  We took a trip to Guatemala to visit the ancient Maya city of Tikal.  Our day began at about 4:30 am, local time, when we awoke to prepare for the arrival of our transportation at 5:30 am, local time.  We arrived in San Ignacio around 7:30 for the start of the actual trip to Tikal.  While driving to San Ignacio we noticed that drivers in Belize tend to tailgate a lot, and the marked lanes tend to be mere suggestions.  Our tour guides were Jamal, Jugo/Juice, and Moises, with Jugo/Juice being the primary guide.  We were joined in San Ignacio by 6 other tourists - two couples and two single men.  As mentioned above, Tikal is in Guatemala, which necessitated a border crossing.  We also exchanged some American currency for Guatemalan currency.  The Belize dollar trades at two-to-one American dollars, and the Guatemalan quetzal trades at three-to-one Belize dollars, or six-to-one American dollars.

We had no trouble entering Belize, and we arrive at Tikal with our entire tour group intact.

Tikal is immense and spread out over many, many acres.  It's the kind of place I could spend all day exploring, and I did.  There is too much to see to describe it all, but a few pictures might give you a brief idea of what it is like.

There are several plazas in Tikal, and plenty of vendors and restrooms.

 According to Juice, the name of the king who built this temple translates roughly to "Chocolate Jaugar King."

 Here you can see Elko (pronounced Yoko).  He came to Tikal with only cheap flip-flops for his feet, and one broke upon arrival at Tikal.  As a result, he spent the whole day walking around barefoot.

In addition to being an important ancient Mayan city, Tikal was also one of the filiming locations for the original Star Wars movie, and we got to visit that filming location.  Temple IV is the tallest temple at Tikal, and depending on whom you ask it is either 70 meters tall (about 230') or 212' tall.  Either way, the view from the top is SPECTACULAR!!  Wow.  It's just an awesome, breathtaking view in all directions.  

Here is the view from the top.  And it was quite the climb to get there.  Nost of the temples and pyramids at Tikal have tourist-friendly (and sometimes quite steep) stairs, so if you visit Tikal be prepared for a lot of walking and climbing.  We spent all day there, and there was a lot we did not get to see, so this is a place I would love to re-visit and explore more.

About the middle of the day several of got drinks and snacks from one of the many vendors, and then we debated about who got a good deal and who got a poor deal (it wasn't always clear if the vendors' prices were in Guatemalan, Belizan, or American currency, so it would be easy for unwary tourists to spend too much.  I paid 24 Guatemalan quetzals for a large beveridge and a large bag of chips.  This works out to $4.00 US, so I think I got a good deal.

At the end of the day we drove back to the border, re-entered Belize, split up in San Ignacio, and Becky and me rode back the two hours to Belize City in the dark, in the rain.

Day Three, December 27, 2017

Our day began about 6:15 am, local time, when we were rudely awakened by hammering and pounding noises.  We called the hotel front desk, and they assured us that no construction should be happening at that hour.  A security guard came up to our floor and confirmed the noise, and discerned that it was coming from the floor below, and indeed some construction was happening, although the hotel management assured us that it should not be happening at that hour.  We did not get back to sleep, but instead prepared for that day's snorkeling trip to Hol Chan and Shark Ray Alley.

Our boat had some scuba people and some snorkel people.  The personnel included Captain Bosh, Guide John, Guide Linda , and Emersol.  Our fist stop was at Hol Chan Marine Reserve.  Becky stayed on the boat while I snorkeled with our group.  John was our main guide as we explored the reef, and he dove down deep several times to point things out or to use someone's camera to photograph something interesting.  He borrowed my camera a few times and got some good photos for me.

There are a lot of fish at Hol Chan, along with spotted eagle rays and moray eels.

On this snorkeling trip I was using a full-face mask with integrated snorkel, and let me tell you - it is a vast, vast improvement over the traditional face mask and snorkel combo.  I had a clear, unrestricted view, I could breath with both my mouth and nose, I did not swallow any seawater, it didn't fog up, and it is just one item to keep track of instead of two.  There are a few varieties available on Amazon, and I highly recommend them for your next snorkel adventure.

After Hol Chan we visited Shark Ray Alley, which has an abundance of sharks and rays, and at least one turtle.  Here I got to swim with nurse sharks, southern stingrays, and a rather large turtle.

After returning to port in the late afternoon we had some delcious gelato and some rum punch (tradition, you know).








Day Four, December 28, 2017

Fortunately, our day did not begin with construction noises, and we were able to sleep a bit longer that morning.  We got up, prepared for our day, ate, and embarked on our tours of Altun Ha, a hidden cave, and the Community Baboon Sanctuary.  Our driver/guide, whose name I think was possibly Gabrielo, picked us up in an old jeep and sped us away to Altun Ha, an ancient Mayan site centered around the sun god.  The largest single piece of carved jade in Mesoamerica was found at Altun Ha, but not by us.  We arrived at Altun Ha early enough in the day to avoid all crowds.

The large jade piece mentioned above was found in the temple of the sun god, if I recall correctly, and the man who discovered said jade close up and hid the entrance to the temple, such that no one knows where the entrance is today.

Sadly, many of the buildings at Altun Ha, and other ancient Mayan sites, are unexcavated and look like mounds or small hills.  What other exciting discoveries are still waiting to be discovered?

Altun Ha is the smallest of the Ancient Mayan sites we visited, and it is easily explorable in just a couple of hours.

After Altun Ha we drove to a muddy jungle trail and toured a small, hot cave.  The cave contains bats, whip spiders, crickets, and a pottery shard.

After the cave tour we drove to a riverside and had a great lunch (I had grape Fanta to drink).  After lunch we drove to the Community Baboon Sanctuary and communed with the howler monkeys (there are no actual baboons there).


The howler monkey guide, Royce, told us all about the sanctuary, the howler monkeys, and how the staff had worked to gain the trust of one of the howler monkey families.  After a brief trail walk, we got to hand feed one of these trusting howler monkeys.

The howler that came down to be fed was the mother of the family.

She had a very strong grip, and she pulled my hand toward her.  Overall, it was neat to hand-feed a wild howler monkey, but outside of that the sanctuary (at least the part we saw) was unimpressive and not well-maintained.

I had lobster for supper that night.

Day Five, December 29, 2018

This day's activities began with a van ride to a river. 

At the river we met (viewed from a safe distance) a friendly young crocodile, then boarded a boat for a ride to the ancient Mayan city of Lamanai.  Our tour group consisted of several cruise ship passengers, Julian, our guide/driver/river pilot, and the two of us.  And those cruise ship passengers kind of messed with the timing of the day - more on that later.  We arrived at Lamanai in time for a good lunch, and then the tour/exploration began.  Julian was very knowledgeable, and we had a good time.

The tallest temple at Lamani, the temple of the rain god, is 125' tall, and we saw some howler monkeys in the trees as we followed the path to the rain god temple.  I climbed the tourist-friendly stairs, and everything else I was allowed to climb (Becky spent most of her time at ground level at Lamanai).  Altun Ha was for the sun god, and Lamanai was for the rain god.

This is the view from the top of the rain god temple.  In addition to spectacular views of the river and the surrounding jungle, I could see one of the many Mennonite settlements in Belize.

The final structure we visited, and climbed, was the not-very-tall Mask Temple.  At the base of this temple are two large, carved stone masks - one on the right, and one on the left.

The masks that you see are actually fiberglass replicas covering the stone originals.  These were put in place to protect the originals from further erosion and degradation.

The call to return to the boats came much too soon for me - there was still a lot of daylight left.  This was due to the pesky schedules of those cruise ship passengers.  Apparently they had to be back at their ships by 5pm, which meant returning to the vans, and then Belize City, much earlier than we would have liked.  As with Tikal there is a lot of Lamanai that we did not get to explore, because of those pesky cruise ship schedules.  In the future, I will try to avoid setting up activities that include cruise ship passengers.

Day Six, December 30, 2018

Our day began with a trip to the airport for our return home.

Movies viewed on our trip included: Mockingjay, Part Two; Valerian and the City of 1000 Planets; Go West (The Marx Bros.); Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy; Dr. Strange; Broken Arrow (quite boring); War for the Planet of the Apes.

I have the single word, "Chalk," written down in my trip notes, but I no longer recall what it is supposed to
    bIsh